Submarines

📖 In short

A submarine is a ship that can dive under water and travel there, then come back up to the surface. Some are very big, and some are small ones scientists use to explore the deep sea and study the strange animals that live there.

🤩 Did you know?

A submarine can dive to 30 meters in less than a minute.
Big submarines are from 60 meters to more than 150 meters long.
Some submarines stay under water for months.
Submarines make oxygen for their crew from seawater.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 How does it dive?

A submarine has big tanks. When it wants to dive, it fills them with water so it gets heavier and sinks. When it wants to come up, it pushes the water out with compressed air so it gets lighter and rises.

🔍 How does it see under water?

Deep water is dark, so a submarine uses a device called sonar that sends out sounds and waits for their echoes to find rocks and ships, like dolphins and bats do.

💡 The periscope

When a submarine is near the surface, it raises a long tube with mirrors in it called a periscope, so the people inside can see above the water without surfacing.

🎯 Scientists' submarines

Scientists use small, very strong submarines and robot submarines with no one on board to reach the ocean floor and photograph glowing fish and underwater volcanoes.