WATCH: Titan's 'catastrophic implosion' may have looked like this

US Coast Guard late Thursday announced the five crew members aboard the Titan Five submersible have died in a "catastrophic implosion" that destroyed the vessel thousands of feet deep into the North Atlantic Ocean. 

According to Rear Admiral John Auger, the pattern of the debris found near the Titanic shipwreck site is consistent with the implosion of the vessel.

The multinational rescue mission led by the US, Canadian and French maritime authorities could not trace the whereabouts of the vessel.

What is an implosion and how it differs from explosion?

Implosion is an inside squeezing of an object which is pressed inside by outside force or immense pressure, and in the case of the submersible Titan, it was contracted likely due to the unprecedented force of the ocean.

Explosion is a burst which is triggered from within forcing the object to blow. Had the vessel suffered an explosion, there would have been a force from within the craft tearing it into several pieces.

As an object goes further deep inside the ocean, the pressure of the seawater starts to mount to a considerable level, so much so that the object could be crumpled into a ball.

Similar pressures would have likely been likely encountered by Titan which could be equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel Tower, tens of thousands of tonnes.

For those who go deep into the oceans, it is the hull which keeps people safe.

However, according to reports there was a rupture to the structure, the pressure outside would compress the vessel and disintegrate its carbon fibre body.

What is the submersible 'Titan'?

The submersible — named Titan — is capable of carrying five people including one pilot and going deep into seawater of 4,000 metres, allowing the crew members to inspect, conduct deep sea surveys, research and other underwater tasks.

OceanGate notes that Titan makes "innovative use of modern materials” to be “lighter in weight and more cost-efficient to mobilise than any other deep diving submersible." The materials the company is referring to are carbon fibre and titanium.

Titan’s length is 6.7 metres, width 2.8 metres and height 2.5 metres, as per OceanGate. It has 10,432 kilograms of weight and has a payload capacity of up to 685 kilograms.

Its four innerspace 1002 electric thrusters are capable of propelling the vessel to a maximum speed of 3 knots (around 5.5 kilometres per hour) underwater.

It has the capability to keep the crew members supplied with oxygen for up to 96 hours.

According to the company, the submersible uses a proprietary “Real Time Hull Health Monitoring” (RTM) system, which, provides “an unparalleled safety feature that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.”

Despite all-out efforts by the three countries combined, it remains to be seen when the submersible is found and it remains too early to say.