saturation diving

American  

noun

1. a method of prolonged diving, using an underwater habitat to allow divers to remain in the high-pressure environment of the ocean depths long enough for their body tissues to become saturated with the inert components of the pressurized gas mixture that they breathe: when this condition is reached, the amount of time required for decompression remains the same, whether the dive lasts a day, a week, or a month.

---

saturation diving British  

noun

1. a method of diving in which divers live in a complex of decompression chambers for up to 28 days, going to work via a diving bell, and only decompressing at the end of the period. Helium is substituted for nitrogen in the air supply to avoid the narcotic effects of nitrogen

---

Other Word Forms

• saturation dive noun

Etymology

Origin of saturation diving

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Navy put its concept of saturation diving to a deeper, more difficult test: A 40-foot-long, cigar-shaped steel habitat called Sealab I was placed nearly 200 feet below the surface off the coast of Bermuda.

From Slate • Sep. 17, 2013

Among the first to pick up on the exploratory possibilities of saturation diving was Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who was already well-known as an ocean explorer and the co-developer of modern scuba.

From Slate • Sep. 17, 2013

This "saturation diving" allowed them to stay under water for up to eight hours, without intervals of time-consuming subsurface decompression.

From Time Magazine Archive