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Carbon fiber is a great material for certain things like skis and bike frames. A submersible vehicle just isn't one application where carbon fiber is useful. The reason is the material micro fractures under stress. Sure, it's extremely strong. It's also very brittle. Every time it's put under extreme pressure, it flexes and creates new micro fractures. For skis and bike frames, this only becomes a problem after many years of use. Then the integrity starts to fail gradually.

In the case of the submersible, the failure will suddenly occur with no warning.

Carbon fiber is a great material for certain things like skis and bike frames. A submersible vehicle just isn't one application where carbon fiber is useful. The reason is the material micro fractures under stress. Sure, it's extremely strong. It's also very brittle. Every time it's put under extreme pressure, it flexes and creates new micro fractures. For skis and bike frames, this only becomes a problem after many years of use. Then the integrity starts to fail gradually. In the case of the submersible, the failure will suddenly occur with no warning.

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[–] • 2 pts

That's easy to explain: there's a liquid in the bottles pushing back against the glass walls. It's likely that as the bottles sank, the higher water pressure from the ocean could have leaked into the bottles. This would equalize the pressure.

[–] • 1 pt

sealed with air still inside.

[–] • 4 pts

Pressure is measured in area kind of, pounds per square inch. A significantly smaller container doesn't go under nearly the same amount of stress as a larger one. I'd also be willing to bet if you compare cross sections, the smaller one would have more of its volume in the walls vs the submarine.