Many people have actually wondered why a body stays beneath the water after drowning, and only to float on top of the water days after. Surprisingly, this same body didn’t float when it has not drank that much quantity of water, but only to float when it has soaked in excessive water, making the body to become heavier.
And this confusion intensified following the recent boat mishap which claimed lives of some members of Nollywood, including popular actor Junior Pope. A lot of people argued on different angles, with some claiming that the bodies remain under the water as a result of marine activities, some say rituals must be performed before the bodies can be seen afloat.
Well, regardless of your belief, I’m not actually here to argue over that, nor discredit your belief and theories, but to tell you what I know about this very matter.
EXPLANATION:
The fact remains that, once a body drowns, the corpse remains underneath the water as a result of the body mass, pending when the bacteria in the body, precisely in the chest and gut, produces sufficient body gas to lift the body. For clarity purposes, these gases needed for the body to float are hydrogen sulfide, methane, and carbon dioxide.
Meanwhile, it is important to note that the time it takes for the body to come up with these needed gases varies. It takes approximately 2-3 days, but in some cases can take up to a week. And when this happens then the body floats on top of the water were the person drowned.
Meanwhile, know that cold water slows down this process a lot, in other words it slows down decay process. For instance, people or person who drowns in a water like lakes, going deep, like over 30 meters deep may take too long to surface or may never even surface. This is simply because the water of the water continue to pin the body down.
On the other hand, in a warm shallow water, the decaying or decomposition process works faster, hence you see a drowned body surfacing in a period of 2-3 three days or there about.