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When I was a kid, I read a graphic novel called "Into the Volcano" by Don Wood. The novel is about an expedition into the heart of an erupting volcano to recover a missing family fortune. During the novel, two of the expedition members, Sumo and Duffy, get cut off from the rest of the group, and Duffy falls down a chasm. Sumo attempts to scale down the cliff to determine Duffy's fate, but runs out of rope before reaching the bottom. Sumo is about to scale back up the cliff, but accidentally drops his flashlight and realizes that there's a pool of water at the bottom of the chasm after about a 1.5-second drop. Lacking a better option, Sumo decides to take a leap of faith and uncouples his harness to fall down into it. My question is such: could Sumo have survived this approximately 35-foot fall into a pool of water of uncertain depth?

ThexLoneWolf
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    Have you ever seen clips of cliff divers? The high board in Olympic diving is 10 m - or 32 feet, and has been so for over 100 years. – anongoodnurse Aug 02 '23 at 17:10
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    Easily. I jumped from heights greater than that many times as a kid. US Coast Guard rescue swimmers are allowed to jump from 90 feet. – Carey Gregory Aug 02 '23 at 18:28
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    Relevant wikipedia suggests typical usage of >50 feet for competitive diving...so yes! – bob1 Aug 02 '23 at 23:56
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    Agree with the above comments, but need to qualify that the height does matter, as well as (or more importantly) the position of one's body upon hitting the water. Water can be entered easily by "splitting" it, but water is not easily displaced when "slapped". It's the opposite of landing on the ground from, say, a failed parachute. With a free fall to the ground, you spread yourself out as much as possible and land flat to spread out the impact. Falling into water is the exact opposite; you want to divide the water, not hit it flat. – anongoodnurse Aug 03 '23 at 13:19

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