Rusticles formations of rust, like the picture above, that look like icicles, are speeding the deterioration of the TITANIC wreck. Researchers at Dalhousie University at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, have been examining the bacteria eating away the remains of the famous ship on the ocean floor.
Using DNA studies, researchers are able to identify a new bacteria species unknown to science, collected from resticiles adhearing to the iron plates of the wreck. This new iron-oxide munching bacteria has been named, Halomonas titanicae.
It is predicted that the TITANIC wreck has another 15 to 20 years before the wreckage becomes a rust stain on the ocean floor, possibly by the year 2030. These resticiles have knob-like mounds that harbor 27 strains of bacteria. Resticiles are porous that allow water to pass through, which eventually disintegrate into a fine powder. It is a natural process that recycle the iron into a natural state.
While the disintegration of the TITANIC makes preservation impossible, the bacteria that is collected and analyzed could help scientists develop paints and protective coatings for vessels and oil rigs. The bacteria are complex ecosystems at the bottom of the deep oceans.
The TITANIC wreck is located a little more than two miles below the ocean surface and some 329 miles south-east of Newfoundland, Canada.
Article written for, Our Amazing Planet. Courtesy of Crackers Nautical News
Montani semper liberi ! Happy modeling to all and every one of you.
I suppose I’m torn between leaving it as is as a “grave site Memorial” and wanting to see a bit more recovered as a standard memorial for others to see first hand. BUT having said that, I belieave there is NO ONE left alive anymore who had anything to do with either the bulding, or sailing on her. SO I would think it’s a coin toss.
I share your feeling of being torn about recovering artifacts. In one way it feels like grave robbing. On the other I’d hate history students in 50 years to identify Titanic as Leonardo DiCaprios first hit. Hasn’t there been some question of recovering artifacts for profit? or is it just my oldtimers disease acting up again? Jake makes a good point about no one left alive. Now I think that it is becoming similar to recovering Civil War items, like the Monitor. Is there a Titanic museum or some sort of memorial that could display recovered items?
I too feel somewhat uneasy about reclaiming artifacts from Titanic. Clearly in my mind, their only value is in illustrating in a tangible way a great human tragedy rather than fulfilling any academic, historical purpose. Something about this makes me feel uncomfortable. Perhaps it is because there is so little academic justification for doing it.
Indeed, as poignant as a personal artifact from Titanic is, we learn relatively little of significance about the period as a whole, or the technology, or the people. Her design is well documented, all her drawings survive, photos are abundant, and examples of the majority of her decorative or technological features are preserved on dry land somewhere. Similarly, there must be thousands of examples of the everyday personal possessions such as those that were lost along with those lives in 1912, and all preserved on dry land. We don’t need to recover a titanic suitcase because we want to investigate what personal possessions peopple owned in 1912, but because we want to connect personally to the tragedy. With older wrecks, such as Mary Rose, the recovery of artifacts has given us a tremendous insight in to everyday life where other records are completely lacking.
Tricky condundrum, but I’d be inclined to say, let it alone.
The thing that concerns me with that line of thinking - the ‘no one left alive anymore’ - is that would seem to open up ANY site to ‘exploration’ if all the principles have passed. So, for example, would we be justified in cutting into the USS Arizona’s hull once all the Pearl Harbor vets have passed.
I kind of look at these types of sites in the same light that I look at backcountry hiking: ‘We should take only pictures…and leave only footprints’ (which doesn’t really apply here…[;)]).
I think that, combined with the artifacts that have already been recovered, a detailed photo ‘essay’ of the ship and her decay would be the best memorial/exhibition.
Indeed, and Britannic is arguably much better preserved than Titanic is, not to mention how easily accesible the wreck is. Relatively few people have conducted time researching her because she is just another twentieth century WWI wreck. I believe a few years ago (around 2006?) a group penetrated the wreck to study the disposition of her watertight doors and double hull in order to ascertain how she sank, but when the research was aired on tv, the program was billed as ‘Why did Titanic’s sister, modified after the sinking of that famous liner, still sink in under an hour?’ , not a headline of 'a huge hospital ship with 1000 souls onboard sank in under an hour with the loss of only 30 lives: huge disaster averted!)
The variance between post-sinking the histories of these vessels must make us think about our own motivations for wanting to raise artifacts from Titanic. Certainly, those who want to raise artifacts from Titanic aren’y dispassionate historians or esle they’d be just as keen to do the same with Britannic, or any number of the inumerable wrecks sitting on the floor of our oceans.
My comment as compared to the Arizona really does not make it, as the Arizona is a war memorial and should never be cut up, besides they did that already to remove the above water stuff anyway,and is accessible to the general public, I suppose there is no real good reason for bringing up pieces of a rusted wreck for the public to see (they have pieces already (branson Missouri Titianic exhibut/musuem)
I was just stating MHO
"The thing that concerns me with that line of thinking - the ‘no one left alive anymore’ - is that would seem to open up ANY site to ‘exploration’ if all the principles have passed. So, for example, would we be justified in cutting into the USS Arizona’s hull once all the Pearl Harbor vets have passed.
I feel VERY strongly that the Titanic should be treated the same as the Arizona, the Bismark or any other sunken military vessel. They are grave sites for hundreds of people and should be treated as such. They should not be desecrated in the name of history or research. It is no different than going to a land cemetery and digging up corpses for “research”.
And in studying these wrecks we have learnt something significant about maritime history, technology, even everyday human life. What do we stand to learn about the first decades of the 20th century from studying Titanic’s (or Britannic’s) wreck?
i don’t know about other countries but in the usa many graveyards have been dug up to use the land for housing developments so… if they can do that for a stupid reason as that why not for a good reason such as preserving the ship and history i say go for it
when they retrieved a piece of hull plate from the wreck, the steel was found to made bad which they didn’t know before. had to high of a sulphur content or something like that.
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