The ship was supposed to be unsinkable. But the RMS Titanic sunk more than 100 years ago. The wreck sits 13,000 feet (4,000 m) deep in the Atlantic Ocean. New video of the Titanic shows the ship in more detail than ever before.
What happened to the Titanic? On April 10, 1912, the ship set sail from England. It was headed to New York City. The ship never got there though. It hit an iceberg early on April 15. The ice tore holes into the ship. Hours later, the Titanic sank. Sadly, more than 1,500 people died.
Experts always want to learn more about the ship. One group, Oceangate, does research in the deep sea. An Oceangate journey to the Titanic happened earlier this year. Experts took new video footage of the Titanic. Now, experts can see the ship in greater detail.
Over the years, the Titanic has been on the ocean floor. Pieces of the ship, like one of its masts and the railing, have already broken away. The remains of the ship are covered with thick reddish icicles. These “icicles” show that the Titanic has become food.
slowly feed on the ship. The bacteria chew through the ship’s metal. They create lines of rust. Some experts call the marks “rusticles.” Eventually, these “rusticles” fall off. More sections of the ship will break off too, as the ocean continues to wear down the wreck. Some researchers think that in a few decades the Titanic will be mostly gone.
By studying the Titanic breakdown, experts can understand how the ocean affects ships. Oceangate led trips to the wreckage in 2021 and 2022. It has another planned for next year. “In comparing footage and images from 2021, we do see slight changes,” said Oceangate leader Stockton Rush.
Oceangate’s cameras filmed the new video of the Titanic in 8K. “8K” refers to the number of pixels that the cameras capture. Pixels are tiny dots that make up images. More pixels means clearer details. The 8K images have about eight thousand pixels from side-to-side.
For Oceangate, the new, clearer images are already paying off. “We are seeing new details,” said Oceangate expert Rory Golden. “I had never seen the name of the anchor maker, Noah Hingley & Sons, on the anchor. It is exciting that, after so many years, we may have discovered a new detail.”
Updated September 13, 2022, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Tyler Burdick
