THE Titanic is breaking apart again, but this time it鈥檚 happening 4 kilometres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Now explorer Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck 19 years ago, is returning to the ship to find out why.
Last year, scientists of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discovered that the wreck of the liner was deteriorating during a series of dives using the Russian Mir 1 submersible. 鈥淪tructures are degrading on the ship,鈥� says Craig McLean director of NOAA鈥檚 Office of Ocean Exploration in Silver Spring, Maryland. 鈥淲e need to determine the causes.鈥�
McLean says that bacterial colonies are forming rusticles (see 快猫短视频, 26 July 2003, p 36) that are removing minerals from the ship鈥檚 fabric. Ballard saw them on the Titanic in 1985, and divers have since seen them on other shipwrecks.
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NOAA scientists and Ballard, who is an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett, will return to the Titanic on 25 May to document how the liner is decaying. They aim to take pictures of the wreck and compare them with Ballard鈥檚 extensive images from 19 years ago to determine the extent of damage and gain insight into the biological and chemical processes.