Titanic: unpublished images reveal the degradation of the wreck

Fifteen years after the last mission, a team of explorers unveils unpublished images of the liner lying 3,810 meters deep and which may disappear, ravaged by bacteria.

 - New high definition images of the Titanic have been unveiled by the team of the American explorer Victor Vescovo. A first in 14 years. These images show that the wreckage is rapidly deteriorating at the bottom of the ocean near Newfoundland.

The wreck of the Titanic filmed in high definition. This is the feat accomplished by the American explorer Victor Vescovo and his team at the beginning of August. The latter made 5 dives in 8 days in the North Atlantic, where the carcass lies more than 3,800 meters deep, to capture images using 4K cameras. "It's a very, very big wreck," said Victor Vescovo, "I was not fully prepared for that, and when we saw her appear on the sonar, she really stands out."

In addition to their unpublished quality, these underwater images show how quickly the wreck deteriorates. Certain original elements of the boat have indeed disappeared, degraded by corrosion or washed away by currents. As the BBC reports, the researchers found that entire sections of the ocean liner were already lost in the ocean. One of the causes: the strong presence of underwater life on the carcass where rust forms, among which a bacterium called Halomonas titanicae eats the wood of the wreck and the metal of the hull of the Titanic. A Canadian university professor even told the BBC in 2018 that the ship could have disappeared within twenty years.

On the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic steamer sank off Canada near Newfoundland, killing about 1,500 people. His wreckage was only found in 1985 by Professor Robert Ballard.
These records should allow experts to better determine how quickly the wreckage will continue to deteriorate. Stranded 600 km from Newfoundland, it was discovered in 1985 by US oceanographer Robert Ballard during a US Navy expedition to inspect two sunken nuclear submarines.

The story of the Titanic was popularized in 1998 by the blockbuster directed by James Cameron, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. The film has generated more than 2 billion worldwide receipts and holds the record for French box office entries, with more than 20 million viewers.