FULL-SIZED 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF THE TITANIC WRECKAGE CAPTURED FOR THE FIRST TIME

Fri 19 May 2023:

The ill-fated Titanic ocean liner’s wreck has been visualized in its entirety for the first time as part of the “largest underwater scanning project in history,” according to researchers.

The first full-sized 3D scan of the Titanic shipwreck, which was revealed on Wednesday, may provide additional information about the ship’s catastrophic passage over the Atlantic more than a century ago.

The model was produced using data from deep-sea imaging collected by two submersibles named Romeo and Juliet during a six-week mission to the wreck site in the North Atlantic in summer 2022.

In all, the mission gathered 16TB of data from the wreckage that lies at a depth of nearly 4,000 metres (13,123 feet).

Full-sized 3D reconstruction of Titanic wreckage captured for the 1st time

High-resolution images reconstruct the wreck in great detail. Scientists involved in the project described it as a “game-changer”, which offers to “completely rewrite” our understanding of the disaster. pic.twitter.com/GFpDWniSIt

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The high-resolution images, published by the BBC, reconstruct the wreck in great detail. Scientists involved in the project described it as a “game-changer”, which offers to “completely rewrite” our understanding of the disaster.

Magellan’s Gerhard Seiffert, who led the planning for the expedition, told the BBC they were not allowed to touch anything “so as not to damage the wreck”.

“The other challenge is that you have to map every square centimetre – even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects,” Seiffert said.

The latest scans could provide more insight on what happened to the liner, as historians and scientists race against the clock as the ship disintegrates.

“Now we are finally getting to see Titanic without human interpretation, derived directly from evidence and data,” Parks Stephenson, who has studied the Titanic for many years said.

Stephenson said there is “still much to learn” from the wreck, which is “essentially the last surviving eyewitness to the disaster”.

“And she has stories to tell,” he added.

The Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, killing an estimated 1,500 people after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, the US.

The largest ocean liner of its time, the Titanic was considered a state-of-the-art ship, with watertight compartments that could be sealed if disaster struck.

According to the researchers, the study was carried out without interfering with the wreck, and the crew held a flower-laying ceremony in memory of the deceased.

The shipwreck has been extensively studied since it was discovered in 1985 about 650 kilometers (404 miles) off the coast of Canada, but cameras have never captured the ship in its entirety.

Deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd and Atlantic Productions, which is producing a documentary about the project, completed the reconstruction in 2022.

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