00:00Wow, poor Titanic just can't get a break.
00:04After being destroyed once, now it's going through its second crumbling – on the seafloor.
00:10Experts think there will be no sign of it left by 2050.
00:14Recently scientists organized a new expedition to Titanic.
00:17The thrilling journeys happened in 2021 and 2022.
00:21They studied the wreck's archaeology, mapped it, and took an incredible 8,000 images.
00:27They discovered that oceanic forces were consuming Titanic much faster than many other
00:32ships.
00:33Meanwhile, there are some ships that have been lying underwater for centuries, and they're
00:38okay.
00:39So why is that?
00:41First, like any other shipwreck, Titanic is slowly succumbing to pressure and seawater.
00:48Parts of the promenade deck already collapsed.
00:51Captain Smith's bathtub is filled with debris because the roof fell on it.
00:55The officer's quarter door started to disintegrate as well.
00:58The bow is still holding on, buried 60 feet into the mud, just like 25 years ago.
01:04But it will also face an inevitable fate one day.
01:08Certain structures on the ship could last much longer, maybe for hundreds of years.
01:12For example, the thick boilers and reciprocating engines.
01:16But lighter elements like railings and wood are doomed.
01:20One of the biggest things that can crazily speed up the decay are hungry microbes.
01:24The Titanic is being eaten away.
01:28It turns out the Titanic has its own specific type of bacteria, called Halomonas titanicae,
01:34and yes, it's literally named after the ship.
01:37This type was discovered in rusticles, that's what you call the rust formations that resemble
01:41icicles.
01:42They were snacking on the hull of the Titanic, and scientists first stumbled upon them in
01:472010 during a wreck expedition.
01:50These little guys slowly eat away at the steel.
01:52They stick to the steel surfaces, causing knob-like mounds of rust to form.
01:57These mounds cover the wreck of the Titanic, and the porous rusticles then dissolve into
02:01fine powder.
02:02It's like they're trying to turn the ship into dust.
02:06Add the immense water pressure, super-cold temperatures, and salt, hence the fast decay.
02:14But bacteria isn't the only problem.
02:16There are two main things that determine how long a shipwreck might last after sinking.
02:21The first one is oxygen, or rather, the lack of it.
02:25As you go lower and lower in the ocean, the oxygen levels drop significantly.
02:29Surprisingly, this really slows down the decay process.
02:33Oxygen is very important for life, and if there's none, many organisms just simply
02:38don't do well there.
02:40Also some chemical decay processes, like iron rusting, require oxygen.
02:44That's why ships that sank in shallower, oxygen-rich waters usually deteriorate much
02:49faster.
02:50The Titanic did lie in an area with low oxygen levels, and initially, this helped to preserve
02:56its structure better.
02:57But then it adopted its own type of bacteria like a pet.
03:01It turns out that this bacterium loves low oxygen conditions.
03:05Who would've thought?
03:06There's an interesting reason for that.
03:11Most ships throughout history, both above and below the water, were made of wood.
03:16This changed in the 1840s when the Industrial Revolution hit.
03:21People started making ships out of metals, mostly iron and steel, like Titanic.
03:25Finally, they started getting bigger and stronger.
03:28Aside from the Titanic, there was also the Lusitania and other luxury ocean liners.
03:33At first sight, metal ships are much better.
03:35They outlast the wooden ships even underwater.
03:38Even though they rust away, they still last tens of times longer than the wooden ships.
03:43Decomposing wood is like a feast for animals and microbes searching for organic matter
03:47to gobble up.
03:49As soon as the wooden ship sinks, they start breaking it down almost immediately.
03:54One of the most annoying things was the shipworms.
03:57They were named that because they kept eating and burrowing holes in wooden ships.
04:02These worms can completely break the wreck down in just two years.
04:08Of course, this isn't a problem for metal ships, since steel and iron are super hard
04:13to digest.
04:14So they last a while if they sink in shallow and warm waters, not afraid of the oxygen.
04:19But interestingly, this also works the other way around.
04:23Metal ships feel bad in deep, cold waters.
04:26A wooden ship, if sunken very deep, would be relatively fine because no critters munch
04:31on it.
04:32For example, there are at least 60 known ancient shipwrecks in the Black Sea.
04:37Some of them made back in ancient Greece, and they're completely fine.
04:41You can literally read the engravings in their planks.
04:44One of them is a Greek merchant ship that dates back to more than 2,040 years ago.
04:49The rudder, rowing benches, and even the contents of its hold remain perfectly preserved.
04:55Now it's known as the oldest intact shipwreck.
04:58But in deep, cold waters, microbes, like that that gobble on Titanic, run on iron.
05:04Usually they got this iron from geologic vents on the seafloor, like underwater volcanoes
05:09and stuff.
05:10But now they also have humans to support their food supply.
05:16All this gives us the second crucial factor of decay – materials.
05:21Organic materials are the clear losers, especially when exposed to the open ocean.
05:26Not just because of the microbes, but also because they're much more delicate than
05:29those of ceramic, glass, stone, or metallic origin.
05:33For organic matter to survive, being buried is often the best bet.
05:38The thing is, fossils that are buried underground are well-protected from oxygen and bacteria
05:43that contribute the most to the decay.
05:46Take for example the Mary Rhodes, a Tudor ship that sank in the 16th century near England.
05:52Many of its wooden structures and artifacts were well-preserved, all thanks to being buried
05:56in mud.
05:58Or the Ship of Gold.
05:59This ship sank off the coast of Northern California in 1857.
06:03It had a wealth of treasures on it, hence the name.
06:07In 1991, a couple of divers stumbled upon a crazy find – a pair of work pants from
06:12this ship.
06:13The pants are 150 years old, but they survived because they were in a buried and sealed leather
06:19chest on the Ship of Gold, so no oxygen or microbes could reach it.
06:24The owner of the pants, John Demmott, survived the wreck back in the day, but all his gear
06:29sank.
06:30The recovered pants fetched over $100,000 at auction in 2022.
06:36But even though the Titanic will completely decay, perhaps by 2050, it will have an interesting
06:42fate.
06:43As mentioned, these shipwrecks rest on some crazy depths, between 9,800 and 20,000 feet.
06:50There lies the Abyssal Plain, one of the flattest, most depressingly desolate places on Earth.
06:56It's an endless expanse of muddy seafloor.
06:59Occasionally you can find some rocks and boulders here and there.
07:02They were once picked up by drifting glaciers.
07:05Boulders cave into icebergs, like those that caused the catastrophe, and the icebergs drop
07:10these rocks on the seafloor as they melt.
07:14Places like this are scary to humans, but for tiny marine life, they're awesome.
07:19This vast, quiet area is home to burrowing worms and other tiny creatures.
07:24And one of their favorite places to thrive in are occasional shipwrecks.
07:28The Titanic will become their home, a so-called artificial reef.
07:33Even after the decay, its structure will provide a substrate for marine life, like
07:38a building framework.
07:39Such artificial reefs create little unexpected pockets of life in underwater deserts.
07:45Coral loves to grow on wrecks, and this creates some structure for little critters to hide
07:50and nestle in.
07:51The Titanic is already transforming into a vibrant place full of corals and small animals.
07:57The images show an amazing variety of life – shrimp, squat lobsters, and even curious
08:02rat-tail fish cruising around the site.
08:05As a reef, the Titanic will continue to thrive for centuries to come.
08:11The researchers are excited about revisiting the Titanic in the future.
08:15They'll use advanced sonar and laser scanning technology to survey the wreck site and capture
08:20some high-quality photos for a better understanding of the Titanic's condition.
08:25They're also curious about how coral grows on shipwrecks compared to other underwater
08:30features, such as volcanic reefs.
08:33All this will be helpful for marine biology and the shipbuilding industry.
08:38That's it for today!
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