On Sunday, a 22 foot submersible called giant went missing on a shipwreck discovery trip Titanic. Five people were on board. When the submarine’s oxygen supply ran out, the authorities issued a Desperate search under the seacover an area the size of Massachusetts. The lifeboats communicate with the ocean using sonar in the hope of detecting the vehicle’s shape and listening to it with microphones.
Now, the US Coast Guard has announced that a remote-controlled vehicle has found debris 1,600 feet from the bow of the ship. Titanic under the seabed, about 12,500 feet deep. “Debris is consistent with a catastrophic loss of pressure chamber,” Rear Admiral John Mauger said at a news conference held at the Coast Guard’s Boston base.
The first fragment discovered was the ship’s bow cone, followed by a large fragment containing the front bell of the hull under pressure. “It was the first indication that there had been a catastrophic event,” said Paul Hankins, the US Navy’s rescue supervisor. Next, search teams found a smaller piece of debris at the other end of the hull under pressure. Mauger added that remote-controlled vehicles will stay at the scene to collect evidence.
The submarine’s operator, OceanGate, confirmed the loss of the vessel in a statement: “This is a time of immense grief for our dedicated employees, who are exhausted and grieving. deeply saddened by this loss. The entire OceanGate family is incredibly grateful to the countless men and women from the many organizations of the international community who have mobilized diverse resources and have worked so hard for this mission.” The company did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Mauger said the debris showed the vehicle had exploded, although authorities could not say when it may have exploded. Mauger says the rescue effort had sonar-equipped buoys in the surrounding waters Titanicwreck in the last 72 hours and no explosion was detected—implying that it happened before. At this depth, the pressure is enormous, about 5,500 pounds per square inch—more than 360 times the hydrostatic pressure to which humans are exposed at sea level. Dale Mole, a former US Navy doctor, said: “Death will come in an instant. speak BBC.
“Although this has had some successful dives, it’s still exhausting,” said Jules Jaffe, a research oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “So my theory is that after a lot of dives, the strength of the material starts to degrade, and that’s probably more happening at the joints than at the actual surface.”
If you’re on a plane and the hull is damaged in some way—such as an emergency door opening—the pilot can still land the plane safely. But at 12,500 feet deep in the ocean, the pressure is so great that a crack doesn’t just allow water to flow in. It resulted in catastrophic failure for the ship. “It’s toast,” Jaffe said. “The conclusion that there is a crack in the hull is certainly supported unanimously by finding debris. There is no other option as far as I think.”
