Titanic Disappeared in 1912 And Scientists Say That Now It’s Disappearing Again!

Almost a century after it went down in one of history’s most famous maritime disasters, the RMS Titanic sits on the Atlantic Ocean floor. According to News.com, speculations are spreading that the wreckage could be completely eroded by the year 2030.

“Halomonas titanicae” is a bacterium that is eating away at the iron that was leftover after the ill-fated liner hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

According to Insider. Patrick Lahey, president, and co-founder of Triton Submarines explained, “Yes, like all things, eventually, Titanic will vanish entirely. It will take a long time before the ship completely disappears, but the decomposition of the wreck is to be expected and is a natural process. The ship has certainly deteriorated just as one would expect a steel vessel to degrade over time.”

According to Discover, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, an oceanographer who was part of OceanGate’s first Titanic Survey Expedition, returned last summer and noticed a change. He explained, “Step by step, everything is collapsing. And we will, I’m sure, next year, see some difference.” He adds that the bow of the ship was deteriorating and that the ship’s mast had already collapsed. “There is one place on the ship where I saw, maybe 20 years ago, some little pieces of coral starting to grow. And today they are huge. It looks like a megaphone or something like that, and they’re absolutely beautiful.”

There will be some traces of the Titanic in the resting place of the ship, according to OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush. He said, “The Titanic is going to be around for centuries. It just won’t be recognizable, at some point. You know, once the bow rail goes, it becomes just a pile. But it’s going to be an artificial reef way past my death.”

As a result, experts are doing what they can to preserve and document everything they can at the moment. Nargeolet said, “We have to recover artifacts, even pieces of the ship, and preserve them for the next generation — if we don’t do that, everything will be lost.”

Rush also stated, “The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable.”

TheTravel.com notes that many suggestions have been put forth to try and raise the wreck from its two-mile-deep resting place, but the deterioration and logistical issues make such a move nearly impossible.

This is expected to happen and Canadian microbiologist Lori Johnston said that the bacteria are winning this time. She explained, “There’s more life on Titanic now than there was when she was on the surface. It’s just not human life, it’s biological and organic life. And the wreck itself of the Titanic, because it is made of steel, is a very good food source at the bottom of the ocean.”

After hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, United Kingdom, to New York City, the White Star Line passenger ship RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912.

There were an estimated 2,224 people on board, and more than 1,500 people perished, making this shipwreck one of the deadliest at the time. It is still the deadliest sinking of a superliner or cruise ship to this day.