encyclopedia titanica

Had the Titanic not sunk it eventually would have been scrapped Because it sank the wreckage has been preserved all this time However the wreck will not be preserved forever It is slowly deteriorating and deterioration will not only continue but accelerate The deterioration in fact has a biologic cause The depth to which the ship sank helped preserve the wreckage all these years because it is an oxygenpoor region of the abyssal ocean floor There is no light at that depth Photographs and videos of the wreckage depend on artificial lights carried aboard the deep sea submersibles that dive on the wreck But microbes are eating the steel of which the ocean liner was built Formations known as rusticles form on the ships steel as the microbes eat away at the metal Bronze fixtures of the ship are not affected by the microbes