It has been 14 years since divers went to the Titanic's wreckage at the bottom of the Atlantic and this time, a team of explorers went back and found that it is in an advanced state of deterioration. Though it is natural for the ship to decay, the process has been sped up by a group of metal-eating bacteria which has already devoured the captain's quarters.
The expedition was intended to capture footage and computer imagery to assess the Titanic's current condition, and "project its future," along with providing high quality visuals and 3D models of the 107-year-old wreckage. The first 4K visual images will allow the wreck to be seen in augmented and virtual reality.
“The future of the wreck is going to continue to deteriorate over time, it’s a natural process," said expedition scientist Lori Johnson. "These are natural types of bacteria, so the reason that the deterioration process ends up being quite a bit faster, is a group of bacteria, a community working symbiotically to eat, if you will the iron and the sulphur.”
(Image credit: Lori Johnston, RMS Titanic Expedition 2003, NOAA-OE; Wikimedia Commons)