Researchers to Make Use of Titanic
Scientists from Canada and the Soviet Union plan to use the wreck of the Titanic to help discover what could happen if oceans are used as nuclear waste dumps.
They will use two deep-sea submersibles to gather information on the breakdown of steel and other materials 3,500 yards below the surface, the depth at which the Titanic sank, about 200 miles southwest of Newfoundland.
“This study is extremely significant in that there are very few time markers on the ocean floor,” the regional manager of Canada’s Geological Survey, Edward Sampson, said Monday. “In the case of the Titanic, we have absolutely exact specifications on the materials and precise information on the time the hull has lain there.”
Two submersibles from the Soviet research ship Akademik Keldysh will spend June 24 to July 17 surveying the Titanic, which sank in April, 1912, after hitting an iceberg.
The liner’s precise location was discovered only six years ago.
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