A rusty smudge: What will happen as the Titanic wreck disintegrates
The wreck of the Titanic is showing clear signs of decay on the sea floor at its resting place miles below the surface. What will its final fate be?
The RMS Titanic has spent more than 112 years in the crushing, total darkness of the deep ocean. When it sank on a cold, moonless night in April 1912, the 883ft (269m) long vessel broke apart, sending a rain of debris cascading down nearly 12,500ft (3.8km) to the silty ocean floor. The ship took more than 1,500 passengers and crew with it to their deaths.
Apart from the occasional visit from deep-sea submersibles and salvage missions bringing small artefacts to the surface, the wreckage has remained undisturbed as it has undergone the slow, steady process of decay.
Images from a recent expedition to the Titanic's wreck nearly 400 miles (640km) south-east of the Newfoundland coast have revealed the effects of this deterioration. Images of the Titanic's bow, with its distinctive railings, looming out of the darkness have become iconic since the discovery of the wreck in 1985. But in 2022, scans of the wreck showed the railing was starting to buckle and in the most recent visit to the wreck in 2024, a significant section has fallen now away. (Read more about the images captured during the latest expedition in this report by Rebecca Morelle and Alison Francis.)
It is a very visual indication of how the extreme environment in the ocean depths is breaking apart what remains of the world's most famous ship. The pressure of the ocean above it, water currents on the sea floor and iron-eating bacteria are causing the structure to collapse. And as it does so, the vessel is having a surprising impact on the ocean habitat around it.
