The Titanic will be completely eaten away by bacteria.
A species of rust-eating bacteria is slowly digesting 50,000 tons of iron from the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
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| The wreck of the Titanic, photographed in August 2010. Photo: AP. |
According to Drs. Henrietta Mann and Bhavleen Kaur of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, a bacterium called Halomonas titanicae will cause the Titanic wreck to decompose completely.
In a study published in 2011 in the international journal Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, a research team used DNA technology to identify bacteria found in rusted pieces of metal on the Titanic in 1991, according to News.com.au. They argued that the wreck, which broke in two, would be nothing more than a giant rusty streak on the seabed within 15 years.
Dr. Mann and his colleagues began studying the bacteria in 1995, after DNA technology had become widely developed and applied. Rusticle, the dark orange, porous, ice-like structures that formed on the rusted iron hull covering the bow of the Titanic, was home to many bacterial communities. After identifying 27 bacterial strains, the researchers isolated Halomonas titanicae and found that this species broke down the rusticle into a fine powder in seawater.
"The rusticle on the Titanic was formed from a combination of different bacteria, among which we found a particular type that likes to eat iron, helping to decompose the shipwreck," said Dr. Mann.
The Titanic sank to a depth of 3,800 meters below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean after colliding with an iceberg in 1912. However, the wreck was not discovered until 1985. Preserving the wreck was considered impossible due to its extreme depth.
According to VNE
