Researchers Complete First Full Digital Scan of Titanic Wreck in Unprecedented Detail and Clarity

Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full digital scan of the Titanic, showing the entire wreck in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck reported Thursday.

Using two remotely-operated submersibles, a team of researchers spent six weeks last summer in the North Atlantic mapping the entire ship and the surrounding 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) debris field where belongings of liner passengers were strewn. such as shoes and watches.

Richard Parkinson, founder and chief executive of deep-sea exploration firm Magellan, estimated that the resulting data, including 715,000 images, is 10 times larger than any underwater 3D model that has been attempted before.

“Experts will now be able to launch an investigation into exactly what happened the night the Titanic sank,” Atlantic Productions, Magellan’s media partner, wrote in a social media post.

Atlantic Productions is delighted to be the media partner on Magellan’s groundbreaking project to scan the Titanic and create a digital twin. The experts will now be able to start an investigation into what exactly happened on the night the Titanic sank. pic.twitter.com/a97sovWnHf

— Atlantic Productions (@AtlanticProds) May 17, 2023

“It’s an absolutely one-to-one digital copy, a ‘twin’ of the Titanic in every detail,” said Anthony Geffen, director of the documentary company Atlantic Productions.

The Titanic was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City when it struck an iceberg off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912. The luxury liner sank within hours, an accident that claimed the lives of about 1,500 people.

The wreck, discovered in 1985, lies about 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) below the sea, about 700 kilometers (435 miles) off the coast of Canada.

Geffen added that preview images of the Titanic were often affected by low light levels and only allowed viewers to view one area of ​​the wreck at a time. He added that the new 3D model captures both the bow and stern sections, which separated upon sinking, in sharp detail, including the propeller serial number.

The researchers have spent seven months processing the vast amount of data they collected and a documentary on the project is expected to be released next year. But beyond that, Geffen hopes the new technology will help researchers unravel the details of how the Titanic met her fate and allow people to interact with the story in a new way.

“All our assumptions about how it sank and many of the details of the Titanic come from guesswork, because there is no model that one can reconstruct or calculate exact distances,” he added.