page_title: Wreck of the Titanic
section_title: Condition and deterioration of the wreck
hierarchical_section_title: Wreck of the Titanic / Condition and deterioration of the wreck
caption_attribution_description: English: Rattail or grenadier (Macrouridae sp.), from NOAA Photo Library: Image ID: nur00510, National Undersearch Research Program (NURP) Collection Location: Temperate Atlantic Ocean, Hatteras Slope.
context_page_description: The wreck of the RMS Titanic lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet, about 370 miles south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland. It lies in two main pieces about a third of a mile apart. The bow is still recognisable with many preserved interiors, despite deterioration and damage sustained hitting the sea floor. In contrast, the stern is completely ruined. A debris field around the wreck contains hundreds of thousands of items spilled from the ship as she sank. The bodies of the passengers and crew would have also been distributed across the sea bed, but have been consumed by other organisms.
  Titanic sank in 1912, when she collided with an iceberg during her maiden voyage. Numerous expeditions tried using sonar to map the sea bed in the hope of finding it, but were unsuccessful. In 1985, the wreck was finally located by a joint French–American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel of IFREMER and Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The wreck has been the focus of intense interest and has been visited by numerous expeditions. Controversial salvage operations have recovered thousands of items, which have been conserved and put on public display.
context_section_description: Prior to the discovery of Titanic's wreck, in addition to the common assumption that she had sunk in one piece, it had been widely believed that conditions at 12,000 feet (4 kilometres) down would preserve the ship virtually intact. The water is bitterly cold at only about 1–2 °C (34–36 °F), there is no light, and the high pressure was thought to be likely to lower oxygen and salinity levels to the point that organisms would not be able to gain a foothold on the wreck. Titanic would effectively be in a deep freeze. 
  The reality has turned out to be very different, and the ship has increasingly deteriorated since she sank in April 1912. Her gradual decay is due to a number of different processes – physical, chemical and biological. She is situated on an undulating, gently sloping area of seabed in Titanic Canyon, which is swept by the Western Boundary Current. Eddies from the current flow constantly across the wreck, scouring the sea bed and keeping sediment from building up over the hull. The current is strong and often changeable, gradually opening up holes in the ship's hull. Salt corrosion eats away at the hull, and it is also affected by galvanic corrosion.
  The most dramatic deterioration has been caused by biological factors. It used to be thought that the depths of the ocean were a lifeless desert, but research carried out since the mid-1980s has found that the ocean floor is teeming with life and may rival the tropical rainforests for biodiversity. During the 1991 IMAX expedition, scientists were surprised by the variety of organisms that they found in and around Titanic. A total of 28 species were observed, including sea anemones, crabs, shrimp, starfish, and rattail fish up to a yard (1 m) long. Much larger creatures have been glimpsed by explorers. 
  Some of Titanic's fauna has never been seen anywhere else; James Cameron's 2001 expedition discovered a previously unknown type of sea cucumber, lavender with a glowing row of phosphorescent "portholes" along its side. A newly discovered species of rust-eating bacterium found on the ship has been named Halomonas titanicae, which has been found to cause rapid decay of the wreck. Henrietta Mann, who discovered the bacteria, has estimated that the Titanic will completely collapse possibly as soon as 2025. The Canadian geophysicist Steve Blasco has commented that the wreck "has become an oasis, a thriving ecosystem sitting in a vast desert". In mid-2016, the facilities of the Institut Laue-Langevin used neutron imaging to demonstrate that a molecule called ectoine is used by Halomonas titanicae to regulate fluid balance and cell volume to survive at such pressures and salinities.
  Analysis by Henrietta Mann and Bhavleen Kaur, both of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in conjunction with other scientists and researchers of the University of Seville in Spain, has determined that the wreck of Titanic will not exist by 2037 and that preservation of Titanic is impossible. "Unfortunately, because Titanic is 2.3 miles down, it is very difficult or impossible to preserve. It is film which will preserve it for history now," says Mann. "It has already lasted for 100 years, but eventually there will be nothing left but a rust stain on the bottom of the Atlantic... I think Titanic has maybe 15 or 20 years left. I don't think it will have too much longer than that." Other scientists have estimated that Titanic will last no longer than 14 years, as of 2017.
  The soft organic material aboard and dispersed onto the seabed around the hull would have been the first to disappear, rapidly devoured by fish and crustaceans. Wood-boring molluscs such as Teredo colonised the ship's decks and interior in huge numbers, eating away the wooden decking and other wooden objects such as furniture, panelling, doors and staircase banisters. When their food ran out they died, leaving behind calcareous tubes. The question of the victims' bodies is one that has often troubled explorers of the wreck site. When the debris field was surveyed in Robert Ballard's 1986 expedition, pairs of shoes were 
caption: A rattail, or grenadier fish, typical of the deep-sea fauna around Titanic
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