New Species of Rust-Eating Bacteria Destroying the Titanic

The wreckage of the RMS Titanic may soon be lost, thanks to a newly discovered rust-eating bacteria.

Researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada have been examining the bacteria eating away at the remains of the famous ship as it sits on the ocean floor.

Using DNA technology, Dalhousie scientists Henrietta Mann and Bhavleen Kaur and researchers from the University of Sevilla in Spain were able to identify a new bacterial species collected from rusticles (a formation of rust similar to an icicle or stalactite) from the Titanic wreck. The iron-oxide-munching bacterium has fittingly been named Halomonas titanicae.

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"In 1995, I was predicting that Titanic had another 30 years," Mann said. "But I think it's deteriorating much faster than that now. Perhaps if we get another 15 to 20 years out of it, we're doing good ... eventually there will be nothing left but a rust stain."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20101206/sc_livescience/newspeciesofrusteatingbacteriadestroyingthetitanic

German Steel vs British Steel?

Anyway interesting

A little later in the day

of governmental oversight, inspections and standards leads to?

:puke:

"In 1995, I was predicting that Titanic had another 30 years," Mann said. "But I think it's deteriorating much faster than that now. Perhaps if we get another 15 to 20 years out of it, we're doing good ... eventually there will be nothing left but a rust stain."

1995 = 15 years ago... so, "if we get another 15 to 20" that makes the original 30 she says she was predicting...

It looks like what's happening to the Titanic is a common fate for shipwrecks, even in this age where ships are built out of steel. The same fate is undoubtedly awaiting the hundreds of freighters, warships, and submarines sunk in both world wars, as well as the dozens of merchant ships lost at sea before the wars and since. Somehow I find the thought of the Titanic being devoured and most of its components being incorporated into the complex web of marine life to be comforting.