The wreck of the Titanic was visualized on the seabed for the first time with 3D scanning 

The wreck of the ill-fated Titanic ocean liner has been visualised, in full, for the first time as part of what researchers say is the “largest underwater scanning project in history”. 

Deep-sea cartographers hope a 3D scan of the wreck can reveal more details about the passenger ship’s fateful voyage across the Atlantic more than a century ago.

A life-size 3D model has been created from data collected by two submersibles – named Romeo and Juliet – during a six-week expedition to the wreck site in the North Atlantic in 2022. .

In total, the mission collected 16 terabytes of data from the wreckage, while it was located 3,800 meters below the surface.

Scientists involved in the project have described it as a “game changer” proposing to “completely rewrite” our understanding of disaster.

The luxury ship sank after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York in April 1912, killing more than 1,500 people. The researchers said the study was carried out without interfering with the wreckage, and the team held a flower-laying ceremony in memory of the deceased.

The reconstruction was done by deep sea mapping company Magellan Ltd while Atlantic Productions made a documentary about the project. 

Remotely controlled submersibles from a dedicated vessel spent more than 200 hours examining the wreckage on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, taking more than 700,000 images to generate the scan.

Magellan’s Gerhard Seiffert – who led the planning for the expedition – told the BBC that the group was not allowed to touch anything, “so as not to damage the wreckage”.

“The other challenge is you have to map every square inch – even the uninteresting parts like in the field of debris, you have to map the mud, but you need to fill in between all these interesting objects, Mr. Seiffert.

The images show the wreck – the stern and bow separated, surrounded by debris – as if it had been lifted out of the water, revealing the tiniest details, such as the serial number. on one of the propellers.

These new scans could shed more light on what exactly happened to the ship, with historians and scientists racing against time as the ship disintegrated. 

Mr Stephenson said there was “still much to memorize” from the wreck, which was “basically the final surviving observer to the calamity”.

“And she has stories to tell,” he included.

The wreck has been investigated broadly since it was to begin with found in 1985, around 650 kilometers off the coast of Canada, but cameras were never able to capture the dispatch in its aggregate. 

Reuters/AFP