Begint deze Titanic ook al uit elkaar te vallen ? :-)
Bacteria may munch all of Titanic steel in less than 30 years - Dr Mann
Researcher Dr Henrietta Mann, who has spent four years researching bacteria gnawing on its hull 3,800 meters below the surface of the Atlantic, said that in less than 30 years there may be nothing left of the Titanic but a heap of rusticles.
A scientific expedition in 1991 to the disintegrating wreck revealed the formation of rust hanging off the massive ship.
Dr Mann, a biologist and geologist at Dalhousie University, obtained samples and scrutinized them under an electronic microscope. She discovered that bacteria, not a chemical process, were behind the deep water formations.
Dr Mann identified dozens of bacteria, including one never seen before, which she dubbed Halomonas Titanicae, that had been munching on the steel hull and busily transforming it, atom by atom, into the rusticles, some as tall as men.
Invisible to the naked eye, measuring only 1.6 micrometers in length, the bacteria have multiplied into billions over the years.
Dr Mann said that "The Titanic is 50,000 tonnes of steel. So, there is plenty of food for my bacteria."
She said that the bacteria also find delicious the ship's windows, stairways and gates, all made of rough iron, as well as its cast iron furnaces. She added that "They eat these as well. I don't know the speed of eating of the iron by the bacteria, but comparing the earliest photos of the wreck with the latest it is clear that rapid change is occurring. Maybe in 20 or 30 years the wreck will collapse into a heap of rust."
Dr Mann recorded 27 bacteria living in the rusticles, some with tentacles, as well as tube worms and other tiny creatures, in a symbiotic colony.
Dr Mann explained that the first of them were likely created by diatom (unicellular algae) in marine snow dirt from the surface. One bacteria then produced others and together they formed a chain and then a net, more bacteria grew over the net and holes filled in and finally the structures hardened into rusticles with channels inside where water circulates. She added that "Its structure is like a sponge."
Dr Mann said that the disintegration of the Titanic would certainly mean a tremendous loss of heritage. But at the same time her discovery offers hope: All of the ships, oil rigs and cargo that fall to the bottom of the sea will not pile up like garbage. Bacteria will eventually dispose of it all.
Source - The Province