Hacker News Reader

Comment by GalenErso | Hacker News Reader

The Titanic's wreckage was supposed to be completely gone by 2030, according to a study, because of bacteria that eat metal.

https://www.businessinsider.com/titanic-shipwreck-disappeari...

What's become of that? We have less than seven years to go. (taps wristwatch)

Another fun fact about the Titanic is that while it lies 3,800 meters below the water, it lies at the bottom of a continental cliff, as you can see on this map: https://doyouremember.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/titanic...

The Titanic's journey would have taken it West, so it would have continued to sail over deep waters for hundreds of nautical miles, but the place it happened to sink was situated just off an underwater peninsula in the continental plate.

View on HN

Oxidation processes are studied in various environments, important to understand in complex issues such as acid mine drainage. The chemical reactions are driven by a combination of biological (bacteria, eg.), physical, and chemical processes, in a feedback loop. After much research and study, one of the best practices is to keep such material submerged under water. (Deep enough to prevent oxygen transfer from surface.) In such deeper waters, the processes eventually stop or at least slow down, reaching a sort of, equilibrium. It's a fascinating and complex field - in which mathematical modelling can help, but requires non linear differential equations for real world accuracy. (In the past, only linear methods were used, to simplify the models.) Waste water becomes acidic, this leaches out more metals from rocks, thus increasing available reaction material, thus increase in acidity, etc. Can cause cyclic blooms of highly contaminated waste water, followed by normal flows. (Similar reaction cycles happens under landfills, grain or coal stockpiles, etc.)

> The Titanic's wreckage was supposed to be completely gone by 2030, according to a study, because of bacteria that eat metal.

> https://www.businessinsider.com/titanic-shipwreck-disappeari...

> What's become of that? We have less than seven years to go. (taps wristwatch)

Considering that claim is cited to a republished version of an article [1] from the tabloid The Sun [2] (apparently from the credible-sounding "virals" section), I would guess the claim was exciting but wrong or misreported.

[1] https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/natural-wonde... (which, by the way appears to misidentify what looks like a literal illustration as an "undated video image of the Titanic wreck")

[2] https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2334495/the-titanic-wreckage...

The bacteria causing the erosion have actually been discovered there and are named after the ship. It wouldn’t be at all unusual to be somewhat wrong about that estimate in such a unique situation. It rather seems like a typical case of a researcher making a wild guess and media presenting it as proven fact.

Might be they estimated based how quickly bacteria eats pure metal, but it could be covered with something that protects it, dust, rust, another bacteria, some chemistry that is synthesized there over decades.

My gut tells me the biggest source of error is they probably estimated it in a clean-room environment for the bacteria.

Bacteria in the wild are perpetually in a war for survival with other bacteria (and larger organisms) that see them as an incredibly convenient source of aggregated biomass and carbohydrates. I'd expect the rate at which they chew through metal in the wild is attenuated by predators on them increasing predation as their numbers grow.

Or perhaps they used metal with extremely large surface area (e.g. lots of small particles).

That I've seen, the "2030" was an estimate of when the forward hull section would completely collapse.

Underwater or not - the forward hull is a tall metal structure, weighing thousands of tons. At some point, corrosion of the load-bearing elements will weaken it too far to withstand gravity and currents. There will be a major collapse, with (my guess) the decks mostly pancaking, and a fair amount of the sides being blown outward. Along with a huge amount of "little stuff" from inside.

It is pretty cold at that depth. I suspect may slow bacteria metabolism.

I wonder how long trace materials will remain hundred or even thousands of years into the future?

How many millions of years might some pieces of glass last, in ice-cold salt water? Or porcelain - cups, plates, commodes, etc.?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com