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3d “digital twin” showcases wreck of titanic in unprecedented detail, “this is a new phase for underwater forensic investigation and examination.”.

Jennifer Ouellette - May 17, 2023 8:43 pm UTC

The RMS Titanic sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic in 1912, but the fate of the ship and its passengers has fascinated the popular imagination for more than a century. Now we have the first full-size 3D digital scan of the complete wreckage—a "digital twin" that captures Titanic in unprecedented detail. Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company , and Atlantic Productions (which is making a documentary about the project) conducted the scans over a six-week expedition last summer.

“Great explorers have been down to the Titanic ... but actually they went with really low-resolution cameras and they could only speculate on what happened," Atlantic Productions CEO Andrew Geffen told BBC News . “We now have every rivet of the Titanic , every detail, we can put it back together, so for the first time we can actually see what happened and use real science to find out what happened." 

Further Reading

Titanic  met its doom just four days into the Atlantic crossing, roughly 375 miles (600 kilometers) south of Newfoundland. At 11:40 pm ship's time on April 14, 1912,  Titanic hit that infamous iceberg and began taking on water, flooding five of its 16 watertight compartments, thereby sealing its fate. More than 1,500 passengers and crew perished; only around 710 of those on board survived.

Titanic remained undiscovered at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean until an expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel and Robert Ballard reached the wreck on September 1, 1985. The ship split apart as it sank, with the bow and stern sections lying roughly one-third of a mile apart. The bow proved to be surprisingly intact, while the stern showed severe structural damage, likely flattened from the impact as it hit the ocean floor. There is a debris field spanning a 5-by-3-mile area, filled with furniture fragments, dinnerware, shoes and boots, and other personal items.

As reported previously , we've seen images and video footage of the wreck since it was discovered in the mid 1980s. That includes the  footage shot by director James Cameron in 1995 for sequences featured in his  blockbuster 1997 film —although much of the latter was actually miniature models and special effects filmed on a set, since Cameron couldn't get the high-quality footage he needed for a feature film.

Last year, a private company called OceanGate Expeditions released a one-minute video showcasing the first 8K video footage of the wreck of the Titanic , showing some of its features in new, vivid detail. One could make out the name of the anchor manufacturer (Noah Hingley & Sons Ltd.), for instance, and the footage also gave us a better look at the bow, hull number one, the number-one cargo hold, solid bronze capstans, and one of the single-ended boilers. The footage was shot during the company's 2022 descent, with guests forking over $250,000 apiece for a seat on the submersible. A second OceanGate expedition to the Titanic wreckage was planned for this year.

The joint mission by Magellan and Atlantic Productions deployed two submersibles nicknamed Romeo and Juliet to map every millimeter of the wreck, including the debris field spanning some three miles. The result was a whopping 16 terabytes of data, along with over 715,000 still images and 4K video footage. That raw data was then processed to create the 3D digital twin. The resolution is so good, one can make out part of the serial number on one of the propellers.

"This model is the first one based on a pure data cloud, that stitches all that imagery together with data points created by a digital scan, and with the help from a little artificial intelligence, we are seeing the first unbiased view of the wreck," historian and Titanic expert Parks Stephenson told BBC News . “I believe this is a new phase for underwater forensic investigation and examination.”

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See the Titanic in Stunning Detail With New 3D Scan

Researchers collected 16 terabytes of data to create the very first full-sized 3D scan of the wreckage

Daily Correspondent

More than a century after the Titanic sank during her maiden voyage across the Atlantic, deep-sea researchers have created the first full-sized, 3D digital scan of the wreckage.

Over a period of six weeks last summer, the team used two remotely operated underwater vehicles to explore the shipwreck from all angles, as well as the surrounding debris field that stretches for up to three miles. Items that belonged to the vessel’s roughly 2,200 passengers and crew members—such as champagne bottles, watches and shoes—are still scattered across the seafloor.

In total, the two submersibles captured more than 16 terabytes of data—715,000 images and a high-resolution video—in the North Atlantic, reports the  New York Times ’ April Rubin. Researchers then spent seven months piecing together a “one-to-one digital copy, a ‘twin,’ of the Titanic in every detail,” says Anthony Geffen, who leads  Atlantic Productions , the film company making a documentary about the modeling process, to the  Associated Press ’ Sylvia Hui.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Atlantic Productions (@atlantic.productions)

The result: a model that’s incredibly detailed, showing even tiny features like the serial number on the ship’s propeller.

“This is the Titanic as no one had ever seen it before,” says Gerhard Seiffert, a 3D imaging expert for Magellan, the deep-sea investigation company leading the project, to  CNN ’s Niamh Kennedy.

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic departed from Southampton, England, and began sailing west toward New York City. The vessel struck an iceberg near Newfoundland on April 14 , proceeding to sink in just a few hours. More than 1,500 passengers and crew members died in the wreck.

First located in 1985 , the ship’s wreckage is situated about 435 miles off the coast of Canada, roughly 12,500 feet—2.4 miles—below the water’s surface.

With the model now complete, its creators hope it will help Titanic researchers more accurately piece together  what happened during the famed disaster. Anyone interested in the vessel’s history will be able to use the model to walk through the ship virtually, “as if the water has been drained away,” writes Magellan in a statement.

Already, the scan is leading to new discoveries: For instance, researchers noticed for the first time that one of the Titanic ’s lifeboats wasn’t deployed used because it was “blocked by a jammed metal piece,” reports the Times .

“There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship,” says Parks Stephenson, a Titanic expert who was not involved in the project, to  BBC News ’ Rebecca Morelle and Alison Francis.

The new model, he adds, is “one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research—and not speculation.”

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Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

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A remarkable new view of the Titanic shipwreck is here, thanks to deep-sea mappers

Rachel Treisman

Scientists were able to map the entirety of the shipwreck site, from the Titanic's separated bow and stern sections to its vast debris field. Atlantic/Magellan hide caption

Scientists were able to map the entirety of the shipwreck site, from the Titanic's separated bow and stern sections to its vast debris field.

A deep sea-mapping company has created the first-ever full-sized digital scan of the Titanic, revealing an entirely new view of the world's most famous shipwreck.

The 1912 sinking of the Titanic has captivated the public imagination for over a century. And while there have been numerous expeditions to the wreck since its discovery in 1985, its sheer size and remote position — some 12,500 feet underwater and 400 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada — have made it nearly impossible for anyone to see the full picture.

Until now, that is. Using technology developed by Magellan Ltd., scientists have managed to map the Titanic in its entirety, from its bow and stern sections (which broke apart after sinking) to its 3-by-5-mile debris field.

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The result is an exact "digital twin" of the wreck, media partner Atlantic Productions said in a news release.

"What we've created is a highly accurate photorealistic 3D model of the wreck," 3D capture specialist Gerhard Seiffert says. "Previously footage has only allowed you to see one small area of the wreck at a time. This model will allow people to zoom out and to look at the entire thing for the first time ... This is the Titanic as no one had ever seen it before."

The Titanic site is hard to get to, hard to see and hard to describe, says Jeremy Weirich, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean Exploration program (he's been to the site).

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"Imagine you're at the bottom of the ocean, there's no light, you can't see anything, all you have is a flashlight and that beam goes out by 10 feet, that's it," he says. "It's a desert. You're moving along, you don't see anything, and suddenly there's a steel ship in front of you that's the size of a skyscraper and all you can see is the light that's illuminated by your flashlight."

This new imagery helps convey both that sense of scale and level of detail, Weirich tells NPR.

Magellan calls this the largest underwater scanning project in history: It generated an unprecedented 16 terabytes of data and more than 715,000 still images and 4k video footage.

"We believe that this data is approximately ten times larger than any underwater 3D model that's ever been attempted before," said Richard Parkinson, Magellan founder and CEO.

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Experts in Titanic history and deep-sea exploration are hailing the model as an invaluable research tool. They believe it could help scientists and historians solve some of the ship's lingering mysteries — and learn more about other underwater sites, too.

Longtime Titanic explorer and analyst Parks Stephenson described the model as a "game changer" in a phone interview with NPR.

"It takes [us] further into new technology that's going to be the standard, I think, not just for Titanic exploration, but all underwater exploration in the future," he adds.

The effort yielded 16 terabytes of data and more than 715,000 still images, in what Magellan calls the largest underwater scanning project ever. Atlantic/Magellan hide caption

The effort yielded 16 terabytes of data and more than 715,000 still images, in what Magellan calls the largest underwater scanning project ever.

A project years in the making, featuring Romeo and Juliet

Explorers and artists have spent decades trying to depict the Titanic wreck, albeit in lower-tech ways.

After Robert Ballard — along with France's Jean-Louis Michel — discovered the site in 1985, he combined all of his photos to form the first photomosaic of the wreck, which showed the ship's bow and was published in National Geographic. Those efforts have been replicated in the years since.

"But the problem with all that is it requires interpretation," Stephenson says. "It requires human interpretation, and there are gaps in the knowledge."

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Flash forward to the summer of 2022. Scientists spent six weeks capturing scans of the site, using technology that Magellan says it had been developing over the course of five years.

The expedition deployed two submersibles, named Romeo and Juliet, some 2.3 miles below the surface to map every millimeter of the wreck site.

They didn't go inside the ship, let alone touch the site, in accordance with existing regulations, and paid their respects to the more than 1,500 victims with a flower laying ceremony.

And they describe the mission as a challenge, with the team fighting bad weather and technical challenges in the middle of the Atlantic.

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"When we saw the data come in it was all worth it," Seiffert says. "The level of detail we saw and recorded was extraordinary."

The scientists spent months processing and rendering the data to create the "digital twin," which the company says it's looking forward to sharing publicly.

Stephenson saw an early version of the model, when Atlantic Productions brought him on to consult on its validity. So did Ken Marschall, the maritime artist known for his Titanic paintings.

"We've both seen it with our eyes. We've both seen thousands of digital images of the wreck in imagery, moving imagery," Stephenson said. "But we'd never seen the wreck like this. It was different, but at the same time you just knew it was right."

Experts say the model will be a valuable tool for future Titanic research and deep-sea exploration in general. Atlantic/Magellan hide caption

Experts say the model will be a valuable tool for future Titanic research and deep-sea exploration in general.

There's still a lot left to learn about the Titanic

Can there really be that much left to discover about the Titanic, more than 110 years on?

Stephenson says "at the end of the day, none of this matters." But there's a reason people keep visiting and talking about the wreck, he adds, and it's not because of any buried treasure.

"It's fame, I guess," Stephenson says. "People can't get enough of Titanic. And as long as people can't get enough of the Titanic, people will keep going to ... these mysteries."

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In Stephenson's case, it's the unanswered questions that keep drawing him back.

"I've been grinding away at this for a while, and I'm not on a crusade to dismantle the Titanic narrative that has grown since 1912," he says. "But ... I have had enough experience and seen enough evidence that makes me seriously question even some of the most basic aspects of the Titanic story."

One example: Stephenson says there's reason to doubt the long-accepted conclusion that the ship hit the iceberg along its starboard side. He points to a growing body of evidence that suggests it actually grounded briefly on part of the iceberg that was submerged underwater instead.

Just looking at the preliminary modeling has helped Stephenson bring a lot of his evidence and questions into focus — it may be early days, but he says he already has a better understanding of how the ship's stern came to be in such bad shape.

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Stephenson sees this moment as a paradigm shift in underwater archaeology.

"We're essentially getting to the end of the first generation of Titanic research and exploration, and we're getting ready to transition into the next generation," he says. "And I think this tool basically signals a shift from that generation to the next."

Stephenson wants to use the model to document the extent of Titanic exploration up to this point, from Ballard to James Cameron and beyond. He says a "massive project" is underway, and will hopefully result in a scientific paper and online archive. Then, he plans to use the tool to answer whatever questions remain.

There have been "photomosaics" and other renderings of the shipwreck over the decades, but this is the first such 3D model. Atlantic/Magellan hide caption

There have been "photomosaics" and other renderings of the shipwreck over the decades, but this is the first such 3D model.

The Titanic is a gateway into deep ocean exploration

As a maritime archaeologist, Weirich is most interested in what the ship's condition can teach us about how to better preserve deep-sea shipwrecks in general. For example, how has it impacted the environment since it sunk, and how have the visits since its discovery impacted the site?

The Titanic site has been designated as a maritime memorial, which makes preservation even more important. And Weirich says research on everything from its rate of deterioration to the microbial environment can be applied to other such sites worldwide.

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There are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of wrecks in the world, from ancient wooden ships in the Black Sea to World War II vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, Weirich says.

And this kind of technology could play a crucial role in learning more about deep-sea environments in general, from undersea resources to geological features to unknown species.

Weirich says he hopes these images of the Titanic will give people a greater appreciation for the deep ocean, and a better understanding of just how much is left to explore.

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"The story of Titanic and the shipwreck itself is extremely compelling, but it is a gateway for people to understand what we know and don't know about the deep ocean," he adds.

Weirich remembers being personally captivated by those first images of the shipwreck in National Geographic when he was just 10 years old. That sparked his lifelong interest in ocean exploration — and he hopes young people seeing these latest images are inspired too.

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First full-size 3D scan of Titanic shows shipwreck in new light

In this grab taken from a digital scan released by Atlantic/Magellan on Thursday, May 18, 2023, a view of the bow of the Titanic, in the Atlantic Ocean created using deep-sea mapping. Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic wreck, showing the entire relic in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday. (Atlantic/Magellan via AP)

In this grab taken from a digital scan released by Atlantic/Magellan on Thursday, May 18, 2023, a view of the bow of the Titanic, in the Atlantic Ocean created using deep-sea mapping. Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic wreck, showing the entire relic in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday. Using two remote operated submersibles, a team of researchers spent six weeks last summer in the North Atlantic mapping every millimeter of the shipwreck and the surrounding 3-mile debris field, where personal belongings of the ocean liner’s passengers such as shoes and watches were scattered. (Atlantic/Magellan via AP)

In this grab taken from a digital scan released by Atlantic/Magellan on Thursday, May 18, 2023, a view of part of the propeller of the Titanic, in the Atlantic Ocean created using deep-sea mapping. Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic wreck, showing the entire relic in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday. (Atlantic/Magellan via AP)

In this grab taken from a digital scan released by Atlantic/Magellan on Thursday, May 18, 2023, a view of the bow of the Titanic, in the Atlantic Ocean. Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic wreck, showing the entire relic in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday. Using two remote operated submersibles, a team of researchers spent six weeks last summer in the North Atlantic mapping every millimeter of the shipwreck and the surrounding 3-mile debris field, where personal belongings of the ocean liner’s passengers such as shoes and watches were scattered. (Atlantic/Magellan via AP)

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LONDON (AP) — Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic, showing the entire wreck in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday.

Using two remotely operated submersibles, a team of researchers spent six weeks last summer in the North Atlantic mapping the whole shipwreck and the surrounding 3-mile debris field, where personal belongings of the ocean liner’s passengers, such as shoes and watches, were scattered.

Richard Parkinson, founder and chief executive of deep-sea exploration firm Magellan, estimated that the resulting data — including 715,000 images — is 10 times larger than any underwater 3D model ever attempted before.

“It’s an absolutely one-to-one digital copy, a ‘twin,’ of the Titanic in every detail,” said Anthony Geffen, head of documentary maker Atlantic Productions.

The Titanic was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City when it hit an iceberg off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912. The luxury ocean liner sank within hours, killing about 1,500 people.

The wreck, discovered in 1985, lies some 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) under the sea, about 435 miles (700 kilometers) off the coast of Canada.

Geffen says previous images of the Titanic were often limited by low light levels, and only allowed viewers to see one area of the wreck at a time. He said the new photorealistic 3D model captures both the bow and stern section, which had separated upon sinking, in clear detail — including the serial number on the propeller.

Researchers have spent seven months rendering the large amount of data they gathered, and a documentary on the project is expected to come out next year. But beyond that, Geffen says he hopes the new technology will help researchers work out details of how the Titanic met its fate and allow people to interact with history in a fresh way.

“All our assumptions about how it sank, and a lot of the details of the Titanic, comes from speculation, because there is no model that you can reconstruct, or work exact distances,” he said. “I’m excited because this quality of the scan will allow people in the future to walk through the Titanic themselves ... and see where the bridge was and everything else.”

Parks Stephenson, a leading Titanic expert who was involved in the project, called the modelling a “gamechanger.”

“I’m seeing details that none of us have ever seen before and this allows me to build upon everything that we have learned to date and see the wreck in a new light,” he said. “We’ve got actual data that engineers can take to examine the true mechanics behind the breakup and the sinking and thereby get even closer to the true story of Titanic disaster.”

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‘Digital Twin’ of the Titanic Shows the Shipwreck in Stunning Detail

Researchers hope new 3-D images will provide clues about what happened to the ocean liner when it sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.

By April Rubin

An ambitious digital imaging project has produced what researchers describe as a “digital twin” of the R.M.S. Titanic, showing the wreckage of the doomed ocean liner with a level of detail that has never been captured before.

The project, undertaken by Magellan Ltd., a deepwater seabed mapping company, yielded more than 16 terabytes of data, 715,000 still images and a high-resolution video. The visuals were captured over the course of a six-week expedition in the summer of 2022, nearly 2.4 miles below the surface of the North Atlantic, Atlantic Productions, which is working on a documentary about the project, said in a news release.

The researchers used two submersibles, named Romeo and Juliet, to map “every millimeter” of the wreckage as well as the entire three-mile debris field. Creating the model, which shows the ship lying on the ocean floor and the area around it, took about eight months, said Anthony Geffen, the chief executive and creative director of Atlantic Productions.

“We’re now going to write the proper science of the Titanic,” he said.

Previous images of the wreckage, which was found less than 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in 1985, suffered from low light and murky water. The new images have effectively removed the ocean water, allowing the wreckage to be viewed in “extraordinary detail,” Atlantic Productions said, noting that a serial number can be seen on a propeller.

The Titanic, the largest passenger ship built at the time, sank on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. Many details of the disaster, in which more than 1,500 people perished, have remained a mystery ever since.

The models offer new details about the shipwreck that hadn’t previously been known, Mr. Geffen said. For example, he said, one of the lifeboats was blocked by a jammed metal piece and couldn’t be deployed.

The submersibles captured images of personal artifacts, such as watches, top hats and unopened champagne bottles, that were strewn across the debris field. Experts hope they will be able to match personal items to Titanic passengers using artificial intelligence, Mr. Geffen said. He added that people someday would also be able to witness the shipwreck through virtual reality and augmented reality.

“In accordance with tight regulations in place, the wreck was not touched or disturbed,” Atlantic Productions said, adding that the site was treated “with the utmost of respect, which included a flower-laying ceremony in memory of those who lost their lives.”

“This was a challenging mission,” Richard Parkinson, Magellan’s founder and chief executive, said in a statement. “In the middle of the Atlantic we had to fight the elements, bad weather and technical challenges to carry out this unprecedented mapping and digitalization operation of the Titanic.”

April Rubin is a breaking news reporter and a member of the 2022-2023 New York Times fellowship class. More about April Rubin

First ever full-size scan of Titanic reveals wreck as never seen before

The first full digital scan of the Titanic wreckage has been created, revealing details of the world’s most famous shipwreck as never seen before.

Curious history buffs can take a 3D tour of the ship that sank in 1912, killing more than 1,500 people, in a video created from more than 700,000 images taken of every angle of the wreckage.

The 3D render shows the ship as though on dry land, giving people a unique view of details such as the radio room and the serial number on the propeller.

It’s believed to be the first “unbiased view” captured of the Titanic wreckage in its entirety that relies on pure data.

The scan was carried out by deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd and Atlantic Productions, who are making a documentary about the project.

Titanic wreck | 3D scan

Underwater robots controlled by specialist teams spent a painstaking 200 hours surveying the length and breadth of the wreck, which lies in two parts in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Canada.

The BBC superimposed the entire digital scan of the wreck inside the London Stadium , which held the 2012 Olympics, showing its gigantic scale.

Historians hope the digital scan will offer new insight into exactly what happened on the fateful night of April 14.

Atlantic Productions CEO Andrew Geffen told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday: “Great explorers have been down to the Titanic…but actually they went with really low-resolution cameras and they could only speculate on what happened.

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“We now have every rivet of the Titanic, every detail, we can put it back together, so for the first time we can actually see what happened and use real science to find out what happened.

“It will take a long time to go through all those details but literally week by week there are new findings.”

Historian Parks Stephenson told BBC Breakfast that the Titanic wreck site has previously been “subject to human bias as we try to look at the scale of it”.

“The context is put together by artists, either painting artists or digital model artists. Every artist that tries to give you overall context of the wreck is going to unconsciously insert some human bias, always trying to make the wreck look like the ship used to,” he explained.

“But this model is the first one based on a pure data cloud, that stitches all that imagery together with data points created by a digital scan, and with the help from a little aritifiical intelligence, we are seeing the first unbiased view of the wreck.”

He added: “I believe this is a new phase for underwater forensic investigation and examination.”

The wreck of the Titanic lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet, around 370 nautical miles off the coast of Canadian island Newfoundland. It lies in two main pieces about 2,000 feet apart.

Rare footage of the Titanic shipwreck was released in February , 37 years after the ruins were first discovered, in tandem with the film’s 25th anniversary.

The video was taken by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the French National Institute of Oceanography months after they discovered the wreckage in September 1985.

The ship sank after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in April 1912.

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Witness the sinking of RMS Titanic. Explore the shipwreck. Titanic VR is an immersive educational interactive story and game; with over 6 hours of game-play you will leave with a greater understanding of the historic tragedy that unfolded in 1912.

Titanic shipwreck exploration.

Diving to the bottom of the North Atlantic, you take on the role of Dr. Ethan Lynch, Associate Professor of Maritime Archaeology at the fictional University of Nova Scotia. With funding from a mysterious investor, Dr. Lynch and his PhD candidate Jean Robinson have set out aboard a research vessel to dive the wreck of RMS Titanic and discover treasures which have remained submerged for a century.

Begin your missions by navigating your way through the ocean depths until you discover her shipwreck. Follow the instructions set by your mysterious investor and use your ROV to collect and document artefacts which could unveil more truths of the tragic sinking.

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See the Titanic in whole new way: Full-sized, 3D digital scan shows scale of wreckage site

The story of the “ unsinkable ” ship has been told through an award winning film, books, artifacts, museum exhibits and rare photos .

And now, for the first time, a full-sized digital scan of the Titanic shows a closer look at the world famous wreck that occurred on April 14, 1912.

Magellan, a deep sea research company, produced the scan using mapping technology that provided a three-dimensional view of the 882.5-foot-long ship as if the “water has been drained away.”

“The hope is that this will shed new light on exactly what happened to the liner,” the company said in a statement on its website on Wednesday. 

3D scan took more than 200 hours, 700,000 images to make

The new scan, carried out in the summer of 2022 by Magellan and Atlantic Productions, reveals a complete 360-degree view of the Titanic, including small details like the serial number on one of the propellers.

The team used remote controlled submersibles to take more than 700,000 images of the Titanic from every angle to create the 3D reconstruction, the BBC reported . 

The team members spent more than 200 hours surveying the ship, which planning leader Gerhard Seiffert said they weren't allowed to touch. 

"And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimeter - even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects," he told BBC. 

The scan gives a glimpse of the radio room, the grand staircase and more. 

New images of the Titanic

Titanic facts: when did it sink how many people died.

More than 1,500 people were killed on the Titanic. Of the roughly 2,200 people aboard the ship, only 706 people survived. 

The majority of the people killed were members of the crew and third-class passengers – with 710 deaths in the third class and 700 deaths among the crew.

The passengers were traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City, when the ship collided with an iceberg.

The Titanic sunk into the ocean on April 15, 1912, at about 2:20 a.m.

Rare photos of the ship: The Titanic sank into the Atlantic Ocean 111 years ago

111 years after Titanic sank: These graphics explore what you may not know about the ship

How many people died on the Titanic? Facts on the deaths and the survivors

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First Full-Size 3D Scan of Titanic Reveals Wreck Like Never Before  

• By VOA News

Shipwreck enthusiasts have cause for celebration because the Titanic ocean liner’s infamous wreck can now be visualized like never before.

Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic , showing the entire wreck in clarity and detail. Researchers say it is the “largest underwater scanning project in history.”

Unveiled on Wednesday, the 3D scan was the result of a six-week expedition to the North Atlantic wreck site in summer 2022, during which researchers used two remotely operated submersibles — named Romeo and Juliet — to map the entire shipwreck and the surrounding 3-mile debris field.

The researchers took more than 700,000 images from every angle to create a virtual, exact 3D reconstruction.

“It’s an absolutely one-to-one digital copy, a ‘twin,’ of the Titanic in every detail,” Anthony Geffen, head of documentary maker Atlantic Productions, told The Associated Press. Atlantic Productions is making a documentary about the project.

The scan, which enables the ship to be seen as if the water has been drained away, may also reveal more details about the ship’s ill-fated trip across the Atlantic in 1912.

An estimated 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from England to New York.

Richard Parkinson, founder of the deep-sea exploration firm Magellan, believes that the data amount to 10 times more than any underwater 3D model ever tried before.

Magellan carried out the scan project in partnership with Atlantic Productions.

“The depth of it, almost 4,000 meters, represents a challenge, and you have currents at the site, too — and we’re not allowed to touch anything so as not to damage the wreck,” Magellan’s Gerhard Seiffert, who led the planning for the expedition, told the BBC .

“And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimeter — even uninteresting parts. Like on the debris field, you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects,” Seiffert said.

After the expedition in the North Atlantic, researchers spent seven months rendering the large amount of data they collected. A documentary about the project is set to come out next year.

Geffen said he hopes the scan will help researchers better understand what happened to the Titanic .

“All our assumptions about how it sank, and a lot of the details of the Titanic , come from speculation, because there is no model that you can reconstruct or work exact distances,” he told The Associated Press. “I’m excited because this quality of the scan will allow people in the future to walk through the Titanic themselves.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and the BBC.

The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

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TITANIC: THE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE – See It Now From Your Own Home

A virtual, 3-d tour of titanic: the artifact exhibition, including 400+ artifacts and access to exclusive digital content.

Feeling the need to go somewhere during the quarantine? Now you can go deep into the ocean and visit the Titanic .

To commemorate the 108 th  anniversary of the RMS  Titanic ’s tragic sinking on April 15, 1912, TITANIC : The Artifact Exhibition,  which has permanent installations at the Luxor in Las Vegas and in Orlando, is now available to experience virtually for the first time ever through  TITANIC: The Virtual Experience

Sprawling the entire 25,000 square feet exhibition, users will get an up-close view of living history, including nearly 400 artifacts recovered directly from the  Titanic’s  wreck site, dramatic recreations and to-scale replicas of the ship’s cabins and common areas, never-before-seen video content of the ship today and artifact recovery processes, and more.  TITANIC: The Virtual Experience  is a renewable, one-week virtual tour that is accessible on computers, tablets and mobile devices. For more information, visit  Titanic.live .

To further commemorate the anniversary, the first 108 users will receive free access for one week to the virtual experience. Simply enter code  109anniversary  at checkout for free access. Special offer is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

The virtual experience is available at two price levels; the Light Version for $5 and the Full Version for $15. Each price level is accessible for one week and can be renewed at the point of purchase. Experience offerings include:

Light Version – $5

·       Virtual walk through of the 13 galleries inside the 25,000 square feet exhibition

·       Detailed information and photos of each artifact on display

·       View what life was like aboard the “Ship of Dreams” through full-scale room re-creations of the Grand Staircase, Promenade Deck, Veranda Café, and more

·       View the largest piece ever recovered, a 15-ton portion of the Ship’s hull

·       Learn about conservation and recovery efforts of the artifacts recovered from the ocean floor

Full Version – $15

·       All offerings of the basic tour experience

·       Audio tour available in multiple languages

·       Exclusive video content

o   Dive Expedition 2010 – Video of artifacts as they are being recovered from the wreck site at the ocean floor

o   Dive Expedition 2010 – Video of curators on board the recovery ship discussing the artifacts immediately after they were pulled from the ocean floor

o   Dive Expedition 2010 – Video from  Titanic’s  wreck site, including underwater footage of the Ship’s bow, stern, vast debris field, and more

·       Animated timeline of  Titanic  from the point of striking the iceberg to the sinking

·       Additional facts and information about  Titanic , the wreck site, artifacts, personal stories of her passengers and crew

The virtual tour features more than 400 items from  Titanic  that are now on display at  TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibition , all recovered from two and a half miles below the surface of the North Atlantic. Items on display include personal belonging of the ship’s passengers and crew including luggage, whistles, eyeglasses, and more.

In addition, floor tiles from the first-class smoking room, a window frame from the Verandah Café, and an unopened bottle of champagne with a 1900 vintage are featured. The Full Version also offers users an exclusive look at never-before-seen video footage of ship and artifact recovery.

While learning the story behind the legendary ship’s short journey from construction and destruction to eventual recovery, users will witness an actual piece of  Titanic ’s hull, a full-scale re-creation of the Grand Staircase, authentically re-created first and third-class rooms with furnishings by original manufactures, as well as a newly expanded outer Promenade Deck. The personal artifacts on display and dramatic recreations of her hallowed halls and cabins offer haunting, emotional connections to the forever-altered lives of those onboard  Titanic .

TITANIC: The Virtual Experience  is available exclusively at  Titanic.live . The first 108 individuals to download will receive the Full Version for free using code  109anniversary.

About RMS  Titanic

Titanic :  The Virtual Experience by  RMS Titanic, Inc . and  Titanic :  The Artifact Exhibition .  RMS Titanic, Inc  serves as the exclusive steward of  RMS   Titanic  and is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Ship, wreck site and all her passengers and crew through educational and conservation-based programs.

Since 1987,  RMS Titanic, Inc.  has honorably conducted eight research expeditions to the wreck site of  Titanic , exclusively recovering and conserving more than 5,500 artifacts. Utilizing these recovered objects in concert with scientific and historical research,  RMS Titanic, Inc . brings the celebrated and moving experiences:  Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition  and  Titanic: The Virtual Experience.   These exhibitions invite you to experience the unparallel grandeur and innovation of  Titanic  amidst detailed room recreations and countless stories of that fateful night. For more information on  RMS Titanic, Inc.,  follow @rmstitanicinc. For more information on  Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition,  follow @titanic_exhibit.

• DianneTravels
• The Titanic

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First full-sized 3D scan of the Titanic shipwreck captured

The high-resolution images reconstruct the 1912 wreck, revealing more about the ship’s fateful journey across the Atlantic.

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”.

The first full-sized 3D scan of the Titanic shipwreck , published on Wednesday, may reveal more details about the ship’s fateful journey across the Atlantic more than a century ago.

Keep reading

Newly released footage shows wreckage of the ‘unsinkable’ titanic, titanic shipyard to stay afloat, shipyard that built the titanic sinks into bankruptcy, 100 years on: the sinking of the hms britannic.

The model was created with data using deep-sea mapping gathered by two submersibles – named Romeo and Juliet – during a six-week expedition to the North Atlantic wreck site in summer 2022.

In all, the mission gathered 16TB of data from the wreckage that lies at a depth of nearly 4,000 metres (13,123 feet).

The high-resolution images, published by the BBC, reconstruct the wreck in great detail. Scientists involved in the project described it as a “game-changer”, which offers to “completely rewrite” our understanding of the disaster.

The Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, killing an estimated 1,500 people after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, the US.

The largest ocean liner of its time, the Titanic was considered a state-of-the-art ship , with watertight compartments that could be sealed if disaster struck.

Researchers say the study was conducted without interfering with the wreck and the team held a flower-laying ceremony in memory of the dead.

The shipwreck has been explored extensively since it was first discovered in 1985 approximately 650km (404 miles) off the coast of Canada, but cameras were never able to capture the ship in its entirety.

The reconstruction was carried out in 2022 by deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd and Atlantic Productions, who are making a documentary about the project.

Magellan’s Gerhard Seiffert, who led the planning for the expedition, told the BBC they were not allowed to touch anything “so as not to damage the wreck”.

“The other challenge is that you have to map every square centimetre – even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects,” Seiffert said.

The new scans may shed more light on what exactly happened to the liner with historians and scientists racing against time as the ship is disintegrating.

“Now we are finally getting to see Titanic without human interpretation, derived directly from evidence and data,” Parks Stephenson, who has studied the Titanic for many years, told the BBC.

Stephenson said there is “still much to learn” from the wreck, which is “essentially the last surviving eyewitness to the disaster”.

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

Video shows 3D view of the Titanic shipwreck

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• Subsection US & Canada
• Published 19 June 2023

The Titanic is overrated, deep-sea explorers say. The wealthy keep venturing to it anyway.

• The Titanic wreckage site continues to be a big draw for the wealthy and adventurous.
• But experienced deep-sea explorers tell Business Insider there's nothing more to see there.
• Hot sea vents and deep-water coral reefs are under-explored and far more accessible, explorers say.

The Titanic may be one of the most popular and identifiable wreckage sites in the history of sea travel.

It also may be one of the most overrated, deep-sea explorers told Business Insider.

More than a century after the ocean liner sank to the bottom of the Atlantic, the Titanic has proven the staying power of its lore, not least in part due to James Cameron's 1997 film , which became the first billion-dollar box office success. The film reignited interest in the ship and created a fandom that lives strong to this day. Titanic-themed birthday, anyone?

Then, in 2023, five people died in OceanGate's Titan submersible during a dive to the wreckage site, once again placing the iconic ship at the forefront of the news cycle.

Despite the wreckage's thorough documentation and the recent fate of the OceanGate submersible, the wealthy and well-resourced continue to pour efforts to venture 12,500 feet into the ocean just to see the site of the 1912 sinking.

Passengers on the Titan paid up to $250,000 for a seat inside the submersible. Now, billionaire real estate investor Larry Connor said he will voyage to the Titanic.

Deep-sea explorers are left wondering: Why?

'People are trying to impress people'

"The wreck is well-documented," Karl Stanley , a submersible expert, told BI in a recent interview. "That's probably the best documented deep-water wreck there is."

Stanley, who owns a submersible tourism company, Stanley Submarines, was one of many colleagues who warned OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush about the dangers of rushing to produce a vessel that could take people to the Titanic.

For him, the wealthy's desire to visit the shipwreck has less to do with a genuine passion for deep-sea exploration and more to do with namesake recognition.

"I think whatever market exists for tourism to the Titanic is extremely analogous to the kind of clientele that pays Sherpas to drag them up Mt. Everest ," Stanley said, referring to the Nepalese ethnic group that dwells in the Himalayan mountains. Some climbers pay up to $15,000 per expedition to have a Sherpa guide, BI previously reported.

Since the early 1900s, more than 330 people have died on the mountain, and 107 of them were Sherpas, according to The Himalayan Database.

Stanley said there are more dangerous but less traveled mountains and shipwrecks that are less deep but better preserved, such as the HMHS Britannic , Titanic's sister ship, which lies in a relatively shallow grave of about 400 feet, near the Greek island of Kea.

"People are trying to impress people," he said.

Guillermo Söhnlein , the cofounder of OceanGate who left the company in 2013, agreed with Stanley.

While he doesn't want to discourage anyone's genuine passion for the iconic ocean liner, Söhnlein told BI in an interview that the Titanic "holds no interest for me whatsoever."

"One of the reasons I talked with Stockton all the time in the recent years is he would always call me before the expedition to see if I wanted to come to the Titanic," he said.

"And honestly, I never had any desire to go to the Titanic. I just don't see the appeal of it," Söhnlein said, "For me, personally, I think a big part of that is because I prefer exploration. And the Titanic has already been visited, it's been documented, its been filmed. James Cameron has done a phenomenal job on it."

Brine pools and unexplored blue holes

Stanley and Söhnlein said they're less interested in shipwreck sites overall and more keen on exploring the ocean's ecosystem .

"Hot sea vents, brine pools, and deep-water coral reefs would all be more interesting than a shipwreck and can be accessed by going 2,000-5,000 feet, not the 13,000 feet it takes to get to the Titanic," Stanley said.

Similarly, Söhnlein is interested in deep trenches and hydrothermal vents — something Rush was also passionate about, he said.

Söhnlein explained that they're "almost completely unexplored," "play key roles in our planetary dynamics," and "they likely hold thousands of undiscovered and unknown life forms."

Söhnlein's company, Blue Marble Exploration, recently announced it would venture into Dean's Blue Hole, a site in the Bahamas about 660 feet from the surface.

"Dean's Blue Hole is an enigma for geologists studying underwater caverns," Blue Marble Exploration's website says. "It is the largest of its kind in the world, and yet very little is known about it, including how it formed more than 15,000 years ago."

The company adds that it expects to find "human remains" of people who drowned in the blue hole "due to a variety of misfortunes."

It's unclear how many people died at the site. The most notable case occurred in 2013 when American freediver Nicholas Mevoli attempted to break a freediving record by reaching 72 meters in a single breath, The New York Times reported. Mevoli surfaced but died shortly after.

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider on Microsoft Start.

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First full-size 3D scan of Titanic shows shipwreck in new light

Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the titanic, showing the entire wreck in unprecedented detail and clarity, article bookmarked.

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Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic, showing the entire wreck in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday.

Using two remote operated submersibles, a team of researchers spent six weeks last summer in the North Atlantic mapping the whole shipwreck and the surrounding 3-mile debris field, where personal belongings of the ocean liner's passengers such as shoes and watches were scattered.

Richard Parkinson, founder and chief executive of deep-sea exploration firm Magellan, estimated that the resulting data — including 715,000 images — is 10 times larger than any underwater 3D model ever attempted before.

“It's an absolutely one-to-one digital copy, a ‘twin,' of the Titanic in every detail,” said Anthony Geffen, head of documentary maker Atlantic Productions.

The Titanic was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England , to New York City when it hit an iceberg off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912. The luxury ocean liner sank within hours, killing about 1,500 people.

The wreck, discovered in 1985, lies some 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) under the sea, about 435 miles (700 kilometers) off the coast of Canada.

Geffen says previous images of the Titanic were often limited by low light levels, and only allowed viewers to see one area of the wreck at a time. He said the new 3D model captures both the bow and stern section, which had separated upon sinking, in clear detail — including the serial number on the propeller.

Researchers have spent seven months rendering the large amount of data they gathered, and a documentary on the project is expected to come out next year. But beyond that, Geffen says he hopes the new technology will help researchers work out details of how the Titanic met its fate and allow people to interact with history in a fresh way.

“All our assumptions about how it sank, and a lot of the details of the Titanic comes from speculation, because there is no model that you can reconstruct, or work exact distances,” he said. “I’m excited because this quality of the scan will allow people in the future to walk through the Titanic themselves ... and see where the bridge was and everything else.”

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What it was like inside the Titanic submersible: ‘As much room as a minivan’

Sunday’s trip by the submersible vessel in which all five passengers onboard died was one of a number of expeditions that OceanGate, the company operating the vessel, had sent to the Titanic wreck site with paying guests.

The trips to the wreckage took eight days, and passengers had little room to maneuver aboard the Titan . Here is what we know about the submersible’s past voyages to see the remains of the famous ship.

Eight days at sea — and a 2.4-mile descent

The expeditions to the Titanic wreckage cost $250,000 and were open to passengers age 17 and older, according to OceanGate. The Titan was 22 feet long and weighed 23,000 pounds, according to the company’s website .

Passengers set sail from St. John’s, on the eastern tip of Canada’s Newfoundland island, and traveled aboard a larger vessel for two days until they reached the site of the wreck. At that point, they entered the submersible in groups to go down to see the wreckage at a depth of 12,500 feet, or about 2.4 miles. Unlike a submarine, a submersible must be supported by a surface vessel, platform, shore team or sometimes a larger submarine.

Descents to the Titanic wreck depended on weather but could have begun as early as the third day of the expedition, OceanGate said.

“Once the submersible is launched you will begin to see alienlike life forms whizz by the viewport as you sink deeper and deeper into the ocean,” OceanGate said on its website before the Titan was lost. “The descent takes approximately two hours but it feels like the blink of an eye.”

According to the company’s itinerary, groups could spend hours exploring the wreckage and surrounding debris before beginning the two-hour return trip.

Bolted from the outside, steered by a video game controller

Footage from previous expeditions shared by the company shows the Titan’s tubelike interior, equipped with a large viewport to allow passengers to see the wreckage.

The video recording shows a toilet on the submersible that the company’s website said was separated from the rest of the capsule by a privacy curtain when in use. “We do recommend that you restrict your diet before and during the dive to reduce the likelihood that you will need to use the facilities,” it said.

According to CBS News correspondent David Pogue , who traveled on the Titan last year, the submersible had “about as much room as a minivan.” Passengers had to take their shoes off before entering, he said. Then the crew used 17 bolts to seal the hatch from the outside: “There’s no other way out.”

Who is Hamish Harding, tycoon and adventurer on the missing Titanic sub?

Pogue told the BBC after news of the Titan’s disappearance that many of the components on the submersible appeared to be makeshift or purchased off the shelf.

“For example, you steer this sub with a game controller, an Xbox game controller,” he said. “Some of the ballast is abandoned construction pipes that are sitting on shelves on the side of the thing, and the way you detach the ballast is you get everybody on board to lean to one side of the sub and they roll off.”

What to know about the missing submersible

Pogue recalled that chief executive and founder Stockton Rush reassured him that NASA and the University of Washington were involved in the capsule’s design, adding: “It’s rock solid.”

It’s not clear whether the same controller and ballast were used in Sunday’s expedition. However, OceanGate has said that off-the-shelf components “helped to streamline the construction, and makes it simple to operate and replace parts in the field.”

The submersible was equipped with a 96-hour supply of oxygen when it descended, said David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, according to the Associated Press .

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Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said Thursday that the vessel suffered a catastrophic loss of pressure that imploded it, killing everyone inside.

What would have happened in an emergency?

Pogue said that during one attempted descent to the wreck last year, communication between the larger surface ship and the submersible briefly broke down, meaning his group could not locate the wreck, he said. “We were lost for 2½ hours.”

OceanGate said earlier this month that it was relying on technology from Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, to ensure communications during this year’s expedition.

According to OceanGate’s website, the submersible was fitted with a health monitoring system, which enabled the pilot to analyze the effects of changing pressure and assess the vessel’s structural integrity.

‘Astonishing’ 3D scans reveal Titanic shipwreck in extraordinary new detail

Missing Titanic submersible

The latest: After an extensive search, the Coast Guard found debris fields that have been indentified as the Titan submersible. OceanGate, the tour company, has said all 5 passengers are believed dead.

The Titan: The voyage to see the Titanic wreckage is eight days long, costs $250,000 and is open to passengers age 17 and older. The Titan is 22 feet long, weighs 23,000 pounds and “has about as much room as a minivan,” according to CBS correspondent David Pogue. Here’s what we know about the missing submersible .

The search: The daunting mission covers the ocean’s surface and the vast depths beneath. The search poses unique challenges that are further complicated by the depths involved. This map shows the scale of the search near the Titanic wreckage .

The passengers: Hamish Harding , an aviation businessman, aircraft pilot and seasoned adventurer, posted on Instagram that he was joining the expedition and said retired French navy commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet was also onboard. British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, Suleman, 19, were also on the expedition, their family confirmed. The CEO of OceanGate , the submersible expedition company, was also on the vessel. Here’s what we know about the five missing passengers.