A 26-year-old mystery has finally been solved.
Divers have found a “dense” and thriving ecosystem just meters from where the Titanic debris was uncovered.
Almost 30 years ago, PH Nargeolet, a veteran pilot of the submersible Nautile and a renowned Titanic diver, discovered a puzzling object on sonar that was reading the area around the 1912 shipwreck.
Nargeolet then spent the better part of two decades thinking about the spot on the radar — spending endless nights wondering if what he saw was a shipwreck or geologic feature.
However, on Oct. 25, his unsolved mystery finally found its answer.
Nargeolet swam to the target and discovered that the object in question was in fact a volcanic reef.
OceanGate Expeditions specialist Oisín Fanning funded the research dive, and the foundation’s scientific team supplied the analysis of the blip.
The RMS Titanic in Cork Harbour, Ireland, on April 11, 1912 — four days prior to the sinking. Pictures from History/UniversalThe organization released footage of the area, showing the reef’s sponges, coral and marine life around it.
The spot was reported to be the Titanic wreckage’s neighbor and a “natural abyssal deep sea reef of extraordinary biodiversity at 2,900 meters.”
“We didn’t know what we would discover,” Nargeolet told Jam Press. “On the sonar, this could have been any number of things including the potential of it being another shipwreck.”
A mystery object was discovered on the sonar near the Titanic wreckage. Jam Press Vid/OceanGate Expediti“I’ve been seeking the chance to explore this large object that appeared on sonar so long ago,” he continued. “It was amazing to explore this area and find this fascinating volcanic formation teeming with so much life.”
The ship currently resides at the bottom of the ocean and is 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland, Canada. The Titanic famously sank on April 15, 1912, after crashing into an iceberg.
OceanGate is presently reviewing the footage of the volcanic reef to learn more about it.
Steve W. Ross, OceanGate’s chief scientist, explained how the discovery will “improve the way we think about biodiversity of the abyss.”
“The apparently basalt volcanic formations are remarkable, and we are astonished at the diversity and density of the sponges, bamboo corals, other cold-water corals, squat lobsters and fishes that are thriving at 2,900 meters deep in the North Atlantic Ocean,” Ross explained.
“Uncovering this previously unknown ecosystem also provides an opportunity to make a comparison to the marine biology on and around the Titanic,” he added.
Ross also noted how “the variety of lifeforms, concentration of life and the overall ecosystems may differ between the deep artificial reef of the Titanic and this newly revealed, natural deep ocean reef.”
“The similarities and differences will help us better understand our deep-sea environments.”
