According to experts' various theories, the decayed bow of the famous ship could collapse in a year or two, or hundreds of years.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
Lights from a Mir submersible, a deep-sea vehicle with room for three people, expose the Titanic’s port anchor winch on the foredeck.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
Lead researchers Bob Ballard (second from right) and Jean-Louis Michel (far right) survey video from the unmanned submersible Argo while searching for the lost ocean liner in 1986. “Argo exceeded our highest hopes; the robot’s ultrasensitive ‘eyes,’ or video cameras, could see and record in almost total darkness,” wrote Ballard in the December 1986 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
Ballard, a scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, wears his signature baseball cap while poring over charts with fellow scientists aboard the research vessel Knorr. Woods Hole partnered with the Institut Francais de Recherche s pour L'exploitation des Mers (IFREMER) for the expedition.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
The railing at the prow, scene of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio's iconic moment in James Cameron’s 1997 movie, is being eaten away by rust-coloured, iron-oxidising bacteria. The bacteria generate slime layers between the water and the iron surface to create a more acidic environment for them to live. These layers eventually form hanging “rusticles,” which eventually break off under their own weight.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
A fragment of the Titanic’s hull rests along the ocean floor. The iceberg buckled 300 feet of the starboard hull and punctured six of the ship’s watertight compartments. Sinking was certain after impact.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
A metal bench from the deck lies among the wreckage. First-class passengers enjoyed luxurious amenities including a heated swimming pool, Turkish baths, and a film screening room.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
The ship’s lower prow, which once cut through the ocean, is now embedded in mud on the ocean floor. The prow’s rusticles reveal the direction of the current, which relentlessly erode the ship.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
Two windows in the officers’ quarters now look out to a much darker view.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
The ship’s crow’s nest—where crew member Frederick Fleet first spotted history’s most infamous iceberg—is now missing from the ship’s toppled forward mast.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
The telemotor that once held the ship’s wheel remains mostly intact due to its bronze build.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
The starboard propeller—which once dwarfed shipbuilders in Belfast, Ireland—broke off when the ship slammed into the ocean floor.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection
Crew members aboard Ballard and Michel’s expedition celebrate after finding the wrecked Titanic.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, Nat Geo Image Collection