[imagesource: OceanGate Expeditions]

8K video quality, or a horizontal resolution of 8 000 pixels, is the highest screen resolution currently available.

That’s the kind of unprecedented level of detail and colour that OceanGate Expeditions just captured the 110-year-old RMS Titanic shipwreck in.

The iconic shipwreck is rotting at 3,8 kilometres below the surface of the North Atlantic, off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada, so Titanic historians and research scientists are grateful for this incredible footage.

Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, is stoked with the “phenomenal” colours and details, saying via CNN that “the amazing detail in the 8K footage will help our team of scientists and maritime archaeologists characterize the decay of the Titanic more precisely as we capture new footage in 2023 and beyond”.

Explore away:

No footage of this quality has ever been captured since the British passenger liner hit an iceberg on the night of April 15, 1912.

In the video, you can see the Titanic’s bow, which went down first on that fateful night, the name of the anchor maker, Noah Hingley & Sons Ltd on the port side anchor, as well as the massive triple fairleads which once fed the docking ropes to the bollards on shore.

The footage also shows the first of the Titanic’s two hulls, its huge anchor chain (each link weighing around 90 kilograms), the first of Titanic’s six cargo holds, and the ship’s solid bronze capstans.

But the silent damage is where most of the fascination lies:

The extraordinary wreck is decaying at a rapid pace. Saltwater and sea pressure have silently been wreaking damage over the past century and more, while microbes eat away at the steel hull, creating thousands of rusticles — those oxidized orange-green formations that hang off the Titanic like so many thousands of icicles. Some estimates say the ship will vanish in a matter of decades.

Rush says his team of scientists do indeed “see slight changes in certain areas of the wreck” and will be reviewing old and new footage to compare changes.

It’s cool that even after nearly 40 years since the discovery (the lost ship was found in 1985), new details are still emerging.

[source:cnn]