The 2022 Titanic Expedition has been successful in obtaining the first and first 8K footage of the wreckage, revealing the greatest level of detail yet recorded of the sunken ship.
According to Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that organized the expedition, the footage reveals "amazing detail" that will allow marine archaeologists to examine the process of decomposition of the Titanic in greater depth.
"Capturing this 8K footage will allow us to zoom in and still have 4K quality which is key for large screen and immersive video projects," Rush said. "Even more remarkable are the phenomenal colors in this footage."
According to a press release, it will also aid scientists in identifying the water species that thrive in and around the shipwreck, which is located at a depth of approximately 12,500 feet.
The footage from the Titanic 2022 Expedition team has already led to academics discovering astounding new details about the sinking luxury ship.
"For example, I had never seen the name of the anchor maker, Noah Hingley & Sons Ltd., on the portside anchor," Rory Golden, a Titanic expert at OceanGate Expeditions, said.
This footage, which includes the bow, portside anchor, hull number one, a sizable anchor chain, the number one cargo hold, strong bronze capstans, and degradation signs where the Titanic's rail crumbled and slid away, will be contrasted with new footage that is intended to be recorded every year. A 2023 Titanic Expedition by OceanGate Expeditions is already in the works and will set sail in May.
Over 1,500 of the 2,240 people on board the Titanic, including passengers and crew, perished when it collided with an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic.
According to Britannica.com, it took around six minutes for the bow section, which was likely going at approximately 30 miles per hour, to reach the ocean bottom, where it has lain for 110 years.
The 882.5-foot-long, sumptuous Titanic was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was built with a system of compartment doors that could be closed if the bow was breached and was deemed unsinkable.
The video also demonstrates tiny green lights from the laser scale system, which allowed the expedition team to estimate the size of objects they could see through the Titan submersible's cameras and primary viewport.
The Titan is the only deep-diving carbon fiber submersible in existence, and it has five crew members on board. A representative for OceanGate Expeditions told Insider that the company collaborated with NASA on its engineering and design.
