After the R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg on Sunday, 14 April 1912, its further fate remained a mystery for over seventy years. At the time survivor testimonies claiming that the ship broke in half were dismissed as inaccurate. When the wreck was discovered in September 1985 almost 370 miles south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland, it was indeed confirmed that the ship broke into two large pieces and into many smaller pieces creating a debris field approximately 15 square miles in size. The ship's bow is still mostly intact, even if most structures on deck collapsed when the sinking Titanic hit the seafloor. The ship's stern was crushed by the impact and water pressure. A large debris field, with hundreds of thousands of items, from machinery to personal items of the passengers, is scattered between the two parts of the ship.
The remains of Titanic rest at the end of Cameron Canyon (named not after the famous filmmaker James, but after Canadian scientific researcher Harky Cameron) descending from the Newfoundland Ridge to an abyssal plain about 2.5 miles below the ocean surface. The canyon floor is covered by sediment debris and slumps transitioning into the Titanic Sediment Wave Field, a large muddy plain, characterized by dunes, sand ribbons and sheets, formed by strong underwater currents moving through the area. These currents are probably also the reason why the debris from the sinking ship is scattered over such a large area.
Five years in the making, Titanic sank in less than three hours and will probably not last until the end of this century. Apart from the damage done by the sinking, also time is consuming the Titanic. According to some research, the wreckage will eventually be buried in about fifty years by sediments. Also, microorganisms living in the deep sea contribute to the wreck's decay. During the first visit of the wreck with a submarine in 1986, researchers discovered that various bacteria and fungi colonized the wreck. One type of bacteria was even an unknown species, appropriately named Halomonos titanicae in 2010. The microorganisms produce energy to sustain their metabolism by oxidizing the iron parts of the ship. The microbial metabolism forms a thick layer of rust covering the entire wreck, forming even stalactites (called rusticles) on windows and fissures of the hull. Every day the microorganisms consume almost 100 pounds of iron. The upper ship's decks are made from thin steel plates and will probably last for another ten to fifteen years. The ship's hull is made of thick plates, and even if not strong enough to resist the iceberg that fateful night, the steel will resist for some decades on the bottom of the ocean. However, in the end, the weakened hull will collapse completely and be buried by sediments, transported by the currents.
During an expedition in 2004, Robert Ballard, one of the oceanographers who found the wreck, noted some signs of our modern civilization scattered around the wreck. In the debris field, he found plastic cups from passing ships and iron chains or ballast bags of submarines visiting the site. The visitors also damaged the wreck, especially the area around the famous staircase. By landing on the ship's decks, the heavy vehicles used to visit the wreck damage the still intact steel, the fissures are quickly colonized by the corrosive microorganisms. Yellow stains of decomposing iron document this process on the upper decks and the bow. Also, human activity on the sea surface has impacts on the Titanic. Unsustainable fishing along the Grand Banks of Newfoundland has significantly reduced the local fish population in the last decades. A smaller population consumes less plankton in the upper layers of the ocean and more organic matter sinks to the bottom of the sea. Here, the surplus of nutrients causes a bloom in the microbial deep-sea community covering the wreck. As the microbes multiply and feed on the wreck, it will accelerate the slow, but incessant, decay of the Titanic.
Even if the wreck will eventually completely disappear, some traces of the disaster will still be there on the bottom of the sea. In 1991 Cameron Canyon was formally renamed to Titanic Canyon. Also, a number of nearby seamounts were named after the vessels involved in the disaster. For example, Carpathia honors the first ship to arrive at the site of the disaster in 1912 and saving 743 surviving passengers.
