A team of Canadian and Spanish researchers has discovered a new — and voracious — species of bacteria that is feasting on the wreck of the Titanic, the famous ocean liner that sank off the coast of Newfoundland nearly a century ago.
In fact, the scientists suggest, the microscopic bugs may have already been on board the luxury cruise ship when it struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, killing more than 1,500 passengers in one of the world’s worst maritime disasters.
The previously unknown organism — named Halomonas titanicae in recognition of the location of the find nearly four kilometres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean — is being described as a "potential new microbial threat" to offshore oil equipment and other undersea metal structures because of its insatiable appetite for iron.
But the microscopic bugs are also being touted for possible use in the eco-friendly junking of retired ships.
"We believe H. titanicae plays a part in the recycling of iron structures at certain depths," co-authors Bhavleen Kaur, of the Ontario Science Centre, and Henrietta Mann, a researcher with Halifax’s Dalhousie University, stated in a summary of the study, published Monday in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
"This could be useful in the disposal of old naval and merchant ships and oil rigs that have been cleaned of toxins and oil-based products and then sunk in the deep ocean."
The newly identified organism is one of many forms of deep-sea bacteria devouring the world’s most famous shipwreck.
As early as the 1980s, scientists researching the Titanic’s resting site about 600 kilometres off the southeast coast of Newfoundland were reporting the presence of giant "rusticles" on the ship’s hull.
Like icicles made from blobs of rusted metal, the strange features were identified as the product of a bacteria-driven corrosion process that was rapidly destroying the sunken vessel.
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