IT MAY have been an iceberg that sunk the Titanicbut it is a bacterium that is slowly destroying its remains on the ocean floor, scientists said yesterday.
Micro-organisms collected from a “rusticle” – a structure that looks like an icicle but consists of rust – are slowly destroying the iron hull of the liner on the seabed 3.8km below the surface where it sank, killing 1,517 people, in April 1912.
The newly identified species, while potentially dangerous to vital underwater installations such as offshore oil and gas pipelines, could offer a new way to recycle iron from old ships and marine structures, according to the researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and Seville University in Spain.
The discovery of the bacterium, halomonas titanicae, will be reported in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiologytomorrow.
When the researchers tested its rusting ability, they found it was able to adhere to steel surfaces, creating knob-like mounds of corrosion products.
A similar process is thought to be responsible for the formation of the rusticles on the hull of the Titanic. They are highly porous and support a complex variety of bacteria, suggesting that H. titanicae and other organisms may accelerate the corrosion of steel.
Lead researchers Bhavleen Kaur and Henrietta Mann said: "We believe H. titanicae plays a part in the recycling of iron structures at certain depths. This could be useful in the disposal of old naval and merchant ships and oil rigs." – ( Guardianservice)