Discoverer of Titanic to Gauge Its Deterioration
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Nineteen years after discovering the Titanic, underwater explorer Robert Ballard announced he was returning to the luxury liner to document its deterioration, and to push for international backing to preserve it and other shipwrecks as permanent memorials.
The goal of the $1-million expedition, set to begin May 30, is to confirm reports that the Titanic is deteriorating more rapidly than previously thought from natural causes and from damage done by scores of dives to the ship 2 1/2 miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean.
Ballard spoke at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett, where he chairs a degree program in oceanography and archaeology. The Titanic sank April 15, 1912, on its maiden voyage. In 1985, Ballard found the wreck about 380 miles east of Newfoundland.
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