TITANIC AFT GRAND STAIRCASE MOVIE

The deep-diving vehicles made detailed maps of the seafloor, then moved in to concentrate on the colossal, broken pieces of the Titanic's wreckage, and the thousands of artifacts on the seafloor surrounding the shattered ship.

The initial survey covered an area about the size of Manhattan. CREDIT: COPYRIGHTВ© 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This optical mosaic combines 300 high-resolution images taken on a 2010 expedition. Image: With her rudder cleaving the sand and two propeller blades peeking from the murk, Titanic's mangled stern rests on the abyssal plain, 1,970 feet south of the more photographed bow. The resulting images are the most comprehensive ever made of the ghostly site.

TITANIC AFT GRAND STAIRCASE MOVIE

Decorated like the forward grand staircase dome featured in the movie Titanic, the aft grand staircase led down to the deluxe a la carte restaurant, allowing patrons to arrive in style. One remotely operated vehicle and two autonomous swimming robots were equipped with sonar, used to make wide-area maps, and advanced 3D camera systems, used to conduct detailed investigations of the shipwreck. Image: As the starboard profile shows, the Titanic buckled as it plowed nose-first into the seabed, leaving the forward hull buried deep in mud-obscuring, possibly forever, the mortal wounds inflicted by the iceberg. The detailed, sweeping images of the sunken ship were made by stitching together hundreds of optical and sonar images collected by three deep-diving robots during a 2010 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution expedition. Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the most storied maritime disaster in history, National Geographic magazine and a team of researchers have unveiled new images of the Titanic, revealing unrestricted views of the wreck for the first time ever.

Modeling by Stefan Fichtel, ixtract GmbH based on photomosaics produced by the Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. CREDIT: COPYRIGHT В© 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Image: Ethereal views of Titanic's bow (modeled) offer a comprehensiveness of detail never seen before.

Titanic aft grand staircase