New theory into Titanic`s sinking: The Moon?

Moon might have been the cause of Titanic disaster
Press TV
Thu Mar 8, 2012 6:42PM
Updated: 3/9/2012 9:00PM EST

A new study has suggested that gravitational forces caused by an alignment of the Moon and Sun may have pushed icebergs into the path of Titanic.

The Titanic, photo credit: Press TV

Texas State University researchers investigated a previous research by the late oceanographer Fergus Wood which indicated that an unusually close approach by the moon in January 1912 may have produced high tides which helped icebergs separate from Greenland and float into shipping lanes.

"The lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic," said lead researcher Donald Olson. 

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Results showed that several factors were involved in the formation of such strong gravitational fields including the alignment of the moon and sun on January 4, 1912, the moon's closest approach to Earth in the same month and Earth's closest approach to the sun in a year that had happened just the previous day.

"This configuration maximized the moon's tide-raising forces on the Earth's oceans," Olson said.

Findings also show that the iceberg that the Titanic struck must have broken off from Greenland in January 1912 to reach the shipping lanes by mid-April.

“The high tide caused by the bizarre combination of astronomical events would have been enough to dislodge icebergs and give them enough buoyancy to reach the shipping lanes by April,” Olson added.

Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner, which struck an iceberg during her maiden voyage from England to New York in 1912, bringing death to more than 1,500 people.

The research will appear in the April issue of the magazine Sky & Telescope.

TNP/TE

A new interesting and mysterious shipwreck discovered in the Baltic Sea

Shipwreck in Baltic Sea? A UFO? Mystery to Treasure Hunters
By NED POTTER (@NedPotterABC)
ABC News
Jan. 31, 2012


Sonar image of an unidentified object on the floor of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. (Credit: Peter Lindberg/OceanExplorer.se)

They know they're onto something big. If only they knew what that something was.

A group of treasure hunters based in Stockholm, using sonar, has found a strange disc-shaped object on the floor of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. From above, it looks a bit like the Millennium Falcon of "Star Wars" fame. It's large -- 197 feet in diameter -- and it's in about 275 feet of water. Leading to (or from) it is a churned-up track on the sea floor of about 1,600 feet.

"We need to know what we've found," said Peter Lindberg of Ocean Explorer, the group that made the sonar sweep while looking for more conventional shipwrecks. "Media has been speculating about everything from UFOs to Russian spaceships."

What are the most realistic possibilities? "Let us put it like this: we have tried a lot of theories," Lindberg wrote in an email to ABC News. "The list is getting shorter and shorter with options, so for now we do not really know. We do not have anything that speaks more for one option or the other."

The treasure hunters would like to explore the wreck -- if it is a wreck -- with a small submarine, but they don't have the money to bring one in. If it were one of the conventional ships they've looked for in the past, they would hope to find gold or silver, but in this case they don't know what's actually there.

So they are talking to TV production companies, hoping one will fund them and make a documentary about their work. In the meantime, they are keeping the precise location of their find a secret, and waiting for spring and warmer weather.

"We are determined to successfully complete our mission of finding out what's at the bottom of the Baltic Sea," said Lindberg.