On a more pleasant note, the receding Arctic glaciers have also uncovered three previously unknown islands near Svalbard – the largest about 300 by 100 metres. Researchers envisage the melt may also open up the Arctic to more exploration for oil, gas and minerals, increase fisheries and even open a short-cut shipping route linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Following a recent National Geographic Channel investigation, new evidence suggests that weak rivets caused the RMS Titanic to sink so quickly that few passengers could be saved from its collision with an iceberg on the calamitous night of 15 April 1912.
Two metallurgists, Dr. Tim Foecke of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Jennifer Hooper McCarty, of Oregon Health and Science University, first developed the rivet theory after examining 48 popped rivets from the wreck. They found that the wrought iron contained 9% slag — a high enough concentration that could have weakened the metal.

To test his theory, Dr. Foecke commissioned a blacksmith to make rivets to the same specifications; these were used to join steel plates such as those used in the Titanic. When stressed in the laboratory, the rivet heads broke at lower loads than expect -

ed. Even a few failures because of flawed metal would have been sufficient to rupture entire seams.

The findings also overturned another popular theory that the ship’s hull ruptured as it was made from brittle steel. According to Dr. Foecke, mechanical tests show adequate fracture toughness in the steel at ice-water temperatures, fairly close to steels used to build bulk carrier vessels today, thus debunking the brittle steel theory.

The iceberg did not cause a gash as a result of plate fracture. Rather, it is reported, a series of bouncing impacts popped open rivets along the bow, causing the hull to “unzip”. With stronger rivets, the Titanic would probably still have sunk but it would have remained afloat for several hours longer and most of the 1,523 people, who died, could have been saved.