See an ancient shipwreck discovered - live right now

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Maybe I’m just a geek…but this is pretty damn cool

Bob (“Titanic”) Ballard is doing a research expedition to the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean. They’re looking for signs of ancient human habitation etc etc. under the seas.

It’s live (on the Internet). You can view, firsthand, directly from the same camera on the submersibles that they are using, what they are seeing underwater. I just thought I’d post because right now the remote-operated vehicle is circling around a shipwreck that looks to be well over a thousand years old.

Oh well, I guess I’m a geek. But the thought of being able to see this happen, live, from not only halfway across the world but at the bottom of the Black Sea (!) at the exact same time as the scientists are is…cool.
Expedition site. Click on the big image on the home page, or on the top right “LIVE FEED” buttons on any of the other pages.

NOTE: This is an mpeg-4 encoded live transmission. It only plays in Quicktime 6. It’s also recommended you have broadband.

2

I forgot to mention - turn up your sound - they are also playing the different feeds between the ROV operators, the boats, scientists at URI and Mystic Aquarium (two of the main sponsors).

3

The mast of a 1500 year old ship is still standing? Unbelivable.

4

The mast is just a photo FYI. They’re not at that site yet, they’re looking at other ones. They do plan on returning to that site (known informally as “the perfect wooden ship”)

It’s still standing because the Black Sea is the only body of water in the world apparently that has an anoxic layer - meaning no oxygen. Which means there is no bacteria or any life form to eat away at what’s there. Apparently, the mast and ribs etc look just like when they were carved. They will be visiting that ship later in this expedition.

But the front page of that website is NOT the live video. Just in case.

man, what a geek. I’ve been watching this for an hour straight almost.