Groundbreaking Underwater Scan of the Titanic Serves as Subject of New National Geographic Documentary

"Titanic: The Digital Resurrection" premieres Friday, April 11th at 9/8c on National Geographic.

National Geographic will mark the 113th anniversary of the R.M.S. Titanic’s sinking with a new, groundbreaking 90-minute documentary, Titanic: The Digital Resurrection.

What’s Happening:

National Geographic will mark the April 14th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking with a new 90-minute documentary that offers an unprecedented look at history’s most infamous maritime disaster.
Using exclusive access to cutting-edge underwater scanning technology, including 715,000 digitally captured images, the special unveils the most precise model of the Titanic ever created: a full-scale, 1:1 digital twin, accurate down to the rivet.
In 2022, award-winning and pioneering filmmaker Anthony Geffen and his team followed deep-sea mapping company Magellan as they undertook the largest underwater 3D scanning project of its kind, mapping the wreck 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic. Over three weeks, they worked around the clock, producing 16 terabytes of data, 715,000 still images, and 4K footage, capturing the Titanic in unparalleled detail.

After nearly two years of analysis, a team of leading historians, engineers, and forensic experts, including Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson, metallurgist Jennifer Hooper, and master mariner Captain Chris Hearn, come together in Titanic: The Digital Resurrection to reconstruct the ship’s final moments—challenging long-held assumptions and revealing new insights into what truly happened on that fateful night in 1912.
Stephenson, Hooper and Hearn dissect the wreckage up close on a full-scale colossal LED volume stage, walking around the ship in its final resting place. From the boiler room where engineers worked valiantly to keep the lights on until the bitter end to the first-class cabins where the ship ripped in two, the scan brings them face-to-face with where the tragedy unfolded.
The 90-minute special also examines in stunning detail the 15-square-mile debris field, rich with hundreds of personal artifacts, including pocket watches, purses, gold coins, hair combs, shoes and a shark’s tooth charm, offering a poignant glimpse into the lives lost. Historian Yasmin Khan and the team connect these items to their original owners. Scans also reveal the wreck’s alarming deterioration, with iconic areas of the wreck already collapsing. However, thanks to this digital twin, the Titanic is preserved in perfect detail as it appeared in 2022, securing its place in history for generations to come and marking a new era in underwater archaeology.

Titanic: The Digital Resurrection premieres Friday, April 11th at 9/8c on National Geographic, streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
For more on these latest developments and a look at the Titanic’s digital twin, read the full story on NatGeo.com.

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