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Scientists explore sunken World War II carrier
After a productive tour of duty during World War II, the USS Independence was assigned to take part in atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
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Scientists have released incredible pictures of sunken light aircraft carrier USS Independence that were taken by underwater robots exploring the wreck.
Despite the fact that the Independence was pounded by atomic bombs, it remains “amazingly intact”, according to scientists with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, which acoustically mapped the wreckage past year.
In 2015, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration discovered the WWII wreck during its sonar mapping of the area. The ship, which survived the tests, was damaged by shock waves, heat and radiation and was returned to the USA, where it was moored at San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and used for decontamination studies. Researchers from the agency found that the historic warship is still “amazingly intact”, despite being submerged in 2,600 feet of water for more than six decades.
“When we do these missions we are obtaining hard scientific results, but also these shipwrecks speak to you in a powerful way when you encounter them”, Delgado said. “They cease to be images in books or in newsreels”.
The Nautilus is operated independently by the nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust, and its two ROVs are equipped with specialized tools controlled from shipboard that are gathering samples of the corals, sea sponges and other organisms growing on the hull of the Independence. After the war ended, Independence was one of more than 90 vessels used as a target fleet for Operation Crossroads, the USA atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946.
The vehicles will be maneuvered to come within 10 feet of the warship’s hull, where they will collect valuable information on the wreckage for 16 to 18 hours. Research are still in search of the photographs and videos.
An antiaircraft gun surrounded by massive glass sponges on USS Independence.
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The USS Independence, an aircraft carrier used during the World War II, was used during combat at Wake Island, Okinawa and at Leyte Gulf from 1943 to 1945. Independence did not even sink when it was kept one-half-mile of ground zero during July 1 explosion. Post-war, Independence was among the over 90 vessels used as target fleet for Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll by the USA in 1946. In the end, in 1951 the aircraft carrier was scuttled someplace near the Farallon Islands. After several years, the vessel’s age and the possibility of its sinking called for its towing to sea and its scuttling on January 26, 1951.