Professor shares experience of exploring Titanic, sunken shipwrecks

Last night professor of oceanography Robert Ballard gave a lecture in Edward's Hall auditorium called "The Last Great Frontier," for a full audience at the University of Rhode Island. This lecture was part of this year's Vetlesen lecture series on "The State of Our Oceans."

Ballard, who earned his doctorate in oceanography at URI, talked about many of his experiences from different explorations he has done in the ocean. He said one of his most memorable experiences was his expedition undersea exploring the remains of the Titanic. Ballard said that was a once in a lifetime experience that he will never forget.

Ballard said his expedition of the Titanic led to what is known as the Jason Project which he founded in 1989. The Jason Project is a science curriculum for middle school students which motivates them to study different courses in engineering, mathematics and science.

"I had thousands of letters coming to me from kids after I explored the Titanic," Ballard said. "The letters were asking what it was like and if next time they could come with me. I told them they first needed to study hard, which gave me the idea of the Jason Project."

Ballard has done more than 120 deep-sea expeditions. He has also tracked down many other shipwrecks such as the Bismarck, a German battleship that sank in 1941, the Guadalcanal, a ship that sank during World War II and also the PT-109, another WWII battleship.

Ballard said the ocean is often overlooked while searching for history about the world.

"There is more history in the deep sea than there is in all of the museums combined" Ballard said.

Ballard said that he estimates that there are more than 1 million ships under water.

He also said the ocean is important because it acts as a resource for human survival. Ballard said that the ocean contains oil, silver, gold and, the most obvious, fish.

Ballard also talked about the Institute for Exploration which he founded in the '90s. The institute specializes in deep-sea geology and archeology. One of the ships that he has explored, called the Nautilus, now has the technology to show researchers at the institute what is going on hundreds of miles under the sea. He also told the audience about the complexity of the mapping system the ship has.

"The technology that these scientists have is incredible," sophomore Erin Aparicio said. "It's crazy to know that it's possible to see live what's going on miles under the sea in different states."

The next explorations that his ships are scheduled to go on will be to the seas around Sicily, Spain and eventually Australia.