The Hidden Cause of the Titanic Disaster: Thermal Inversion and the Titanic

[Peter1469]

The Hidden Cause of the Titanic Disaster: Thermal Inversion and the Titanic

Interesting article about the reason the Titanic watch crews had a hard time seeing the icebergs that practically surrounded it. Thermal Inversion caused by crossing the boundary of the relatively warm Gulf Stream into the much colder Labrador Current.

These giant bergs and field ice were flowing southwards in the meltwater of the swollen Labrador Current, bringing freezing air up to a height of the tallest of these bergs into an area of sea normally occupied by the 12 degrees Celsius Gulf Stream, like a cold river in flood, bursting its banks and flowing over much warmer land.

The sharpness of the boundary between the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the freezing waters of the Labrador Current, and its proximity to Titanic’s wreck site, was recorded after the disaster by the SS Minia, who whilst drifting and collecting bodies near Titanic’s wreck site noted in her log:

“Northern edge of Gulf Stream well defined. Water changed from 36 to 56 [degrees Fahrenheit] in half mile”.

The rescue ship Mackay Bennett, also recovering bodies in 1912, drew the following map of water temperatures at Titanic’s wreck site, which also records this sharp boundary between the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cold waters of the Labrador current, and its proximity to Titanic’s wreck site (the red crosses mark where the bodies of victims were found floating, and recovered):