Amelia Earhart's Plane Finally Found?

[Stewy]

(02-18-2024, 12:30 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: There's a bunch of news that Amelia Earhart's plane has been detected 16,000 feet underwater!


I don't know because if they just found out at the bottom of the ocean, how have they not found it before?

I realize that it's deep, but it was right near where their last knowing location was, so wouldn't the first thing they did was search the ocean floor around that area?

Unless they mean it's below the bottom of the ocean. and buried under the ocean floor, but it sounds like that's not the case, and, even if it were, they would have combed the ocean floor immediately after and in the years after before it was buried.

It's cool that they found it, but it says the guy that found it spent 11 million with the sonar equipment and you have to wonder how many hundreds of millions have been spent looking for her over the years and what's the reward for finding her?

Are they going to find out anything about what happened? It's been, what, 87(?) years, so wouldn't any evidence be deteriorated by now?

How does this add anything to the story?

Firstly, it is only an anomaly that has a PARTIAL shape of a plane.  Other experts have pointed out that a key missing component of image shape is the complete lack of evidence of the engines, which should have been prominent on the sonar, but appear absent.

Secondly, sonar is not like taking pictures.  It bounces sound waves off objects, which return to the surface and the have to be organized into anomalies.  The further the sound waves travel, the more degraded they become, like sound waves in the air over distance.  Additionally, the magnetics and shape of the water bottom can greatly influence what returns to the surface and result in false positives.

Thirdly, the tech being used is very new.  It's high resolution, but also requires being towed at great depths to get more high res images, due to having less travel time through the water column.  Again the technology is new, an hasn't been available for decades.  Some Perspective:  It should be noted that it took 70 years to find the Titanic with Sonar of the age, with a rough location of where it went down and it is a helluva lot bigger than a tiny plane AND shallower water (12,000 feet).

Fourthly, preservation depends on seafloor circulation.  While it is very, very cold at 16,000', the cold is only one element of preservation, with the oxygen content being much more important.  Anoxia (lack of O2), is the key element of preservation, as the lack of oxygen prevent rusting of metal and does not support microbial life.  So depending on the ocean circulation in this particular place, the plane, if it is there, could be remarkably preserved.

Here's the article I read on it from CNN, where they interviewed other sonar experts, and another explorer who tried and failed to find her plane using older sonar.  https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/travel/amelia-earhart-missing-plane-pacific-ocean-scn

Finally, the most intriguing thing this discovery is not the shape, but it's location, only 100 miles away from the island she was targeting for her next fuel stop on her journey.