Featured Image: BOEM
Getting out into the ocean to explore a coral reef or a shipwreck can be one of the best experiences ever. However, it’s not always possible to grab your dive gear and find a shipwreck to explore but luckily, there is another option. You can virtually explore watery shipwrecks from the comfort of your home.
At the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, you can dive into a Virtual Archaeology Museum.
There are videos and mosaic maps of 19th and 20th-century shipwrecks. Currently, you can explore 5 separate shipwrecks, each of the wrecks are thousands of feet below the surface. Four of the wrecks are in the Gulf of Mexico and the fifth wreck is located off the coast of North Carolina.
According to Mike Celata, the regional director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the Gulf of Mexico, “with the ROVs, we can clearly examine the artifacts in these shipwrecks up close, in thousands of feet of water. Through the use of 3-D models, we can see each shipwreck site as a whole and monitor changes to it over time.”
If you don’t anticipate having the opportunity go on a deep sea dive in the near future, then consider checking out this museum to get a taste for deep ocean exploration.
Visit the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for more information!