England – A report published by the British newspaper “Metro” coinciding with the 112th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic revealed that an optical illusion caused by the weather may have played a vital role in the occurrence of this tragedy.
Reports indicate that the ship sank as a result of an optical phenomenon known as a mirage, which prevented the crew from spotting the iceberg in time.
On April 14, 1912, the Titanic and its 2,240 passengers and crew moved from warm waters to cold waters, and had already received several warnings regarding icebergs in the area.
Now, evidence in reports cited by The Times suggests they sailed into a ‘thermal inversion’, which occurs when cold air sinks beneath warm air.
In this case, the cold air came from the Labrador Current along the Canadian coast, and the warm air from the Gulf Stream.
While this may seem fairly ordinary, the effect is not. Thermal inversions can cause an array of mirages, including the famous Morgana Fata, where ships can appear to float above the horizon.
In the case of Titanic, it is believed that a “thermal inversion” led to a mirage that created a false horizon.
For those at sea level, the light bends above the true horizon, allowing them to see farther than normal. But at higher sea level, the gap between the true horizon and the false horizon can appear as fog, which may explain why those on board, 30 meters above sea level, mightn’t see the iceberg until it was too late.
Without the mirage, they might have been able to see it in time to avert the disaster.
Articles in the Times archives support this theory put forward by historian and broadcaster Tim Maltin.
However, the mirage may not only have caused the accident, but also stopped help from arriving later.
The SS Californian was the closest ship to the Titanic when the tragedy occurred, but failed to provide assistance.
While the crew, particularly radio operator Cyril Evans, has long been blamed for failing to respond to distress signals from the ship, Maltin believes they too fell for the mirage.
Maltin also believes that this strange weather event would have effectively “jammed” the lamp signals of the Titanic and the SS Californian, as the distress lights sent by the sinking ship were not a clear distress signal due to the mirage.
In the confusion caused by the mirage, the crew of the SS Californian did not respond until the morning, by which time more than 1,500 lives had been lost.
Dr. Andrew Young, an expert in atmospheric refraction from San Diego State University, agrees with all the evidence pointing to the existence of mirages, saying: “Mirages and related refraction phenomena, such as optical illusions, contributed to the confusion at the time of the accident. In particular, Maltin demonstrated that the crews of the Titanic and the SS Californian saw each other’s signals but were unable to interpret them due to atmospheric influences.”
Source: Metro
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2024-04-14 12:16:38
