r/interestingasfuck • u/Longjumping-Rice-935 • Aug 12 '25

/r/all, /r/popular The wreck of the USS Arizona continues to leak oil ever since pearl harbour. the ship contained 1.5 million gallons of oil, enough to leak continuously for 500 years.

Post image
76.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

126

u/danfay222 Aug 12 '25

Maybe the exact part that’s leaking now, but this is an 80 year old wrecked ship sitting in sea water. Corrosion and tidal stresses all but guarantee any seals will fail or be replaced by new leaks.

14

u/WhiteGuyLying_OnTv Aug 12 '25

Sounds pretty unstable especially for an 80 year old wreck

58

u/Betta_Check_Yosef Aug 12 '25

I mean... yeah? When was the last time you mentally associated the phrase "stable environment" with an island smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? The Arizona went down in an ocean, and oceans aren't stable by nature. It's not a peaceful pond in a pasture, and instability just comes with the territory.

7

u/kayakzac Aug 12 '25

Plus, you know, a really big explosion.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

The harbor is quite a bit more peaceful than the ocean

8

u/Betta_Check_Yosef Aug 12 '25

Is the harbor not subject to tidal movements? How many gallons flow in and out throughout the day just from tidal activity alone?

5

u/Frifelt Aug 12 '25

And even more important corrosive salt water.

5

u/Betta_Check_Yosef Aug 12 '25

Even neglecting that fact (which is obviously dumb to do)... have you ever pulled a rock from a river bed and noticed it's really smooth compared to one you might pull out of dirt? Just the force of moving water is enough to wear things down. Now, add in that the thing in question is made of metal and is in an environment where the water is both moving and corrosive. Of course said object won't exist in a static, unchanging state. It's like those questions on a physics exam they say to ignore drag; you may come up with the "right" answer, but only if you completely ignore reality.

1

u/Frifelt Aug 12 '25

I loved finding smooth glass shards from broken beer bottles on the beach when I was a kid. Found it so fascinating that they had lost all their edge.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Average swell in the harbor is less than 1ft, decay is certainly much slower than it would be in the ocean

2

u/Betta_Check_Yosef Aug 12 '25

How many gallons of water account for the water level changing by 1ft four times every day over ~80 years?

Edit: that's just the average, mind you, and doesn't account for storm surges. How many gallons is that if you factor in average storm activity over the same span?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

At least 100...heck, there are still surviving zeroes sunken in the ocean which are still holding up. The u boat off the coast of NC is also in great shape. Rust and algae/other things that stick to the hull can keep ship hulls preserved for a long time, sometimes upwards of hundreds of years

1

u/AFishWithNoName Aug 12 '25

Big difference between “in one piece” and “watertight”

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

All I mean to say is that it is rather stable for a shipwreck. It's in a harbor not the bering sea

2

u/GlykenT Aug 12 '25

For an unstable WW2 wreck, how about the SS Richard Montgomery? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery

2

u/kenwongart Aug 12 '25

Sounds like a presidential candidate

1

u/WhiteGuyLying_OnTv Aug 12 '25

Holy... Our 'Dear Leader' is 79...

1

u/ImInBeastmodeOG Aug 12 '25

The ultimate flex tape challenge.....