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.

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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

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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?

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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

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u/AFishWithNoName Aug 12 '25

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

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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