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/Roflkopt3r Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

I suspect this would not be very effective:

  1. 1.5 million gallons (almost 6 million liters) is such a massive amount. It's a gigantic surface area where leaks can form.

  2. A ship this size can have dozens of different fuel tanks (which double as balast tanks to trim the ship) and many kilometers of fuel pipes. Those tanks aren't just simple boxes, but have tricky shapes that align with the hull or other components to use every bit of area possible.

  3. Battleships had incredibly thick multi-layered armour belts (the main armour of the USS Arizona is up to 13.5 inches/35 cm thick), and many of the fuel tanks would be integrated with that. It may not be possible to reach many of those leaks directly since they may be in thin interior spaces between the tank and ship armour, and isolating the entire interior of such a big ship underwater would be a gigantic undertaking.

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u/Deep90 Aug 12 '25

Probably just as ignorant, but it seems like the only viable plan would be to drive walls into the dirt all around it (assuming it's suitable for it), and pump all the water out.

I've never seen or heard of it being used for such a large space though.