Further Reading
Johansen, Bruce E.The Dirty Dozen: Toxic Chemicals
and the Earth’s Future. Greenwood, Conn.: Prae-
ger, 2003.
Mansur, Michael. “After Fifteen Years, Dioxin Incin-
eration at Times Beach, Mo., Is Finished.”Kansas
City Star, June 18, 1997.
Bruce E. Johansen
See also Air pollution; Environmental movement;
Superfund program; Water pollution.
Titanicwreck discovery
The Event Marine geologists locate an ocean
liner that sank in 1912
Date September 1, 1985
Place Northwest Atlantic Ocean
The glamour and tragedy associated with theTitanicfos-
tered public interest in its discover y; technologies used to
find and photograph the ship broke new ground in under-
sea exploration.In September, 1985, an expedition led by marine
geologist Robert Ballard of Massachusetts’ Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution found the wreck-
age of the luxury linerTitanicresting on the bottom
of the northwest Atlantic Ocean. TheTitanichad
collided with an iceberg four days into its maiden
voyage, on the evening of April 14, 1912, and sank
shortly after 2:00a.m.on April 15. Although state-of-
the-art for its time and considered unsinkable, the
Titanicwas easily compromised, and it had enough
lifeboats to hold fewer than half its passengers. The
sinking claimed over fifteen hundred victims, in-
cluding several famous and wealthy Americans to
whom theTitanichad offered luxurious first-class
accommodations.
Ballard used theTitanic’s popular appeal to raise
funds for an expedition to find it. His Woods Hole
team was developing submarines, remote-controlled
robots, and cameras to investigate deep-sea environ-The Eighties in America Titanicwreck discovery 971
Authorities began burning the dioxin-contaminated material in Times Beach, Missouri, in the 1990’s. Here, project manager Robert M.
Kain is seen near an incinerator used to burn hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated material.(AP/Wide World Photos)