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What Really Happened To The Titanic (1070l) - Middle School Reading Article Worksheet Page 2

Vale Middle School Reading Article

What Really Happened to the Titanic? (1070L)

Notes on my thoughts,

The thermal inversion, Maltin says, caused light to refract, or bend, abnormally

reactions and questions as I

downward. The refraction created mirages: Objects appeared higher—and therefore

read:

nearer—than they actually were, before a false horizon.

The area between the false horizon and the real horizon appeared as haze. The iceberg

was hidden in the haze, so those aboard the Titanic didn’t see it until the ship was about

to collide with it. As Titanic First Officer William McMaster Murdoch recalled, “That

iceberg came right out of the haze.” But by that time, the Titanic was too close to avoid

hitting it.

Shortly before the Titanic hit the iceberg, it sailed into the view of another ship, the

Californian. But the refraction of the light made it appear too near and too small to be

the Titanic—the largest ship in the world at the time. The Californian signaled the Titanic

by Morse lamp, which uses flashes of light to send signals. The Titanic, now in trouble,

also signaled the Californian by Morse lamp. But the thermal inversion disrupted the

signals and the distress rockets the Titanic shot into the air. The Titanic finally sank at

2:20 a.m. local time on April 15.

Although some experts agree with Maltin’s theory, others say the Titanic sank simply

because it ignored several warnings of heavy ice and because it was going too fast in

dangerous waters. Whatever the cause, people remain fascinated with the Titanic, and

researchers and historians will likely come up with new theories for years to come.

PHOTO: An optical illusion may have hidden the iceberg that destroyed the Titanic. (Ocean

Memorabilia Collection / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY)

MAP: The Titanic crashed where the warm Gulf Stream meets the Labrador Current in the

Atlantic Ocean. (Jim McMahon)

Walters, J.M. What really happened to the Titanic. Scholastic News. April 13, 2012.

What Really Happened To The Titanic (1070l) - Middle School Reading Article Worksheet Page 2