Telepresence-Enabled Archaeological Exploration of ex-USS Independence (CVL22) in the Gulf of the Farallones

Author(s): James P. Delgado; Michael L. Brennan

Year: 2018

Summary

In 2016, a joint NOAA/Ocean Exploration Trust mission in the E/V nautilus conducted a series of telepresence-enabled dives on the carrier Independence, a World War II veteran used as a target ship in the 1946 atomic weapons tests at Bikini Atoll.  Subsequently used as a floating laboratory and a post-nuclear attack training platform by the US Navy, Independence rests in 822 meters of water where it was scuttled in 1951.  The dives, the first to survey and document the wreck, were shared with a larger scientific community and the public via satellite and Internet.  Many details, some not documented in the historic record, provided new insights into the Cold War context of the ship, its atomic blast damage, site formation processes, and put to rest concerns over residual radioactive contamination.

Cite this Record

Telepresence-Enabled Archaeological Exploration of ex-USS Independence (CVL22) in the Gulf of the Farallones. James P. Delgado, Michael L. Brennan. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441249)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 869