SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists have rediscovered a mostly intact World War II aircraft carrier used in atomic bomb tests and then sunk off the Northern California coast decades ago.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration located the U.S.S. Independence as part of a mission to map an estimated 300 historic shipwrecks in the waters outside San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
Images captured by a remotely controlled miniature submarine showed the Independence sitting upright about 30 miles off the coast near the Farallon Islands. A plane is visible in a hangar.
The carrier operated in the Pacific during the war and served as a target ship for two Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests in 1946. The Navy then used the vessel to study nuclear decontamination before scuttling it in 1951.
Scientists say the contaminated ship isn't a threat to public health.
Features on an historic photo of USS Independence CVL 22 are captured in a three-dimensional (3D) low-resolution sonar image of the shipwreck in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Coda Octopus Echoscope 3D sonar, integrated on the Boeing Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Echo Ranger, imaged the shipwreck during the first maritime archaeological survey. The sonar image with oranges color tones (lower) shows an outline of a possible airplane in the forward aircraft elevator hatch opening.
Photo Credit: NOAA/Coda Octopus
Related: NOAA USS Independence site
