Need a new hobby? Deep-sea exploration experts say it’s a great time to go looking for shipwrecks, per The New York Times.
And technology is playing a big role in treasure-hunting’s heyday:
Autonomous underwater vehicles can cover large sections of ocean floor and travel to locations that were previously inaccessible — like 25 miles below an ice sheet.
Satellites can spot shipwrecks from space by the plumes of sediment that surround a wreck.
The digitization of historical archives and increased accessibility of telepresence systems, which livestream images of the ocean floor on the internet, let more people discover wrecks from the comfort of their homes.
But there’s another unfortunate reason that shipwreck discoveries have become more common: climate change. Rising sea levels, eroding shorelines, and powerful storms are increasingly washing shipwrecks ashore.