R.M.S. Titanic Pictures: High-Res Whole Ship Image Gallery (NationalGeographic.com)

Photo credit: AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
See more photos at National Geographic.com

National Geographic has released an exclusive set of shots of the R.M.S. Titanic — from a 2010 expedition. Above is one of the high-resolution images. As the caption for the shot above, an editor writes:

With her rudder cleaving the sand and two propeller blades peeking from the murk, Titanic’s mangled stern rests on the abyssal plain, 1,970 feet south of the more photographed bow. This optical mosaic combines 300 high-resolution images taken on a 2010 expedition.

According to National Geographic, these are the first ever complete images of the R.M.S. Titanic wreck, which rests deep in the North Atlantic. The April 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine featured these in this month’s cover story.

Here’s a Google Map showing where the great ship rests. An iceberg struck the R.M.S. Titanic 100 years ago today on April 14, 1912. The ship sunk in the early morning hours of April 15. Most of the survivors of the tragedy were women and children from the ship’s first class cabin.

Source: Google Map capture

At 12,600 feet below the surface, the R.M.S. Titanic lies so deep that remote vehicles (Hercules and Argus) were necessary to gain access to it and to capture this video.

Source: NOAA

Here’s a video infographic. Click here for all our facts, stats and infographics commemorating the tragic sinking of the great R.M.S. Titanic and its discovery undersea by explorer Robert Ballard.