Virtual underwater history museum

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the opening of its Virtual Archaeology Museum, which displays video, detailed three-dimensional (3D) models, and mosaic maps of shipwrecks from the 19th and 20th centuries. Discovered by BOEM in the course of underwater research and oil and gas exploration, the shipwrecks are important submerged cultural resources that provide a unique window into history. With technological advances in remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and underwater videography, highly detailed surveys of these shipwrecks are now possible, and computer technology has reached the point where photo-real and hyper-accurate 3D models can be created from two-dimensional imagery from thousands of feet underwater. Through the use of the 3D models, we can see each shipwreck site as a whole and monitor changes to it over time,” BOEM Gulf of Mexico regional director Mike Celata said in a statement announcing the virtual museum. NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) has been at the forefront of deep ocean exploration for two decades and has collaborated with BOEM to gather data at shipwreck sites in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic. (Source: Work Boat 05/13/19)