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Maritime New Zealand via Reuters
The bow section of the stricken container ship Rena remains above water about 14 nautical miles from Tauranga on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island on April 4, 2012.
The stern of a broken-up ship that caused New Zealand's biggest sea pollution disaster sank on Wednesday after waves of up to 12 meters pounded the wreck, according to officials from Maritime New Zealand.
The bow of the ship remains above water six months after it ran aground on a reef and three months after the Rena split in two.
The sinking of the stern section is likely to result in the loss of more debris and a light sheen of oil had already been seen surrounding the wreck, Maritime New Zealand said after conducting an overflight.
See more pictures of the Rena disaster on PhotoBlog.
Maritime New Zealand via EPA
The sinking stern of the Rena on April 4, 2012. The Rena ran aground on October 5, 2011, with 70 of the 1368 containers that were on board washing up on shore.
Maritime New Zealand via AFP - Getty Images
The Rena is pounded by high seas on April 4, 2012.
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The ocean is an elemental force. Most people don't understand the power that resides in those waves.
Spend any time at sea, and you will find her to be a very harsh and unforgiving mistress.
She has been here longer than man has walked upright, and she will erase any signs of our existence a million years hence. If she can wear down the strongest of mountains, anything built by man doesn't stand a chance.
I learned that the painful way. My friends had just left and I remained alone boogie boarding at Pismo Beach in Northern California. A large wave broke on top of me and I was pinned to the bottom of the sea (right near the beach, not far out), but the force of the wave and current above me was a total shock. I lay there under water as if there was a pile concrete on top of me. It was only a foot of water, yet I could not move, so let the water flow back and let nature take its course and wash me onto the beach like a piece of drift wood! I felt a slight pain in my chest but thought nothing of it and went back into the water. A second wave crushed me, and this time the pain was intense. I later learned that my ribs had been cracked. The drive home alone was very painful and almost impossible. To this day, I could not get over how forceful and 'heavy' the sea and waves are. It really was like being crushed by liquid concrete. To quote, "Respect!"
But, water is source of all life. It purifies and nurtures everything. How can it be so brutal?
I once dropped a breath mint into the water while on the beach in Atlantic City, and it totally ruined it.
Do not mess with the ocean! He is a harsh and unforgiving gigolo!
@FlyNavy, you are a wise man. Thanks for a good comment.
I am not a seagoing man by any measure. But I had a taste with the power of oceans when I was snorkelling in Maui and got caught in a weird cross current that continued to take me into the sea. I realized how tiny and insignificant we are in front of the nature! A canadian 66 Yr young man who was swimming with me came back after he realized I was not with him anymore and saved my life!!
I pray that our future generation for many millennium learn to coincide with nature rather then concur it.
These people lived with it and traces of them from 1.5 million years ago exist
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57409144/humans-used-fire-1-million-years-ago-says-study/
Here is a good "bar bet". Ask somebody to guess how much a cubic foot of water weighs. Try to give them an idea of what a cubic foot looks like, simply 12" on each side. 99% will say about 10 or 15 lbs. Then tell them to double their guess. Then double it again. A cubic foot of water weighs 64 lbs. !! So imagine just 10 cubic feet of water crashing down on you. Water is truly the most powerful of all natural elements.
MSN needs to get a bit more current... this happened over a month ago!
Careful William, the "Religious" wings may attack anything older then ten thousand years as hocus pocus and burn you at a stake in a cave as a witch.
Even more interesting is that a cubic meter of water weighs exactly 1 metric tonne. In fact, the system was developed by Napoleon and is the basis for the entire metric system.
I find it unlikely that most people don't understand who powerful the ocean is... Just sayin..
Too bad Mopar had to bring an attack on religion in to the discussion. So many others have written almost poetic responses.
FLYNAVY - Smooth Seas and Prevailing Winds to you. Did 25 years in the Navy, Retired an RMCS spent all my time at sea in Frigates and Guided Missile Frigates (Retired in '89 off of the U.S.S. Lewis B. PULLER (FFG-23). What you say is most true. Even in a 401 foot long 4,200 Ton ship you feel very insignificant in 50 foot seas in the cold waters of the gulf of Alaska. Peace.
The power of the ocean is a sign from the Almighty God and only wise men can appreciate and understand it. Occasional, earthquake, Tornedo, Tsunami and Cylcone are just sratk reminder to the wise that we humans are weak and vulnerable and what we have today can be gone in matter of seconds.
America is the Roman Emipre of modern time. However, God was angry on the Romans and he destroyed Rome with its people in a matter of few earthquakes and deadly storms. The remains of the past powerful nations are all over the earth and you can see them when you travel overseas. Even the remains of once mightly Pheroa, and Alexandar the great, are still visible today in Egypt...
I tell real state developers not to fight the ocean - Ocean will be here long after we leave this earth. But since the 1980s real state developers have grown greedy and fighting the ocean to make $$billions by creating resorts inside the ocean, only a few feet from the waters, impeding its normal activities. We continue blaming the ocean when our ill-motivated investments in the beach-front properties are gone in a matter of few hurricanes and storms.
You've got your answer in your question. Water is more than half of what we are. It makes up the majority of what we are, and it cannot be destroyed within us. Therefore better than half of what courses through our bodies for our entire lives is eternal. It cannot brutalize that which it cannot destroy, can it? The water in us, if not God, is the most obvious and direct representation of that which we call God.
Aleutian Islands during the winter anyone ? Destroyers are rather small compared to the carriers.
USS ENTERPRISE lost all radio antennas on the port and starboard bow during a transit to the Western Pacific. Bow waters reached the signal bridge also.
Here are some videos for you landlubbers:
Photo say stem sunk, story says stern sunk. They are opposite ends of the boat ! Don't try to use terms that you do not understand.
Look closer or your monitor needs an upgrade... the bold font causes the letters R & N (rn) to appear as the letter M as in stem (stern.)
You may be right ! I'm on a different screen now and either they corrected it or the other font changed the "rn" into "m".
Never Mind........................
Opposite ends of the ship.
Vlad in TN - You are correct, stern DOES look like stem if you don't look closely.
There is a word for it: "keming". Means bad kerning (font spacing).
ballard had it right when he said that the sea is wonderful and beautiful but also very dangerous and will kill you regardless of what country's flag you fly.
That would be the bow and the stern and yes the photos do not match. Thank you MM for that insightful comment.
ya, I caught that too...
Well, there goes my Kitchen Magician that I ordered last November.
... and my Salad Shooter I ordered last January.
.
The sea gives up much for humankind, but there is always a price to pay.
Dick Cheny controls the ocean with his Sunammi machine,.
@Tsimpson....Lol,Lol,Lol,Lol
That's Tsunami, Tsimpson! lol (is the T silent in your name? ;-)
Oh, I thought that was Sue Nami. Vengence-scourned woman. My mistake.
Hey "Thou Shalt not kill"! Wake up to reality. Did you just fall off of a turnip truck? Our earth does not discriminate, it takes whoever and whatever is in it's path when it decides to kick our asses. Mankind is a mere atom in the wind compared to the power of our earth and universe. Read and you will become more educated.
Anything that can be beautiful can also be brutal...
mark - Are you talking about the earth or women?
too funny!!!
Another well made ship out of Asia.
The quality of the Ship had nothing to do with it. It's mans greed and ignorance.
It's been on the rocks for 6 months. I think it held up pretty well. Other ships break up in days in those conditions.
I guess you cold compare it to US built ships...oh wait, what US ships?
I think they need to start cleaning it up!
Wind and waves, what could be more brutal than those forces that surround our globe with a constant reminder that we are just a speck in time on this earth. Mankind's quest for riches can only be surpassed by his stupidity. The captain of this ship was saving time for himself and his company by circumventing known shipping lanes for this area. Now we have a ruined ship, and what's worse is a ruined reef which was home to millions of species of life.
Mongo only pawn in game of life.
I wonder how much more Mother Earth will put up with. Destroy the Oceans and you destroy the planet. Maybe Dec. 21 will tell.
I don't really believe the whole 2/21 thing --- that doesn't mean I won't be watching the news pretty closely that day
People keep referring the 12/21/20012 as the day of the Apocalypse and translate that to mean the end of the world. On top of that film makers use it in end of the world scenarios. Look up the word Apocalypse it means nothing more than revelation- a hidden message revealed.
Stop sniffing paint and you will feel better.
Their calendar is wrong...never took into account leap years...2012 has already happened an nothing happened...
Note to everybody who thinks the world will end in December: Send me your stuff!
Somehow you know this is Obama's fault yet he will blame it on George Bush.
he should...Bush is a baboon..
Bush is a genius.
I watched your idiot-in-chief try to speak without a teleprompter the other day. It was sad,,,,,,,,,,he is a mush mouthed idiot who cannot string together four words without seven "ahhhhhs" and a few,,"ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah's" to hold them together. That much have been some crappy college he lectured at.
Imagine an idiot failed lawyer, to stupid to understand the Constitution and the only man in law school to have never read "Marbury vs. Madison",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,that would be Obama.
Hopefully the ocean will wash the stink of his presidency off America in November.
Why did this need to go there? Honestly, nothing politcal has to do with this. Seriously.
steveo -- worst president ever --- you are an idiot
As much as I hate to say it, Obama can't loose
Loose?????
Really????
these photos look like someone used PhotoShop on them, especially the second one.
Then again it is MSNBC.
I wonder what is in those containers that are at the bottom of the ocean....and who is entitled to them,,,there must be some value...
hopefully people didnt die..
most containers are "floaters" as they are airtight unless open top or damaged,most cargo is way lighter then if it was filled with water
The sea practice a religion that few people understand and too many ignore. Isaac Newton wrote down a few rules but who reads?
I'll take Flag Of Convenience for $500, Alex. Where the crew is paid just to the left of slave labor wages.
Well, it looks like you get what you pay for.
I'd like to respond to the person who dropped the breath mint into the ocean, which the gigolo ocean subsequently ruined.
Please buy more.
amazing pics!
Can someone explain what "loss of debris" means? Spokesperson - "Well we had a lot more debris earlier but seemed to have lost it! If anyone sees our debris, please contact the proper authorities."
Maybe they're talking about Flotsam and Jetsam, Flotsam is material lost when a ship sinks and Jetsam is debris thrown overboard from a ship.
Ah, I forgot about those two. Thanks. Maybe we should forward it onto the reporter.
Go to Youtube and look at any of several videos of "The Wedge" in Newport Beach, Ca. I'm 60 now, but used to ride those monsters! Crazy.
Read up on Great Lakes Shipwrecks, Mother Nature is just as devastating there as in the open ocean.
Anyone else think it's a coincidence that this happens on the day that Titanic was released into theaters in 3D?
I bet hey had a STERN warning.
and now, they just take a bow...