Trapped oil on USS Arizona under study

News from Pearl Harbor:

An estimated 500,000 gallons of fuel oil remain in the wreckage.

Two years ago, divers with high-powered nail guns fired 43 stainless steel nails into the ship's deck. Archaeologists and surveyors measured the longitude, latitude and elevation of each nail with GPS receivers, which calculate their location in relation to satellites.

The project uses surveyor-class receivers accurate to within a few millimeters, Smith said.

The park service hopes to repeat the measurements annually and develop a preservation plan, including recommendations for dealing with the fuel, by 2005.

Preliminary calculations indicate that the collapse of the Arizona may be decades away, said park service archaeologist Matt Russell.

Posted by David on October 28, 2003 1:15 PM