Still from ROV video

[Alan Harris]

I think that does look like a tire in your "talented coral" stills.

For what it's worth, possibly nothing:

Tires release chemicals that are toxic to marine life for a long time until the tires have been completely overgrown with marine organisms.
Organisms that eventually do settle on rubber tires are largely "weedy" organism like stinging hydroids, sponges, and fire coral. Tires never seem to generate a typical coral reef community.
Tires have a large surface area and very little weight so they are easily moved by storm waves, especially in a hurricane zone.
Rubber tire reefs perform so poorly that they often have to be removed at great expense. Broward County in Florida is in the middle of a very costly effort to remove rubber tire artificial reefs that they had misguidedly put down many years ago, with few beneficial results.

Came from here.

[John Balderston]

"It looks more like a tire than any of the high def stuff I have seen. . . .The diameter looks off, but without some scale who knows."

Dave, thanks for your comments.  For me the most compelling feature of the comparison are the equivalent proportions between L-10E right-hand nacelle features - prop spinner, prop, engine, and exhaust stack - and apparently man-made objects on the reef.  They are a one-for-one match in size, shape and distance from one another.  Yes, also the wheel size.   However, after looking at the "wheel" on the reef, I'm convinced we are looking at the inboard side of the wheel - the brake assembly is different from the outboard side and very recognizable, just as it is in the new HD video.

[Eduardo Black]

I am new to the forum, though I have to say the discussion on evidence for the Nikumaroro hypothesis for Earhart is very interesting.

I haven't seen much of the more recent posts attempting to tease out some of the debris from the wreckage site from the expedition this year. Anyway, I looked through the video on youtube (1080p), and I thought I recognized the old logo from Pratt and Whitney back from the 1920s and '30s, an eagle with words written around. I was wondering if anyone has looked at this carefully (a user earlier points this to being the bottom part of an engine cowl?).

Old logos:


(Capture from video - 1920x1200 - topmost and rightmost circles, one on right has debris interrupting "Eagle's Wings")
Full imagehttp://i.imgur.com/6CEWW.jpg

[tom howard]

Eduardo, grand prize and applause for spotting not just an engine part but an engine LOGO!

Either most creative, or best eagle eyes, depending on what is actually recovered.  ;D

[Gary LaPook]

Eduardo, grand prize and applause for spotting not just an engine part but an engine LOGO!

Either most creative, or best eagle eyes, depending on what is actually recovered.  ;D

The P&W medallion is only about two inches in diameter and is attached to the oil sump at the bottom of the engine, see attached photo. Is is likely that you would see this small medallion and not see the rest of the engine which is 52 inches in diameter?

gl

[John Balderston]

Food for thought regarding engines.  Two snapshots from 2010 "Wire & Rope" ROV video with annotations.  The debris in image #1 is located on the reef slope above the debris in image #2.   

[Tim Mellon]

  The debris in image #1...

John, it appears that the propeller blade, which you concluded in a prior post was in the 3/9 o'clock position, has been slightly bent aftwards at the tip, possibly from striking something on the reef during the landing. What do you think?

[Eduardo Black]

The HD video of the wreckage on TIGHAR's youtube channel has some pretty interesting shapes/contours when viewed at 1080p. Perhaps better seen as a movie than a single screen capture, in order to understand the shape and geometry of a so-called "object."

I won't suggest what a particular object is, but the shapes are rather interesting to note when following it in the video.
(These images are bit big, and objects appear very distinct from its surroundings, at least on a photo editing monitor)

Angle 1(http://i.imgur.com/yqcqR.jpg):


Angle 2 closeup, little later in video (http://i.imgur.com/TMqyB.jpg):


A careful look could make one think there is some sort of text there on black object behind "plant," when watching the video(?). Note the cable to its right. (http://i.imgur.com/hbS8r.jpg):

[Tim Mellon]

Question for Ric:

Are you able to calculate the distance between the VII debris field, on the one hand, and the "objects" seen in the VI debris field at 13:38? I'll accept "slant distance" to protect the data.

[Ken Nielsen]

The Angle 2 picture, near the right border, half way down: a ring/wheel/circular structure similar to the familiar one marked "A" here. I don't recall seeing this before, at least not as sharply defined as in this still.

[Ric Gillespie]

Are you able to calculate the distance between the VII debris field, on the one hand, and the "objects" seen in the VI debris field at 13:38? I'll accept "slant distance" to protect the data.

In order to calculate the distance between objects you have to know where the objects are.  In the case of the Niku VI video, we only know in a general sense where the ROV was during any given dive.  In the case of the Niku VII video we're finding that the ROV GPS positions given by the contractor are off by as much as 20 meters.  You'll recall Tim, that in flying the ROV to a sonar target identified by the AUV, we often found that it wasn't where it was supposed to be.  We're currently trying to figure out what they did wrong.

During Niku VII we did find a tangle of rope that appears in the Niku VI video.  It's probably a fishing net and not related to either the ship or the plane. 

[Tim Mellon]

Then how about an educated guess? 100 meters, 200 meters?

[richie conroy]

Hi All

Thought i would post this before going to bed, I was trying to match plane parts up with HD footage and found a possible match

However it may just be my eye's playing tricks due to tiredness  ::)

Anyway night all

Thank's Richie

p.s it's just a rough match up but you'll get the idea

[richie conroy]

top white line is seat mecanisim before an after   :D

[JNev]

That's quite a combination of airframe disassembly, avalanche and growth Richie, if what you are speculating really relates to those parts.  If that is the case it is as if someone already beat us to the airframe and meticulously disassembled it and tossed all the junk down the slope (a 'wreck' wouldn't be as 'neat' IMHO).

Well... if that's what we find out, then maybe the Japanese were there after all...  ;)