Some of these rivets have been tested to see if they contain any impurities. "There were high concentrations of slag in these, which is a glass-like material that makes them maybe a little bit more brittle in the cold," she says. "If these rivets were brittle, and one of the rivet heads popped off more easily, then it could have allowed the seam to open up where the iceberg hit and made it bigger than it otherwise would have been." Still, we do not know how exactly the ship sank, Tomasina says. "We're able to help look into the theories, so being able to contribute to the science and that story behind it is something that we're very happy to do."
