Inside the Sunken USS Arizona

Mike Skowronski (above left) pilots a remotely operated vehicle into the remains of the battleship Arizona at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, as Evan Kovacs and Maryann Morin (right) of the Advanced Imaging & Visualization Lab (AIVL) at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution watch imagery streaming back to the surface.

Skowronski took time off from his regular job as a pilot of the human-occupied submersible Alvin to take part in a project to explore the Arizona‘s lower decks for the first time. AIVL supplied the underwater three-dimensional ultrahigh-definition television imaging system for the vehicle (left), which was jointly developed by Marine Imaging Technologies, AIVL-WHOI, and the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center for the PBS special “Pearl Harbor—Into the Arizona.”

The cameras captured images of many items that have remained submerged for 75 years, including an officer’s dress uniform still hanging in his quarters (above). The team is continuing to capture photos and video in an effort to document the wreck and understand how it has changed over time.