WWII destroyer Teruzuki found after 80 years beneath Pacific waters

The Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki, lost for over 80 years, has been discovered off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands at a depth of more than 800 meters in Iron Bottom Sound. The Akizuki-class destroyer, commissioned in 1942 and designed to protect aircraft carriers from aerial attacks, was sunk during intense naval battles in late 1942 while escorting supply ships. The wreck was located by scientists aboard the Ocean Exploration Trust’s Exploration Vessel Nautilus using remotely operated vehicles guided by sonar data from the University of New Hampshire’s uncrewed surface vessel DriX. This marks the first confirmed underwater sighting of Teruzuki, whose plans and images were previously unknown due to wartime secrecy. The discovery revealed critical details about the ship’s sinking, including a severed 19-meter-long stern segment found over 200 meters from the main hull, which disproves earlier theories that depth charges caused the ship’s destruction. Instead, sonar data confirmed that American