What doomed the Titanic is well known, at least in outline. On a moonless night of April 15, 1912, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic ,with 1,500 lives lost. A century later many people presented new theories to explain the real reason for the disaster. Now two new studies argue that rare states of nature played major roles in the disaster. The first says Earth's nearness to the Moon and the Sun -- a proximity not matched in more than 1,000 years -- resulted in record tides that help explain why the Titanic met with so much ice, including the fatal iceberg. Recently, a team of researchers found an apparent explanation in the heavens. They discovered that Earth had come unusually close to the Sun and Moon that winter, enhancing their gravitational pulls on the ocean and producing record tides. The rare orbits took place between December 1911 and February 1912 -- about two months before the disaster came about. The researchers suggest that the high tides refloated masses of icebergs traditionally stuck along the coastlines of Labrador and Newfoundland and sent them adrift into the North Atlantic shipping lanes. And a second, put forward by a Titanic historian from Britain, contends that the icy waters created ideal conditions for an unusual type of mirage  that hid icebergs from lookouts whose duty was to watch carefully for  danger ahead and confused a nearby ship as to the liner's identity, delaying rescue efforts for hours. Most people know mirages as natural phenomena caused when hot air near the Earth's surface bends light rays upward. In a desert, the effect prompts lost travelers to mistake patches of blue sky for pools of water. But another kind of mirage occurs when cold air bends light rays downward. In that case, observers can see objects and settings far over the horizon. The images often undergo quick distortions -- not unlike the wavy reflections in a funhouse mirror. Now, scholars of the Titanic are debating these new theories. Some have different opinions on it. Over all, though, many experts are applauding the fresh perspectives.  (words:353) This passage is organized generally in the pattern of  _  .
comparison and contrast time and events conclusion and proof definition and classification )