Russian mini-subs set record freshwater dive (1680 meters)

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http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080729/115152608.html

Russian explorers reach bed of world's deepest lake in Siberia
14:25 | 29/ 07/ 2008



IRKUTSK, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - A team of Russian scientists descended to the bottom of Siberia's Lake Baikal in two mini-submarines on Tuesday, setting a new world record for a freshwater dive. (Photo tour with RIA Novosti: Lake Baikal)

News channel Vesti-24 said the submersibles, Mir-1 and Mir-2, reached a depth of 1,680 meters (5,500 feet) in the world's deepest lake, which holds 20% of the planet's fresh water.

The ongoing expedition in what locals call the 'Sacred Sea' was organized by Artur Chilingarov, a Russian lawmaker who led a symbolic dive to the North Pole seabed last August, during which a Russian flag was planted on the seabed.

Chilingarov earlier said the Mir dives were "a logical continuation of lake exploration that was begun 30 years ago with the Pisces apparatus."

Soviet scientists in a Pisces submersible reached a depth of 1,410 meters (4,600 feet) in 1977, and examined the lake's bed with searchlights. The lake has since been the focus of numerous Soviet, Russian and international research expeditions.

Chilingarov said "major technical problems" have to be overcome in deep dives into the lake, due to "difficult weather conditions which dictate their own special conditions in fresh water."

Baikal, whose age scientists estimate at 25 million years, is a UNESCO World Heritage site with hundreds of species of unique fauna and flora.

Crew member Natalia Komarova, the first woman to take part in a Mir mini-sub dive, told reporters that the results of the expedition would have an important impact on environmental legislation.

"We need to understand how to protect Baikal and use it without harming its unique ecosystem," she said.

She said new safeguards would be needed to protect the lake, given the planned intensive economic and industrial development of East Siberia over the coming years. The lake has been the focus of major environmental scares in recent years, with a last-minute change to an oil pipeline route that was set to pass near Baikal's shores, and environmental regulators' claims against a pulp mill accused of pumping large volumes of toxic waste into the lake.

The research team is camped on the lake's Olkhon Island, where the mini-subs were delivered earlier in the day on barges. The head of the local administration and the head of investment company Metropol, which has contributed $6 million to the expedition, watched the Mir submersibles descend into the water.

The expedition is set to run for two years, during which the scientists will conduct around 160 dives in various areas of the lake. Research will include oil and gas prospecting, tectonic information-gathering, and exploration for archeological artifacts.

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Russia sub's deep lake dive fails to set record
By Olga Petrova

ABOARD THE METROPOLIA PLATFORM, Russia (Reuters) - Russian explorers plunged to the bed of the world's deepest lake on Tuesday in a show of Moscow's resurgent scientific ambitions, but had to withdraw a claim to have set a new record.


The mission to the depths of Siberia's Lake Baikal was led by Artur Chilingarov, a scientist and Kremlin-backed member of parliament who was part of an earlier mission to the North Pole that sparked criticism in the West.

The mission's twin submersibles, used last year to plant a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole, descended 1,580 meters (5,180 feet) to the lake bed. This was well short of their 1,680 meter target, which would have set a world record for freshwater submersion.

As the mission unfolded live on state television, officials were quick to declare it the world's deepest dive. "This is a world record," Interfax news agency quoted one of the expedition's organizers as saying.

The scientists believed they had discovered a point in the lake deeper than the one hitherto considered its bottom, at 1,637 meters down, which had already been visited by another Russian submersible several years earlier.

But when the six crew returned hours later, organizers said they had reached the lake floor at a depth of only 1,580 meters.



http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/07/2 ... -dive.html

Russian Mini Sub Fails to Reach Lake Bottom
July 29, 2008 -- A Russian mini-submarine dive to the bottom of Lake Baikal on Tuesday failed to set a world record for the deepest dive in fresh water, organizers said, contradicting earlier claims.

"There was no record," expedition leader Artur Chilingarov told reporters. "We'll try again."

The Mir-1 and Mir-2 submarine pods were supposed to head for the 1,637-meter (5,402 feet) bed of the lake, near Siberia's southern borders with Mongolia and China. The vessels were due to drop at a rate of 30 meters per second to reach the bottom within an hour and a quarter.

In the end, the Mir-1 submarine went down only 1,580 meters (5,184 feet) and not 1,680 meters as earlier claimed by the crew. There have not yet been reports of Mir-2's dive attempt.

The current record of 1,637 meters was set in Lake Baikal in the 1990s.

A crew member and a representative of Guinness World Records in Russia both earlier told journalists that the dive had broken the world record.

Lake Baikal is a U.N. world heritage site which contains around a fifth of the world's freshwater reserves. There are suggestions that it might be even deeper than previously thought.

Intense water pressure means that previous expeditions have never gone below a quarter of its presumed depth. Chilingarov's deputy Anatoly Sagalevich said the lake has "perhaps not been properly studied" given past measurements had to rely on pure mathematics alone.

The submarines are equipped with three special windows located at the front of the craft and a series of video and stills cameras attached to the pods. Sagalevich had expected the mission to uncover previously unidentified species.

The expedition leader, Chilingarov, is a pro-Kremlin member of parliament who led a team of scientists that planted a Russian flag at the bottom of the North Pole in August last year.