Russian mini-sub suffers minor damage on Lake Baikal

Russian mini-sub suffers minor damage on Lake Baikal

ULAN-UDE (Buryatia, Siberia) 30 July, 2008 - One of the mini-submarines being used for ongoing exploration in Siberia's Lake Baikal received minor damage while being lowered from a barge on Wednesday, an expedition member said. The accident occurred when the Mir-2 submersible, which along with Mir-1 descended to the depths of the world's deepest lake on Tuesday, was being lowered into the water near Olkhon island at around 12:00 p.m. local time (03:00 GMT), Yevgeny Chernyayev said. "Due to a sudden gust of wind, with a speed of 15 meters per second, Mir-2 struck the side of the barge with a grating sound; the propeller was damaged as a result," he said. The mini-sub is being taken to the Turka port on the lake's shore, where it can be fixed by tomorrow, he said. On Tuesday, Mir-1 and Mir-2 descended to one of the deepest points of what locals call the 'Sacred Sea', which holds around 20% of the planet's freshwater and is home to hundreds of unique species of fauna and flora. The crew initially claimed to have reached a depth of 1,680 meters (5,500 feet), which would have been a record for a freshwater dive, but after clarification said no records had been broken. The ongoing expedition is led by Artur Chilingarov, a Russian lawmaker who headed a symbolic dive beneath the North Pole last August, during which a Russian flag was planted on the seabed. 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 tectonic information-gathering and exploration for archeological artifacts.