| Submit your comments on this article |
| Japan: Deepest-diving submarine vanishes |
| 2003-07-01 |
| OT, but hopefully of interest to this crowd. Edited for brevity. The worldâs deepest-diving submarine has disappeared in the choppy Pacific Ocean off Japan, dealing a setback to deep-sea research on everything from earthquakes to rare bacteria. Kaiko, a bright yellow submarine which entered the record books in 1995 by diving 36,008 feet (10,975 meters) to the bottom of the Challenger Deep â the oceanâs deepest point â snapped its tether as a typhoon approached in late May and has been missing since then, officials said Monday. Daniel J. Fornari, chief scientist for deep submergence at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, called the disappearance of the 10-foot-long (3-meter-long) unmanned submersible âan enormous lossâ for science. Equipped with two robot arms and four television cameras, the $15 million Kaiko is the worldâs only probe that can go deeper than 4.34 miles (7 kilometers). On May 29, Kaiko was conducting earthquake research on the sea floor 2.9 miles (4.6 kilometers) below the surface, off southern Japan, when a typhoon approached. Operators on the mother ship decided to reel in the probe before the storm struck and discovered that the 5.6-ton Kaiko had broken free, Kanai said. Kaiko is designed to float to the surface and emit a tracking signal if its tether is broken. Although searchers briefly detected the beacon, they were unable to locate the probe and suspected it has either drifted off site or sunk to the bottom. Lost: Yellow submarine, 5+ tons, last seen off Kagoshima, answers to "Kaiko". Reward. Among the worldâs other deep diving submersibles are the centerâs own Shinkai 6500, which can carry three researchers to a depth of 4.1 miles (6.5 kilometers); Franceâs Nautile, which holds a crew of three and can dive to about 3.75 miles (6 kilometers); and Russiaâs unmanned MIR vehicles, also capable of reaching that depth. The deepest point ever reached by a manned probe was 35,810 feet (10,900 meters) by the U.S. Navyâs Trieste 1 in 1960, at a site about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away from the Challenger Deep in the Pacificâs Mariana Trench. The Trieste 1 has since been decommissioned. |
| Posted by:Dar |