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Russia to resume Lake Baikal exploration in June

Исследование Байкала с помощью глубоководных аппаратов "Мир"
Исследование Байкала с помощью глубоководных аппаратов Мир - Sputnik International
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The second stage of an expedition to explore the bottom of East Siberia's Lake Baikal will begin on June 15, a Russian government official said on Monday.

IRKUTSK (East Siberia), May 18 (RIA Novosti) - The second stage of an expedition to explore the bottom of East Siberia's Lake Baikal will begin on June 15, a Russian government official said on Monday.

The study of the world's largest and deepest freshwater lake, involving two mini-subs, started last year. The Mir-1 and the Mir-2 mini-subs conducted 52 dives during the first stage last summer, making a number of significant scientific discoveries.

"The preparation for the second stage of the expedition is underway. Equipment is being repaired, and a number of technical issues, including the clearing of a waterway for a barge and the deployment of special equipment, are being addressed," said Alexander Fomenko, the deputy government chair on infrastructure development for the Republic of Buryatia.

The second stage of a $7.5-mln project envisions over 100 deep-water dives this year, the official said.

Baikal has not been studied completely and many questions still remain unanswered, including the origins of the lake and the unique organisms that live in it.

Scientists estimate Baikal is some 25 million years old. During the first stage of the study, researchers took samples of the oil that seeps through cracks in the lake's bedrock and is digested by the lake's organisms.

In addition, the mini-subs also searched for sacks of gold taken from the Imperial Russian reserves by the White Army's Admiral Alexander Kolchak before he fled from the Bolsheviks across the lake from in the winter of 1919-1920.

Some of the White Army officers reputedly froze on the ice as temperatures dropped to 60 degrees Celsius below zero, and the gold is thought to have sunk when the spring thaw came. However, no treasure, except boxes containing ammunition dating back to the 1920s, has yet been discovered.

Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage site, holds around 20% of the planet's freshwater.

 

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