Two deputies from Russia's lower house of parliament announced they would dive to the bottom of the world's deepest freshwater lake, Lake Baikal, in a submersible in order to locate the absolute deepest point.
Vladimir Gruzdev said that he and Artur Chilingarov on Sunday would submerge on one of two Mir vessels that are presently conducting research in the world's deepest lake.
"During our last dive, we fixed the maximum depth [of the lake] at 1.68 kilometers (5,511.81 feet)," Gruzdev said, adding: "We want to find a spot that could be just 10 meters deeper."
He said Russia's Mir-1 and Mir-2 self-propelled deep submersibles are exploring the bottom of Siberia's Lake Baikal for gas hydrates, an alternative energy source.
Gas hydrates are crystal-based solids which physically packed snow. Scientists call them "the fuel material of the future" because they have a higher concentration of hydrocarbons and are considered to be a possible alternative to oil and gas.
The underwater expedition of Lake Baikal started in 2008. This summer, researchers searched for new species of flora and fauna, and dove down more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) to the deepest point of the lake, near Olkhon Island.
The mini-subs worked in the southern part of the lake, and in August 2009 the expedition moved to Baikal's north, where gas hydrates, crystalline solids, and large amounts of methane are trapped within a cage of water molecules, were found.
The total cost of the expedition is $8 million, with one dive worth 2 million rubles ($64,800).
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a 4-hour dive in the Mir-1 mini-submarine to the bottom of Lake Baikal in August last year.
MOSCOW, July 31 (RIA Novosti)
