Wed, July 30, 2008
BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian explorers plunged to the bed of the world's deepest lake on Tuesday, but had to withdraw a claim to have set a new record.
Artur Chilingarov, a scientist and Kremlin-backed member of parliament who was part of an earlier mission to the North Pole, led the mission to the depths of Siberia's Laie Baikal.
The mission's twin submersibles, used last year to plant a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole, descended 5,180 feet to the lake bed, well short of their 5,512 feet 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 5,371 feet 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 5,184 feet.
"There was no record. But we'll continue exploration," said Chilingarov, who oversaw the operation from a mission-control point on the Metropolia Platform floating on the lake.
(Agencies)
