A rchive Date
[ 01-07-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Disasters ]
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[http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/1974168
Deepest-diving sub disappears
Unmanned vessel snapped tether in Pacific off Japan
Associated Press
July 1, 2003, 12:39AM
TOKYO - The world's deepest-diving submarine has disappeared in the choppy Pacific Ocean off Japan, a setback to deep-sea research on everything from earthquakes to rare bacteria.
Kaiko, a bright yellow submarine that entered the record books in 1995 by diving 36,008 feet to the bottom of the Challenger Deep - the ocean's deepest point - 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 unmanned submersible "an enormous loss" for science.
"It was unique in the world," he said. "There is no doubt that it is going to be sorely missed. ... It's not something that you can go out and buy at your local deep sea equipment store."
The Japan Marine Science and Technology Center will decide Thursday whether to continue searching for it, spokesman Tomoaki Kanai said Monday.
"We have no idea why it broke free. This is a first. But if we lose it, it's going to have a big impact on deep-sea research," Kanai said.
Equipped with two robot arms and four television cameras, the $15 million Kaiko is the world's only probe that can go deeper than 4.34 miles.
The submarine has taken samples of new bacteria that Japanese researchers are using to develop new medicine. It has also studied shifts in deep sea crusts and analyzed deep sea life forms that may hold insights into life on other planets.
Among its discoveries was the existence of 180 kinds of micro-organisms in sea mud at depths of more than 6.25 miles, where the water pressure is 1,000 times stronger than air pressure at sea level.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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