Russian subs plumb depths of Lake Geneva

SwissInfo.ch: Russian subs plumb depths of Lake Geneva
by Thomas Stephens in Lausanne, swissinfo.ch


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Two deep-sea Russian submersibles will dive to the bottom of Switzerland’s largest body of water in the summer to gain a better idea about its geology and physics.
The elemo project, coordinated by the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), will bring together researchers from around the world to explore the lake’s abysses with the aim of better understanding and protecting it.



“Our lake is special – and not just because of its beauty,” Andrew Barry, professor of ecological technology at EPFL and part of the elemo project, told swissinfo.ch.

“Most lakes are quite small and Coriolis [the effect of the earth’s rotation on, among other things, ocean flow patterns and plughole water] has no effect. The Great Lakes in the United States are actually like small seas. Our lake is the magic size for interaction between certain forces,” he said.

Some 1.5 million people live near Lake Geneva, which provides drinking water for half of them. But despite its importance, there is still much to learn about the complex workings of the ecosystem.

“One thing that can happen in lakes like this is that currents sweep along the edge of the lake and can interact with bottom sediment and suspend sediments into the water column,” Barry said. “If those sediments contain anything that we think is hazardous, then we want to know where they go.”

Will he be taking part in the dives? “To be honest I’m a bit dubious – I don’t like being in an enclosed space under water.”

“Not the Caribbean”

And the two Mir submersibles won’t be bobbing along just under the surface: the eight-metre, three-person vessels have a maximum operating depth of 6,000 metres, although the lowest point in Lake Geneva is 310 metres.

Mir – which as with the space station means both “world” and “peace” in Russian – will enable researchers to gather large amounts of data and to place grids over entire areas. They will be able to study how pollutants accumulate and even perform field experiments on the lake bed.

“Of course it’s not the Caribbean here so you don’t have very nice underwater scenes, but each lake is different,” Ulrich Lemmin, a professor at EPFL interested in rheology, the study of the flow of matter, told swissinfo.ch.

“The mixture of stone and mud is different everywhere, and this difference also affects what happens in the lake in terms of water movement, deposition and so on. So just because I’ve dived in Lake Baikal for example doesn’t mean I don’t have to dive here. I’ve done both, and I can say it’s different.”

For Lemmin, who will be going down in the submersibles, the most interesting part of the project is the collaboration between a very broad spectrum of scientific disciplines.

“The point here is that we do our experiments at the same time, so later we can interpret the data of one scientific field within the view of another field,” he said.



The Mir submersible (EPFL)

Community gift
The dives, which are being financed by Ferring Pharmaceuticals and the Russian honorary consulate in Lausanne, will take place from June to August.

Michel Pettigrew, president of Ferring, which was founded in Sweden, told swissinfo.ch that the reason for their involvement was altruistic.

“Six years ago we moved our headquarters to Saint-Prex, on the lakeshore. We were extremely well received – the Swiss people were very kind to us – and it’s our way of giving back to the population, letting them get a better understanding of their lake,” he said.

“If by pure luck somebody found something at the bottom of the lake that could be of interest to us, of course we would look at it, but that is absolutely not our objective today.”

Patrick Aebischer, president of EPFL, also admitted to being a bit claustrophobic but was happy about the international cooperation, adding that they had sought to boost relations with Russia over the past ten years.

“We believe it is an important country – it’s one of the BRIC countries [alongside Brazil, India and China] where we would like to develop more interaction,” he told swissinfo.ch.

Unanswered questions

In addition to Russia, the elemo project is attracting geologists, biologists, physicists, chemists and general limnologists – lake experts – from Switzerland, French, Britain and the United States.

They have plenty of questions to think about as they float to the bottom: which pollutants are found in the lake’s waters, and how do they circulate in the water flows? How are bacterial populations distributed on the lake bed? What dynamics govern the settling of the sediments brought in by the many tributaries?

The mouth of the Rhone at the east end of the lake is another area of interest. The sediments washed down by the river form unstable submarine canyons more than 30 metres high. The dives should provide a better understanding of this unstable environment.

The researchers will also explore the Vidy Bay area by Lausanne, where the shores are densely populated, to learn more about the impact of micro-pollutants.

“Ultimately what we want to do is to predict what happens in the lake in response to certain events. To do that, we have sophisticated models of the hydrodynamics of the lake, but to make those models work properly we need good data,” Andrew Barry said.

And should a long-necked sea creature swim by, the scientists – and the region’s tourism office – will be on the phone to Loch Ness for tips within seconds.

Underwater ‘kites’ set to power Northern Ireland homes by 2020

Belfast Telegraph: Underwater ‘kites’ set to power Northern Ireland homes by 2020

Underwater ‘sea kites’ could power a city the size of Belfast by 2020, according to the team behind a groundbreaking tidal energy device.

Tidal energy developer Minesto UK Ltd has just been awarded a Carbon Trust grant of up to £350,000 to install the first seagoing prototype of its innovative sea -kite technology ‘Deep Green’.

The device works like a kite tethered to the seabed, which flies through the sea currents carrying a turbine. The planned scheme will see a one-tenth size version of the Deep Green device put through its paces off the coast of Northern Ireland.

If the trials prove successful, Minesto — a spin-off of the Saab group — will deploy enough devices around the UK coastline to generate up to 530GWh a year by 2020, enough to power the annual electricity needs for households the size of the city of Belfast.

The turbine can operate in slower currents than any other known tidal energy technology, with the kite flying a figure of eight steered by a rudder, allowing it to effectively accelerate the speed of the water entering the turbine by up to 10 times. This allows more power to be generated, leading to a step-change reduction in the cost of tidal energy.

It could potentially unlock whole new areas of low-speed tidal stream around the coastline to produce electricity.

Minesto will work with the Global Maritime Alliance over the next 18 months to test the new tidal technology.

Minesto CEO Anders Jansson said: “Northern Ireland has the natural resources we need in terms of the depths of water and suitable geographic locations to install our technology.

“Northern Ireland also has a strong academia base and it is heavily involved with marine |renewable energy, which is a key developer in this industry. The Global Maritime Alliance is a valuable partner for us and we are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Benj Sykes, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust, said: “The UK boasts some of the best tidal resources in the world and we are focused on bringing down the cost of extracting that energy.

“Minesto’s Deep Green is a very exciting technology as it could provide a step change reduction in the cost of tidal energy.”

Background
The Deep Green kite has a 39-foot wingspan and 328-foot cable tethering it to the ocean floor — yet it is small compared to other tidal energy designs and can operate at greater depths, where currents are slower. When anchored, Deep Green can be steered into a figure of eight like a sport kite, its turbine capturing tidal energy at 10 times the speed of the actual stream velocity, according to Minesto, the Swedish developers of Deep Green.

[Whether this will ever get off the ground - or under the water - is debatable. It would require a no fishing zone - the lines attaching the kits would get caught - and as for animals....]

Captain Morgan's lost cannon recovered in Panama's waters

The Independent: Captain Morgan's lost cannon recovered in Panama's waters

An international team of marine archaeologists has recovered six iron cannon from a reef in shallow waters not far from the mouth of the Panama Canal. They believe the weapons were lost during one of the less glorious chapters of British adventurism in the 17th-century featuring Captain Henry Morgan.


The cannon were prised from the reef a week ago amid fears that they might be plundered by treasure-hunters and could be the only physical evidence tying Capt Morgan to the region upon which he had such an impact more than 300 years ago. He remains a legend thanks to the brand of rum named after him. "Every school kid learns about Morgan's activities, but we have never seen any of his materials," said archaeologist Tomas Mendizibal, of Patronato Panama Viejo, a government agency that is overseeing excavation of the original site of Panama City. "If these are indeed his cannon, it would be a first."

A privateer for the Crown sent to protect trade routes to the Americas, Capt Morgan was seeking to capture the Castillo de San Lorenzo, at the mouth of the Chagres River, from the Spanish when his command ship, the Satisfaction, foundered on the reef with three other ships that were following him.

The fort, as it happened, had already been taken by a forward party of his own men. But Capt Morgan was not quite done. His ships sinking in the shallow waters behind him, he paddled upriver with his soggy men in search of Spanish gold in Panama City.

He inadvertently burned the town to the ground in violation of a treaty between Britain and Spain. Capt Morgan, who was from South Wales, was eventually forgiven by King Charles II for his carelessness and sent to Jamaica where he became Lieutenant-Governor.

The cannon are among various artefacts found on the reef in 2008 thought to have been spilled by Capt Morgan's ships, much of them encrusted in sediment that has turned to rock. They were first studied and measured at the site by Ruth Brown, an acknowledged expert in cannon formerly of the Royal Amouries in London. The decision to remove them from the reef was taken after divers found evidence of gouging and digging around them, presumably by treasure-hunters.

Research at the site has been led by the Waitt Institute, the Texas State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States in conjunction with the Panamanian government.

Underwater tales tell the history of sunken vessels

PMJ.com: Underwater tales tell the history of sunken vessels

Anyone familiar with Santa Rosa County knows it's an area steeped in rich, colorful history. But that knowledge may not extend beneath the surface of the beautiful Blackwater River. In an effort to educate the local community on the extensive and intriguing maritime history of Milton and Bagdad, the Blackwater Pyrates will host Dr. Della Scott-Ireton of the University of West Florida Archaeology Network. She will speak at at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 at the Bagdad Community Center, 6860 Pooley St., Bagdad. The lecture is open to the public at no cost. The format will be approximately one hour with a slide presentation and a question-and-answer period afterwards. Scott-Ireton has a doctorate specializing in maritime archaeology, public interpretation of maritime cultural resources and the training of students in archaeological methods and practices.

"This type of venue gives our community a deeper understanding of how our universities, our county and our cities work together to build on our past and propel us into the future," Blackwater Pyrate Captain Danny Keiek said. "When the Pyrates first started, Dr. Scott was gracious enough to deliver a similar lecture. When you are on the river as much as the Pyrates, you can feel the history. Even more unique is the fact that most of the wrecks are in shallow water, so you can 'see' the history."

According to former Pyrate Captain Tom Scott, UWF students dive these wrecks and discover new ones each year. Many of the wrecks are lumber transport barges, each with its own personality and window into the past. Recently, students have discovered two additional vessels in the Milton area and thesis work has begun with the help of grants and donations.

"The dark waters of the Blackwater River are home to over 18 sunken vessels whose history is linked to these towns and the surrounding communities," Scott said. "The two vessels that have the most notoriety are probably the Bethune schooner and the Tampa. The Bethune was a mid-19th century light draft coasting schooner. She carried small cargo along the Gulf Coast and into the larger river basins. It's believed the schooner, listed on the national register of historic places, carried lumber and bricks. Where larger ships held up to 500,000 feet of lumber, a schooner only transported around 100,000 feet. It was common for schooners to serve Bagdad and Milton because of their ability to navigate the river. The Tampa was primarily a passenger vessel that ferried lumber mill workers and staples."

'Return of the Mummies' at Penn museum

Philadelphia Business Journal: 'Return of the Mummies' at Penn museumThe mummies that China had temporarily withheld from the "Secrets of the Silk Road" exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology are now with the exhibit and will be on display through March 15, the Delaware County Daily Times reports, dubbing the development "The Return of the Mummies." Chinese officials attributed the controversy to "miscommunication." Despite the accord, the exhibit is still being ended much earlier than the originally scheduled June closing.

Skull in Underwater Cave May Be Earliest Trace of First Americans

National Geographic: Skull in Underwater Cave May Be Earliest Trace of First Americans
By Fabio Esteban Amador

Explorers have discovered what might be the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas.

Alex Alvarez, Franco Attolini, and Alberto (Beto) Nava are members of PET (Projecto Espeleológico de Tulum), an organization that specializes in the exploration and survey of underwater caves on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Alex, Franco and Beto have surveyed tens of thousands of feet of mazelike cave passages in the state of Quintana Roo. The team's relatively recent explorations of a large pit named Hoyo Negro (Black Hole, in Spanish), deep within a flooded cave, resulted in their breathtaking and once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the remains of an Ice Age mastodon and a human skull at the very bottom of the black abyss.

Beto recalls the amazing day of the discovery of Hoyo Negro.

"We started the exploration while following the main tunnel and progressed relatively fast by using scooters to cover more terrain.

"After about 1,500 feet [450 meters] we began to see the light of another entrance, so we headed towards it and surfaced.

"After taking a moment to chat and laugh about what a great dive we were having, we dropped down to continue the work.

"After about 400 feet [120 meters] the tunnel narrowed to form a circular shape, almost like a huge cement pipe. I made one tie-off and, while waiting for Franco to complete his surveying effort, I took a good look at the strangely shaped tunnel.

"All I could see was the whiteness of the cave walls along the sides, and beyond that it was all black. I thought to myself that this is either the largest tunnel I have seen or there is something unusual at the end of it.

"After Franco caught up, we continued for another 200 feet [60 meters] and eventually reached the end of the tube-shaped tunnel. To our surprise the floor disappeared and all we could see was blackness in all directions. It felt like we had reached a big drop-off or the edge of a canyon wall.

"We tried to slow down our heart rates as we were not really sure of what to do next."

The Aktun-Hu cave system, where Hoyo Negro is located, is completely filled with water and is fully decorated with speleothems.

Where is Hoyo Negro?

Hoyo Negro was reached by the PET team after the divers travelled more than 4,000 feet [1,200 meters] through underwater passages using underwater propulsion vehicles, or scooters, which enabled them to cover long distances in the flooded cave system.

Once they reached the pit, they began to survey and document its dimensions. The pit is approximately 200 feet [60 meters] deep and 120 feet [36 meters] in diameter and is located inside the Aktun-Hu cave system in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Submerged cave systems in Quintana Roo have been systematically surveyed and mapped by teams of highly specialized divers. The PET team is affiliated with Global Underwater Explorers, as is the Mexico Cave Exploration Project.

"The immense size of Hoyo Negro is difficult to comprehend. Once you enter the pit you cannot see the floor below, and all that can be seen in front of you is a black void -- an inviting entrance to the abyss, " recalls Franco.

The team of explorers touched bottom at 197 feet [57 meters], where they made their incredible discovery.

How Did the Tunnels Form?

The Yucatan Peninsula's geology is almost entirely limestone -- a karstic shelf that is easily dissolved by rainwater, forming caves and sinkholes.

Approximately 12,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, Earth experienced great climatic changes. The melting of the ice caps caused a dramatic rise in global sea levels, which flooded low lying coastal landscapes and cave systems. Many of the subterranean spaces that once provided people and animals with water and shelter became inundated and lost until the advent of cave diving.

Ironically, the Yucatan Peninsula does not have any major rivers or lakes; however, there are many underground rivers and water-filled caves or sinkholes known as cenotes (a Spanish word derived from the Maya dzonot).

What Was Found at the Bottom of the Black Hole?

While the team of explorers conducted various dives for the purpose of mapping and surveying of this newly discovered pit, they noticed some peculiar bones sitting on the bottom. They first came across several megafauna remains and what was clearly a mastodon bone, while subsequent dives proved even more exciting when they spotted a human skull resting upside down with other nearby remains at about 140 feet [43 meters] depth.

"I was searching for more of the mastodon remains, when I saw what looked like a human skull. I had thought we already had a great discovery after finding the remains of several Pleistocene animals...but finding a human skull was totally amazing for us. All of our efforts... walking through the jungle, carrying all the gear, securing the helium required to do such a deep dive, laying thousands of feet of exploration line... paid off at that moment. This is the Holy Grail of underwater cave exploration," Alex said.

"This is the Holy Grail of underwater cave exploration."

Soon after the discovery, the team contacted Guillermo de Anda, an archaeologist from the University of Yucatan in Merida (UADY) who has also been documenting Pleistocene megafauna sites and who helped in the identification of the Hoyo Negro discovery.

"The findings of Hoyo Negro are a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. The skull looks pre-Maya, which could make it one of the oldest set of human remains in the area. Gaining an understanding of how this human and these animals entered the site will reveal an immense amount of knowledge from that time. Therefore, protecting and learning the secrets of Hoyo Negro should be one of the main priorities for the archaeologists in the region," Guillermo told News Watch in an interview.

The PET team formally announced the discovery at Hoyo Negro to Pilar Luna Erreguerena, Director of Underwater Archaeology for Mexico's National Institute for Archaeology and History (INAH). Pilar is the founder of underwater archaeology in Latin America and has been instrumental in protecting Mexico's submerged cultural heritage.

"This discovery is extremely important and confirms the cultural diversity and richness that can be found in the Yucatan Peninsula," said Pilar Luna. "INAH's division of underwater archaeology is preparing a multidisciplinary project together with discoverers of the site. This team work will allow us to scientifically recover the data and the evidence in its own context, so that experts may really get to know the true value of this discovery and turn it into a deeper knowledge or understanding of the prehistoric era in this part of Mexico."

At present, the entrance to the site is limited to INAH's research team since they are responsible for maintaining the integrity of the site.

Studies in the Tulum area, similar to those currently being planned for Hoyo Negro, were accomplished for the very first time by Pilar Luna's collaborators, namely Arturo González, Carmen Rojas, Octavio Del Río, Eugenio Aceves, and Jerónimo Avilés, with the support of Adriana Velázquez, Director of Centro INAH Quintana Roo.

What is the Significance of the Discovery of Hoyo Negro?

The human found with the megafauna remains in Hoyo Negro could represent the oldest evidence of humans yet discovered in the Americas.

Archaeological and genetic data have long supported a northeast Asia origin for the populations that first settled North and South America. The so-called "First Americans" or Paleoindian peoples likely entered into these new lands sometime between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.

Although a number of early archaeological sites have been excavated, only few sets of Paleoindian remains have been found. A detailed analysis of the human skeletal remains from Hoyo Negro can help us to better understand who these First Americans were and when they arrived here, which is one of the greatest mysteries in American archaeology.

Radiometric dating of the human bones from Hoyo Negro will have to wait for now, but its location within the cave, and its position relative to the mastodon remains, are suggestive of its antiquity.

Waitt Institute archaeologist and New World cave expert, Dominique Rissolo, offers a compelling argument for the importance of this site and similar discoveries. "The cenotes of Quintana Roo, Mexico, have emerged as one of the most promising frontiers for Paleoindian studies in the Americas.

"Recent discoveries of human remains deep within the region's flooded caverns, as well the bones of mastodons and other extinct species of Pleistocene megafauna, offer an extraordinarily rare glimpse into a period that witnessed the peopling of the New World.

"During the Late Pleistocene, these caves were dry. The first people to occupy what is now the Caribbean coast of Mexico wandered into these caves, where some ultimately met their demise.

"As the last glacial maximum came to end, the melting of the polar ice caps and continental ice sheets raised sea levels worldwide. The caves of the Yucatan Peninsula filled with water and the First Americans were hidden for millennia -- only to be discovered by underwater cave explorers

"It is within these dark reaches that cave explorers are discovering and documenting the oldest human skeletons yet found in the Western Hemisphere," Rissolo said.

Future Research at Hoyo Negro

In the summer of 2010, Pilar Luna organized a Nautical Archaeology Society training course for the Hoyo Negro team. The course, which was funded by National Geographic Magazine thanks to Chris Sloan, a magazine editor, covered the essentials of underwater archaeological site recording.

In collaboration with INAH, the team hopes to continue their exploration of Hoyo Negro and to thoroughly document the findings at the site.

Perhaps this is a turning point in scientific exploration in the region, where successful research will depend upon the knowledge and experience of a multidisciplinary team that includes underwater archaeologists, geologists, and paleontologists working side by side with highly skilled divers.

The National Geographic/Waitt Grants Program has funded similar research in the past by supporting GUE diver, Sam Meacham, in his cave exploration and water conservation work in Quintana Roo.

National Geographic has been active in featuring similar discoveries made by cave divers on the Yucatan peninsula. In 2008 National Geographic Daily News published the discovery of the Eve of Naharon, a female skeleton dated to 13,600 years old, which was also found in an underwater cave in Quintana Roo. (Oldest Skeleton in Americas Found in Underwater Cave? )

More recently in 2010, National Geographic Daily News published an article on the Young Man of Chan Hol, a possible ritual burial from 10,000 years ago. (Undersea Cave Yields One of Oldest Skeletons in Americas)

In addition to the latest extraordinary expedition and amazing discovery, Robbie Schmittner connected the Aktun-Hu cave system (where Hoyo Negro is located) to the Sac Actun cave system. Together they may now represent the longest underwater cave system in the world.

Future investigations in Hoyo Negro will no doubt reveal new clues about the peopling of the New World.

Rust in peace: Stunning shipwrecks captured on camera around the world

Rust in peace: Stunning shipwrecks captured on camera around the world

VISIT THE LINK TO SEE SOME FANTASTIC PHOTOS!

An intrepid British photographer has travelled the world snapping pictures of the bizarre things lying on the sea bed.

Diving enthusiast Alex Mustard, 36, has made many strange discoveries while exploring beneath the water's surface.
His pictures, taken while investigating the insides of eerie shipwrecks, include barnacle-covered motorbikes once meant for British troops in World War Two.

Rusty British trucks also lie forgotten in their watery graves along with rifles that have never been used, and one extraordinary photo even shows the shell of the iconic VW Beetle car.
Alex, from Southampton, Hampshire, said: 'Wrecks attract divers because of the incongruity of seeing something from above the waves beneath them.
'The VW Beetle was purposely sunk for divers and it's particularly bizarre - it's the last thing you would expect to sea underwater.

'I find it fascinating seeing something familiar in an alien place - underwater.
'I couldn't say how many wrecks I've seen but each is interesting in its own way. Each is unique, the features differ on every wreck and the atmosphere varies too.'
One particularly fascinating wreck for Alex is the HMS Thislegorm - a British cargo ship that was carrying military supplies when it was sunk by a German bomber in the Red Sea in 1941.

Alex said: 'This wreck is still packed with trucks, bikes and rifles.
'War wrecks are always the most sombre, I find they are not only museums but also memorials.
'And I always have mixed feeling of excitement and sadness when exploring them. It is an intense experience on so many levels.'

Alex has explored wrecks both old and new. His most recent, the USS Kittiwake, a US military ship built in 1945, was purposely sunk off the Cayman Islands this year for divers to explore.

And, in some pictures, the vessel doesn't even appear to be underwater.
Alex said: 'Being purposely sunk for divers gives a wreck a totally different atmosphere to one tinged with tragedy.

'Despite only being down for a few days, marine life was already moving in from the nearby reefs.

'Right now the Kittiwake looks brand new and in some photos it is not even clear she is underwater but soon she'll be broken by the sea and covered in marine life. It will be fascinating to see her evolve.

'One of the greatest things about wrecks is the sinking, whether accidental or on purpose, because this is only the start of their journey.'