IRKUTSK, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - Two Russian mini-subs that have spent the past two summers researching Lake Baikal will join an international scientific project in the Atlantic in 2010, a senior researcher said on Thursday.
"Next year the Mir-1 and Mir-2 mini-subs are expected to work in the Atlantic Ocean within the framework of an international project," said Anatoly Sagalevich of Russia's Shirshov Institute of Oceanology.
"The mini-subs will research geothermal fields and oceanic rifts in the Atlantic," he said, adding that after next year the Mir submersibles could dive to the Titanic.
"2012 will be the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, and I'm sure this topic will gain significant interest," Sagalevich said.
The expedition to Lake Baikal started in 2008. This summer, researchers sought 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.
At the beginning of the summer, Mir-1 and Mir-2 worked in the southern part of the lake, and in early August the expedition moved to Baikal's north, where gas hydrates, cristalline solids where large amounts of methane are trapped within a cage of water molecules, were found. Gas hydrates are considered a possible alternative fuel.
The total cost of the expedition was $8 million, with one dive worth 2 million rubles ($64,800).
