Grounded Russian Nuclear Sub Photographed With Sonar 143
Lanxon sends in an intriguing piece from Wired: "This eerie wreck image is not computer-generated. It's the sonar image of Russian nuclear submarine B-159 (called K-159 before decommissioning), which has been lying 248m down in the Barents Sea, between Norway and Russia, since 2003. The Russian Federation hired Adus, a Scottish company that specializes in high-resolution sonar surveying, to evaluate if it would be possible to recover the wreck. 'The operation was complicated as the submarine was very deep, so we had to use the sonar equipment mounted on a remotely operated vehicle' [also pictured in the article], says Martin Dean, the managing director of Adus and a forensic-wreck archaeologist. 'We also had a problem with the surveying due to the density of North Atlantic cod attracted to the sound of the sonar and the light of the cameras.'"
Fishies! (Score:3, Interesting)
Thought the sonar wasn't good for the marine life in that they would avoid it. Is this a peculiarity of cod?
Re:Glomar Explorer (Score:2, Interesting)
The Russians would probably object to its use, though, given the ship's history.
The political baggage of it's history would be the least of my worries, its the K-129 breaking in half during salvage and two nuclear tipped missiles sliding out of their silos and falling 2000m+ to the ocean floor that would worry me more if somebody decided to use the Glomar Explorer for another nuclear salvage job. The Glomar Explorer's record on it's single (barely) successful salvage isn't exactly confidence inspiring.