Scientists of the Limnology Institute of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have found oil mixtures in the bottom of Lake Baikal during dives of deepwater submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2, the institute's director Academician Mikhail Grachev told Itar-Tass today. He said “we knew earlier that oil comes to the surface at Cape Gorevoi Utyos near the Barguzinsky Bay, we even took samples of bottom rock mixed with hydrocarbons, but our scientists for the first time could see them at a 850-meter depth”. The institute's four associates - a geologist, chemist and two female biologists - dived in submersibles to the bottom of the world' deepest and largest body of the fresh water. They obtained numerous samples of the water, rock and microorganisms. “The release of oil from faults of the earth crust struck their imagination: these are some bitumen formations of a different size and configuration,” Grachev said. Limnologist will continue studies using the Mir submersibles. They are going to move on their research ship The Vereshchagin to other areas of the release of natural oil, gas and gas hydrates.
