27 June. Day 5. Deep and foggy…

Night has passed so fast.

We are continuing, hoping to collect large gas hydrates crystals. Today we aim to complete a profile in the Ukhan area. The profile intersects the Ukhan MV and runs perpendicular to a very steep escarpment that runs parallel to the east coast of Olkhon Island. The furthermost core of the profile is 5.8 km from the coast line where the water depth is already 1575 m.

This is one of the deepest areas of Lake Baikal and station BL19-402G is the deepest reach in Class@Baikal program.

Approaching the coast, the depth decreases and the “shallowest” station is at Ukhan MV (1369 m). Is amazing how deep the lake floor can be although we are really close to the shore (<2.2 km).

The day is foggy creating a surreal atmosphere. We are close to the mountains and we can see the mist draping them and surrounding us.

Due to the high water depth there is plenty of time between every core recovery. However, we are still very busy describing the core section, subsampling, and finally packing the liners.

Today we did 10 sampling stations. “Well…Not bad… for this water depth…” – Dr. Adriano concluded the day. But that was not a final conclusion. Also we had a usual seminar where Olesya and Nikita presented gas geochemistry data of previous expeditions and some preliminary results from samples collected and analysed during the ongoing cruise.

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Text: Adriano and team

Photos: Marina and team