The feat required a lifetime of training, four years of planning, a team of support divers, an array of specialized air tanks, and a tedious, thirteen-hour ascent, with constant decompression stops, so that his blood would not be poisoned and his lungs would not explode. An Egyptian diver once descended to the limits of this layer. It contains the entire ecosystem of marine plants, as well as the mammals and the fish that eat them. This is the epipelagic zone, the layer of plankton, kelp, and reefs. Sunlight cuts through the first thousand feet of water. It would take nearly four hours to reach the bottom. He gazed out of one of the viewports, into the blue. Under the passenger seat was a tuna-fish sandwich, the pilot’s lunch. This was the pressure hull-a titanium sphere, five feet in diameter, which was sealed off from the rest of the submersible and housed the pilot and all his controls. It was the shape of a bulging briefcase, with a protruding bulb at the bottom. Most submarines go down several hundred metres, then across this one was designed to sink like a stone. The surface frothed as the water poured in-then silence, as the top of the submersible dipped below the waterline, and the ocean absorbed it. Electric pumps sucked seawater into an empty chamber, weighing the vessel down. Then he flipped a switch, and the submarine emitted a frantic, high-pitched whirr. For a moment, it bobbed quietly on the surface, its buoyancy calibrated to the weight of the pilot, its only occupant. A crane lowered a small white submersible off the back of a ship and plonked it in the water. The deeper you go, the darker, the more hostile, the less familiar, the less measured, the less known.Ī splash in the South Pacific, last June, marked a historic breach of that world. Below it, the world of water, depth, and pressure. Above it, the world of land, air, sunlight, and lungs. Every known life-form exists in relation to this layer. There is a micromillimetre on the surface of the ocean that moves between sea and sky and is simultaneously both and neither. Snake Island – known as Zmiinyi Island in Ukrainian – is situated near the Ukrainian and Romanian coasts along the Black Sea, and has previously been the subject of a territorial dispute between the two countries.Ī marine research station is situated on the island, and its maritime borders take in an area understood to be strategically important for resources including petroleum.Sea level-perpetual flux. The Russian navy is reported to have bombarded the island with deck guns before sending soldiers to take control, according to the Maritime Executive, citing local media reports. “Glory to Ukrainian defenders!” it added.Īmid widespread admiration for the men’s bravery, the Republican senator for Nebraska, Ben Sasse, changed his Twitter bio to “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.” “We sincerely hope that the boys will return home as soon as possible,” it said, adding that it hoped that reports of the soldiers’ death proved incorrect. It said preliminary information that border guards may be dead came before the men had lost contact. “After receiving information about their possible location, the together with the Armed Forces of Ukraine are conducting work on identifying our soldiers.” They had reportedly responded to an officer on board the Russian warship with a defiant: “ Russian warship, go fuck yourself” when asked to lay down their weapons.īut in a recent statement posted on Facebook, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said: “We strong belief that all Ukrainian defenders of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island may be alive.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |