Submersibles

WASHINGTON - The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said. The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

WASHINGTON - The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said. The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

A new generation of underwater vehicles, with applications for defense and oil exploration, is to be built in Australia. Parry Corp. of Western Australia said it has agreed to build at least 100 submersibles worth more than $30 million for the U.S. offshore servicing company Cal Dive International. The Australian operation is to be centered on Cockburn Sound, near the site of Western Australia's proposed assembly area for the new fleet of Australian naval submarines. Parry Corp.

WASHINGTON - The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said. The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

WASHINGTON - The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said. The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

U.S. researchers said Thursday that they have located the remains of two high-tech Japanese submarines that were scuttled by the U.S. Navy off Hawaii in 1946 to prevent the technology from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War. One of the craft was the largest non-nuclear sub ever built and had the ability to circle the globe 1 1/2 times without refueling. Called the I-14, the behemoth was 400 feet long and 40 feet high and carried a crew of 144. It was designed to launch two folding-wing bombers on kamikaze missions against U.S. cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., although changes in tactics, and the end of the war, prevented such attacks.

When the Pac Baroness sank off the Santa Barbara coast after colliding with another vessel in a thick morning fog three weeks ago today, environmental concerns immediately arose. The freighter had taken with her 23,000 tons of finely powdered copper, iron and sulfur concentrates. Would they pose a major threat to the marine environment? At 1,480 feet, how quickly would the copper oxidize and enter the food chain? Not long ago, answers to such questions might never have been attainable.

Graham Hawkes finds it tough to fathom why we spend billions of dollars to explore far-away planets when another fascinating frontier exists right here on Earth, where gold and gems, unknown species and perhaps medical miracles wait to be discovered less than seven miles away.

Using one of the deepest-diving submersibles in the world, scientists have begun exploring the sea floor off Northern California to investigate the extent of minerals deposited there by hot water rising through sediments. The scientific effort is intended to map out deposits of copper, zinc and precious metals such as silver within the only area in the nation's designated coastal exclusive economic zone where stores of these minerals are thought to exist.

A miniature, remotely operated submarine has given researchers their first look ever inside the sunken battleship Arizona. The 8-pound device was lowered into the waters of Pearl Harbor on Thursday in a test run by divers and researchers from the National Park Service, its Canadian counterpart, universities and the Army and Navy.

Facing last-minute questions over its plan to launch exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, Shell Oil Co. pledged Monday to deploy a prefabricated coffer dam ready for "immediate" use in the event of a blowout, with a full-scale oil spill response within an hour. In a letter intended to reassure federal officials that offshore drilling can safely begin in the fragile Arctic in July despite the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Shell said it also would be ready to apply dispersant immediately underwater near the source of any oil flow and would have a remotely operated submersible and trained divers at the drilling site.

The image is chilling: A submersible suicide bomber set loose by North Korea destroys a South Korean warship and kills at least 40 crew members. Each day, the mystery over the fate of the 1,200-ton patrol boat Cheonan deepens — with the speculation taking on what some analysts say is a fantastic, James Bond quality. The Cheonan split in two and sank March 26 on a mission at the disputed sea border between North and South. The Korean peninsula is always tense, but the specter of war has increased in recent weeks as investigators point to possible North Korean involvement in the sinking, suggesting the Cheonan was struck by either a floating mine or enemy torpedo.

U.S. researchers said Thursday that they have located the remains of two high-tech Japanese submarines that were scuttled by the U.S. Navy off Hawaii in 1946 to prevent the technology from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War. One of the craft was the largest non-nuclear sub ever built and had the ability to circle the globe 1 1/2 times without refueling. Called the I-14, the behemoth was 400 feet long and 40 feet high and carried a crew of 144. It was designed to launch two folding-wing bombers on kamikaze missions against U.S. cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., although changes in tactics, and the end of the war, prevented such attacks.

Whirring over a sun-streaked patch of tropical seafloor, a submersible equipped with cameras is helping provide the most detailed maps ever recorded of underwater shelves and struggling coral reefs in the Caribbean off the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The small machine, tethered to a 187-foot survey ship, was steered by remote controls over coral hills, sending a fish-eye view back to scientists who studied the images in hopes of restoring reefs weakened by man-made and natural threats.

At Bangkok's watery gates, Buddhist monks cling to a shrinking spit of land around their temple as they wage war against the relentlessly rising sea. During the monsoons at high tide, waves hurdle the breakwater of concrete pillars and the inner rock wall around the temple on a promontory in the Gulf of Thailand. Jutting above the water line just ahead are remnants of a village that has already slipped beneath the sea.

It was on a routine patrol that the Colombian coast guard stumbled upon an eerie outpost amid the mangroves: a mini-shipyard where suspected drug traffickers were building submarines. Perched on a makeshift wooden dry dock late last month were two 55-foot-long fiberglass vessels, one ready for launch, the other about 70% complete.

Three hundred feet below the surface, four minutes into a dive, the robot Ventana descends into utter darkness. The ocean, as we know it, ends here. And a vast, alien world--the deep sea--begins. The sun's rays are powerless here. The temperature plunges to just above freezing and the pressure is so intense that a human body would implode in an instant. Aboard a research ship 16 miles off Monterey, Jim Barry sits in a darkened control room, squinting at a screen in front of him.

The tiny electronic "swimming eyeball" used to photograph ornate crystal chandeliers and marble columns deep inside the sunken Titanic represents a major advance for marine science and exploration, scientists and Navy officials said here Wednesday. It is "a quantum leap in deep-dive technology," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Mark Neuhart, a spokesman for the deep-sea exploration of the long-lost wreck of the famed luxury liner.

Two Russian deep-sea submersibles made a test dive in polar waters ahead of a mission to be the first to reach the seabed under the North Pole, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said. Itar-Tass said the submersibles, each carrying one pilot, reached a depth of 4,301 feet, 47 nautical miles north of Russia's Franz Josef Land. As global warming thins the Arctic icecap, a race is looming to claim ownership of the energy resources under the North Pole.

The crew of a Russian mini-submarine trapped for days beneath the Bering Sea was rescued today after a remote-controlled British "Scorpio" underwater craft helped disentangle the vessel from cables and fishing ropes. The dramatic rescue came after a race against time, as even optimistic estimates had predicted that oxygen would run out by tonight for the seven men who had been stuck in the cramped, chilly vessel since Thursday.