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Discoveries in the Deep
Part 3 (back to Part 2)

1991
American Navy agrees to share with civilian scientists a fleet ofdeep exploratory craft, including robots and submersibles.

Mir submersible investigates the seafloor. Mir submersible investigates the seafloor.
Mir submersibles dive more than two miles down and filmTitianic wreckage for Canadian IMAX movie.

Soviet ship Yuzhmorgeologiya, which once spied on the submarines of the United States Navy, is hired by American government to do studies of deep ecology.

Soviet Union ceases to exist.

1992
Scientists, after a large seabed survey, conclude that the deepmay hold ten million species of life, far more than are known onland.


A deep-sea anemone crowns a lava pillar. A deep-sea anemone crowns a lava pillar.
Ballard lowers Navy submersible Sea Cliff and Navy robotScorpio to examine fourteen ships lost during World War Twoat the battle of Guadalcanal.

CIA director Robert Gates tells Russian President Boris Yeltsin that Glomar Explorer recovered remains of six Soviet sailors,who were subsequently buried at sea.

American Navy adopts a new strategy in which fighting forcestarget shallow waters and regional conflicts, reducing the need for deep expertise.

Businessmen hire an American Navy contractor to dive onTitanic for commercial salvage.

1993
Two American companies unveil laser cameras, formerly secretNavy tools for seeing long distances in the deep.

Map of the Juan de Fuca Ridge Map of the Juan de Fuca Ridge.
Federal scientists listen to Navy deep microphones and hear adeep volcanic outburst on the Pacific's Juan de Fuca Ridge,prompting a number of expeditions to study how heat on thedark seabed can beget a jungle of life.

Japan begins testing Kaiko, the world's deepest-diving robot.

French submersible Nautile dives on Titanic to recover artifacts.

Ballard lowers Navy Jason robot in Celtic Sea to probe thedeteriorating remains of Lusitania, torpedoed by Germany in 1915.

1994
American Navy agrees to share its attack submarines withcivilian scientists for arctic studies.

Navy turns over the Advanced Unmanned Search System, anearly tetherless robot, to private industry.

Shinkai 6500 sets an Atlantic depth record for a piloted vehicle,studying deep geology.


Octopus clambers across the sea bottom. Octopus clambers across the sea bottom.
Russians in Mir submersibles carry British scientists down toMid-Atlantic Ridge to study a huge volcanic mound laced withgold.

Nautile dives on Titanic to recover artifacts.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea goes intoforce.

1995
Kaiko dives to bottom of Challenger Deep, finding the icydarkness alive with small animals.

Paul Tidwell arms himself with naval spinoffs and finds inAtlantic waters more than three miles down the lost Japanesesubmarine I-52, which sank in 1944 heavy with tons of gold.

A tubeworm community. A tubeworm community.
Ballard dives in Navy's NR-1 to map a field of deep Mediterranean wrecks, some more than 2,000 years old.

Mir submersibles film Titanic for a Hollywood movie.

American Navy releases seafloor gravity data, which civilianoceanographers turn into the first good public map of the globalseabed.

Civilians start broadcasting deep sounds across the Pacific andlistening with Navy microphones for changes in travel time,seeking to measure global warming.

1996
Federal scientists listening to Navy microphones hear fury onthe Gorda Ridge, prompting new studies of seabed volcanism.


Billowing 'smoke' from a deep-sea vent. Billowing 'smoke' from a deep-sea vent.
The robot Jason, one of the Navy's top deep projects of the1980s, makes its debut for a Federal scientific group, its firstexpedition probing hot vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Navy widens access to its deep microphones, prompting thedevelopment of private acoustic observatories meant to listenfor volcanic eruptions and whale songs.

The advanced robot Tiburon debuts at Packard's institute, readyto explore down to a depth of four kilometers, or two and a halfmiles.

Nautile dives on the Titanic to film the shattered hulk and recover artifacts, including a large section of the liner's hull.

'Deep Flight' on a mission 'Deep Flight' on a mission.
Deep Flight makes its debut, taking Hawkes a step closer to flyinginto the Challenger Deep, seven miles down.

1997
American experts use the robot Odyssey to search the dark wateroff New Zealand for the giant squid, the greatest of the sea'slegendary beasts.

Cover of 'The Universe Below' This chronology is excerpted from:
The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea
by William J. Broad, illustrated by Dimitry Schidlovsky
Published by Simon & Schuster, 1997

Photos: (1) Susan Lewis; (2,7,15) IFREMER/Violaine Martin; (3) ©1996 Norbert Wu; (4,8,17,19) Shirshov Institute of Oceanology; (5) Dan Fornari, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; (6,9) ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; (10,18) Visuals Unlimited/©WHOI/J. Edmond; (11) Copyright ©1998 Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Inc.; (12) Kim Juniper; (13) Tim Shank, Rutgers University; (14) Ralph White; (16) Chris Keeley, University of New Hampshire; (20) ©1998 Norbert Wu.

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