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Grounded submarine photographed with sonar
StumbleUpon.com ^ | 4/01/2010 | João Medeiros

Posted on 04/06/2010 8:10:32 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld

This eerie wreck image is not computer generated. It's the sonar image of Russian nuclear submarine B-159 (called K-159 before decommissioning), which has been lying 248m down in the Barents Sea, between Norway and Russia, since 2003. The Russian Federation hired Adus, a Scottish company that specialises in high-resolution sonar surveying, to evaluate if it would be possible to recover the wreck.

"The operation was complicated as the submarine was very deep, so we had to use the sonar equipment mounted on a remotely operated vehicle, (below)" says Martin Dean, the managing director of Adus and a forensic-wreck archaeologist. "We also had a problem with the surveying due to the density of north Atlantic cod attracted to the sound of the sonar and the light of the cameras. So at the beginning we had to turn off the equipment for 40 minutes and wait for the fish to go."

B-159, a November-class sub launched in 1963, was being towed to a shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, 1,000km north of St Petersburg, for scrapping when bad weather caused it to sink, killing nine crew.

"According to the sonar evidence, we can say that it sank stern first, headed down vertically and stuck 12m into the seabed, like a dart," says Dean. "The hull then snapped at the aft end and crashed to the seabed, leaving about 8m of the outer casing, including the propellers, still buried vertically in the seabed. Surprisingly, the submarine is still in good condition for a salvage."

(Excerpt) Read more at stumbleupon.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: b159; barentssea; k159; northernfleet; norway; nuclearsubmarine; russia; russiannavy; snezhnogorsk; sovietnavy; submarine
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B-159 "photo" taken by sonar
1 posted on 04/06/2010 8:10:32 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
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To: sonofstrangelove

Wow! That’s beautiful! Thanks for posting it.


2 posted on 04/06/2010 8:11:55 PM PDT by Oceander (The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance -- Thos. Jefferson)
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To: Oceander

No Problem


3 posted on 04/06/2010 8:12:25 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution."-Dr.Wernher Von Braun)
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To: Oceander

Looks like they left the starboard window open near the bow.


4 posted on 04/06/2010 8:14:42 PM PDT by MCOAvalanche
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To: MCOAvalanche

That would explain a lot.


5 posted on 04/06/2010 8:16:27 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (Ronald Reagan: "Peace Through Strength." Barack Obama: "Perpetual War Through Utter Weakness.")
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To: sonofstrangelove

That’s damn impressive.


6 posted on 04/06/2010 8:16:34 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: sonofstrangelove

Neat!

What a world we live in.

Too bad the bum is screwing us up.


7 posted on 04/06/2010 8:17:25 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (demonicRATS... taxes, pain and slow death. Is this what you want?)
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To: sonofstrangelove

Does that thing take “D” batteries, or “C’s”?


8 posted on 04/06/2010 8:17:57 PM PDT by TruthHound ("He who does not punish evil commands it to be done." --Leonardo da Vinci)
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To: sonofstrangelove

Snezhnogorsk?

Gesundheit!


9 posted on 04/06/2010 8:18:06 PM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: sonofstrangelove

The ripply stuff is anechoic coating. This boat was doomed from the start - primary coolant leak, never de-fueled, kept at a pier rotting, and then sent to sea with - I swear I’m not making this up - holes where her hull had rusted through. They never even went after the poor bustards who went down with her. It really, really, really sucked to be a Soviet submarine sailor.


10 posted on 04/06/2010 8:18:22 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: MCOAvalanche
Looks like they left the starboard window open near the bow.

It's the damn screen doors again.

11 posted on 04/06/2010 8:19:01 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: MCOAvalanche

Must have been for the tourists!


12 posted on 04/06/2010 8:19:09 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
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To: TruthHound
Does that thing take “D” batteries, or “C’s”?

Are you suggesting that it's a long round hard object filled with seamen?

13 posted on 04/06/2010 8:20:08 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: All

Maybe the can send in the Glomar Explorer ;)

Perhaps a little “sea mining” of manganese nodules.


14 posted on 04/06/2010 8:23:23 PM PDT by ak267
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To: Billthedrill

There were SOVIET sailors in 2003???


15 posted on 04/06/2010 8:24:34 PM PDT by TruthHound ("He who does not punish evil commands it to be done." --Leonardo da Vinci)
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To: sonofstrangelove

A memorial to brave sailors.


16 posted on 04/06/2010 8:28:18 PM PDT by doc1019
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To: TruthHound
No. But there were in 1965, when she first leaked. And there were in 1967 when she returned to the shipyard, and in 1970 when she went back, and in 1979 when she went back again. There were Soviet sailors when she was decommissioned in 1989.

I used to be in the ASW biz. This was a November class boat - if you know what I'm talking about no more need be said. If you don't, then nothing I can say is adequate.

17 posted on 04/06/2010 8:30:16 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill
It really, really, really sucked to be a Soviet submarine sailor.

Plus, if this sub was nuclear they all would have been dead from radiation by now anyway.

18 posted on 04/06/2010 8:30:21 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: hinckley buzzard
Plus, if this sub was nuclear they all would have been dead from radiation by now anyway.

I would imagine that in the last 7+ years, the CO2 problem might have reared its ugly head.
19 posted on 04/06/2010 8:37:41 PM PDT by Renderofveils (My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. - Nabokov)
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To: Still Thinking

Old joke - The Russians must have been copying Polish designs.


20 posted on 04/06/2010 8:39:06 PM PDT by Waverunner ( "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." Voltaire)
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