人民网
Mon,Jan 13,2014
English>>Sci-Tech

In pictures: China succeeds in first 300-meter saturation dive (2)

(Xinhua)    08:22, January 13, 2014
Email|Print|Comments       twitter     facebook     Sina Microblog     reddit    
A diver enters the diving bell to conduct 300-meter saturation dive under the South China Sea, Jan. 9, 2014. China succeeded in its first 300-meter saturation dive in the morning on Jan. 12 as three divers returned safe and sound from deep water to the living chamber on their ship. The diving bell actually reached a depth of 313.5 meters under the South China Sea. Saturation diving technology enables human beings to withstand high water pressure by saturating human tissue with inert gas. (Xinhua)

SHENZHEN, Jan. 12 -- China succeeded in its first 300-meter saturation dive on Sunday morning as three divers returned safe and sound from deep water to the living chamber on their ship.

The diving bell actually reached a depth of 313.5 meters under the South China Sea, according to Guo Jie, on-site chief director of the experiment.

The three divers, Hu Jian, Guan Meng and Dong Meng returned to the deck of the ship at 5:09 a.m. on Sunday.

Saturation diving technology enables human beings to withstand high water pressure by saturating human tissue with inert gas, Guo explained.

Three other Chinese divers, Li Hongjian, Luo Xiaoming and Tan Hui, began another attempted saturation dive at 8 a.m. on Sunday and were due to return to the living chamber at about 2 p.m. The divers will stay there until Jan. 24 to let the inert gas in their tissue fluid return to normal pressure, said Shen Hao, director of the Shanghai rescue and salvage center.

China is now working to develop saturation diving technology that would work at a depth of 500 meters under the sea, said Wang Zhenliang, director of the China Rescue and Salvage Center of the Ministry of Transport.

Saturation diving was developed to allow divers to stay under water for a longer time and at a deeper sea level than with conventional techniques.

It is commonly used in deep sea exploration, in rescue operations at sea and in engineering construction at the bottom of the sea.

China had previously only conducted such experiments in laboratories.

【1】 【2】 【3】 【4】

(Editor:ZhangQian、Yao Chun)

Hot News

We Recommend

Photos

prev next

Most Viewed

Day|Week|Month

Links