Day 6 – Earthquake underwater?

Do you remember? Yesterday’s dive spot was great. So nice that we decided to go to the north tip of Olkohn, Kohboy, again.

Olkohn became connected to a common power supply network in 2008, before that power was supplied to households by generators or heating was supplied to the wooden houses by traditional fire ovens. Now, 9 years later, we are sitting in our meeting room at Nikita’s Homestead and can even go online. The logs in the fireplace still heat up the room. Old world meets new world...

While yesterday the sun was hiding, almost all day today was sunny. But clear weather after a cloudy day also means wind, and we needed till mid-day to get used to these relatively harsh conditions despite the sun.

While the dive spot was the same, the conditions were different.

Temperature changes meant changes in the surface of the ice and the parts underwater. Cracks had opened which where closed yesterday and vice versa.

Since this is a continuous process during both the day and night we witnessed such a drastic change. On the ice surface near our camp we felt what seemed like an earthquake for about 10 seconds.

Not only the movement of the ice, but also the sound of moving ice floes underwater was a once-in-the lifetime experience for all of us that will last for a long time in our memories.

After finishing the dive we went to see what had caused the “icequake” and a wide, hundred meter long crack had just opened near to our camp. Water was filling the crack slowly while the bubbles we created while diving crept through the crack and found their way to freedom in the air. All this through a labyrinth of ice pieces that created an ice layer up to 7m thick!

"Нормальный и ничего особенного", had been the comment from one of our drivers which means, all quite normal just “расслабиться” (relax)…

So we relaxed and started our work. As with every day, we had a different focus on what to test and how. Today the XR DR regulators with its second stages made of chrome-plated brass and the rEvo Arctic rebreather unit.

Both did a great job and diving with a rebreather under ice is a very interesting experience.

The water, with its temperature around 0°C close to the ice, did nothing bad to both products and the equipment worked well for about an hour under the ice.

Stimulated by such an incredible day with unbelievable impressions, we decided to come back to Kohboy to open up a new hole tomorrow close to some large formations we found today at the end of the fresh ice crack.

Stay with us to hear about what happens tomorrow.

Goodnight from Siberia!