In the warm waters of Tanganyika Lake.


Tanganyika Lake lacustrine environment.

Diving into the Lake was an everyday business. We had brought with us compressors and electrogen groups enabling us to dive everyday in complete autonomy.

 

 

 

 

We had two dives everyday, so our compressors were working continuously throughout the day to refill the bottles for the next dive, surrounding us with a permanent noise.

 Evelyne fully equipped for diving  
 Zodiac and compressors on the beach  

  

 Kiram seems to appreciate the water temperature  

 Bubble fields of outgazing methane and hydrogen sulfide at the Pemba site  

The visibility was good and the temperature of water quite pleasant (26 °C !).

Our first duty was to find the vents using reference marks from the 1991 expedition. Browsing through bubble fields of methane and hydrogen sulfide outgazing from the sandy bottom and basement fractures, we could tell for sure that the vents were not very far.


Lake inhabitants help us find the Pemba sublacustrine site.

It's not so easy to find the marks left at the site by the '91 Expedition, 5 years ago. Some unexpected help comes from a small fish living in the clear waters of the lake, as it appears to show us the way to go!

We knew that the hot vents were located between 30 and 50 meters depth along a fault. We dived with the equipment for sampling and a thermometer to check the temperature in the hot springs.

We eventually reached our goal: a rope on the lake floor, left there by members of a Japanese team some years ago, indicates that the target is not very far away. Site #11, at 46m depth is waiting for us to reveal it's secrets...

 

 A small fish seems to indicate us the way to go !  

 Pemba site #11 is reached, at -46 m depth  

  

 


We are now ready for sampling !

Encounter with a fish    who knows its name ?