Swiss limnologists Alfred Wüest and his colleagues are conducting a study at Lake Kivu, Rwanda, to assess the potential of uncontrolled gas eruptions and the possibility of harvesting methane gas from the lake so it can be used for power generation. The team will conduct a field experiment at Lake Kivu using a customized VMP-500 to study the astonishing double-diffusive regime that causes the gas entrapment.
The VMP-500 for this study was modified to descend at an extremely slow rate of 0.1 m/s. Typical descent rates are 0.8 m/s. The slow descent will allow the scientists to resolve thermal microstructure to study the double diffusive processes, as well as the velocity microstructure to study the turbulent mixing rates.
For more information on this research project refer to the EAWAG website at this link >>>.
Further references:
Schmid et al., 2005: Weak mixing in Lake Kivu: New insights indicate increasing risk of uncontrolled gas eruption, GGG, Vol 6(7), Q07009, doi:10.1029/2004GC000892.
Lueck, 2009: Testing of the EAWAG VMP-500 at Harry Lake. RSI Application Note AN-017.