My name is Russell Green.

At dawn on the morning of June 14th of this year, I set off an

rented boat to a spot 11 miles north of Oymir on Russia's Lake by

Call. My destination was informally called the Pit of Night. Three years

ago a giant sinkhole formed spontaneously at that spot, 3,500 feet below the

lake surface, making the lake even deeper in that area. The Pit of Night, less

than half mile across, could only be detected remotely as it formed.

Seen on computers is a nebulous disturbance that took experts months to

define. Geologists thought the sinkhole may have been set off by deep

drilling on the shore near Popova during construction of a plant that would

make cardboard, but they couldn't be certain. Also unknown was the exact depth

of the Pit of Night because divers of course weren't able to plummet to and

he extend. The water pressure became ununderable at only a thousand feet.

Echo sounders. Combined with the colder water temperature in that area,

pointed to the possibility that the sinkhole was of a depth that may have made

the spot match the deepest point of the deepest lake in the world, which is

lake by call itself. That would mean the bottom point was more than 5,000 feet

below the surface. I had the idea to boat out to the Pit of Night as a way to

unofficially end a three-week solo trip through Mongolia that I'd taken on

assignment from the tandem region times based on Terrio. The idea was to drive

in for my hotel in Irkutsk and go out to the spot and have a swim. Just to say I

did it. Marked on some interior bulletin board of minor outdoors

...