Analysts: Two Explosions on Sub

Aug. 17 -- Hope dwindled for the oxygen-starved crew of a Russian submarine stuck on the Arctic seabed today, after Russian television said video shot at the scene suggested some of its 118 sailors could have died days ago.

U.S. government scientists tell ABCNEWS that their analysis of seismic recordings now provides absolute evidence there were two explosions aboard the nuclear submarine, the Kursk.

One of the explosions on the sub was so strong, seismic stations as far away as Canada, Germany and Alaska recorded it.

One of the two blasts registered 3.47 on the Richter scale (see Web link) with the explosive power of nearly two tons of TNT.

U.S. intelligence officials earlier this week told ABCNEWS they believed approximately half the crew may have been killed in the initial blasts, and that the rest of the sailors were likely to have died since.

‘Terrifying Hole’ Russian state RTR television said in the first report from a rescue ship in the Barents Sea that video footage from underneath the water showed severe damage to the front of the Kursk — something at least some of the crew would not have survived.

Most of the nuclear submarine’s crewmen were likely in the damaged section of the vessel, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov told reporters.

The submarine, under 354 feet of water, has a “terrifying hole” on its starboard side, a top Russian official said today, as the new evidence emerged that the explosions wrecked the vessel and sent it plunging to the sea bottom in seconds.

U.S. intelligence sources told ABCNEWS they believe five of the nine compartments in the 508-foot-long submarine were flooded by the catastrophe.

Rescue Capsule Hatch Damaged A hatch of the sub’s rescue capsule was damaged, Russian Navy rescuers today reported. The capsule is the main rescue device of the submarine.

The Oscar II class vehicle has three hatches. One hatch is situated in the nose, another in the central post, and another in the rear. But Russian rescuers have only been trying to access the rear hatch due to the angle — the sub’s nose is in the ocean bed at a 25-degree angle — and the flooding of the front of the sub.