Japanese Vessel Drills to Record Depth in Search of Hydrocarbons

A new world record was set by the scientific deep sea drilling vessel Chikyu for drilling down deeper than 2,111meters below the seafloor off Shimokita Peninsula of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean. 

Chikyu's achievement was announced by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)

Designed to reach the deeper part of the sea, Chikyu has the capacity of drilling as much as 10,000 m below sea level. The main objective of the current expedition is to drill down 2,200 m below the seafloor and obtain high-quality samples from the deeply buried coal formation.

The Deep Coalbed Biosphere expedition conducted within the framework of an international marine research program, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).

Prior to this, the deepest hole ever recorded in the history of scientific ocean drilling was 2,111 meters into the seafloor at the Costa Rica Rift.

"We have just opened a window to the new era of scientific ocean drilling," Fumio Inagaki, Co-Chief Scientist of the expedition said. "The extended record is just a beginning for the Chikyu. This scientific vessel has tremendous potentials to explore very deep realms that humans have never studied before. The deep samples are precious, and I am confident that our challenges will extend our systematic understanding of nature of life and earth."

His European colleague, Co-Chief Scientist Kai-Uwe Hinrichs from the University of Bremen, Germany, adds, "I am very glad that I am here today and could witness this wonderful and important moment. Everybody on the ship worked really hard to make this happen. And, I am very pleased about the high quality of the core samples, which show only minimal drilling disturbance. This is very important for our research."

The samples collected have been analyzed in the laboratory aboard Chikyu and they provide new insight into the deep life associated with a hydrocarbon system in the deep marine subsurface.