The ship will try to take samples from unprecedented depths beneath the seabed and will bore through a "subduction zone" - the point where one tectonic plate descends underneath another.File this under 'not kicking the sleeping dog.'
The deepest hole drilled through the seabed so far reaches 2111 metres. Chikyu will set off in September 2007 to collect the first samples from 7000 metres, at a point some 600 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, Japan.
16 January 2006
This Could Be Trouble
Remember all those Japanese monster movies that began with drilling a deep mine, or blowing stuff up at the bottom of the ocean, or otherwise poking sticks in unexplored holes . . .
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I was always curious as to the notion that the mining of billions of cubic feet of natural gas triggered the tectonic scale shift that resulted in the boxing day tsunami.
Maybe they'll pop some bubble at 7000 meters and it'll happen all over again.
Or they'll find James Mason: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052948/
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