Japan Drilling 4.5Km Into Earth
The deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu made a port call Thursday in Yokohama after ending its first training mission at sea since being built in July at a cost of 500 million dollars.
The 57,500-ton Chikyu, which means the Earth in Japanese, is scheduled to embark in September 2007 on a voyage to collect the first samples of the Earth’s mantle in human history.
The project, led by Japan and the United States with the participation of China and the European Union, seeks clues on primitive organisms that were the forerunners of life and on the tectonic plates that shake the planet’s foundations.
“This is like an Apollo project under the Earth,” staff scientist Kan Aoike said, referring to the landmark US lunar missions.
“The idea of the project came out half a century ago but failed halfway while the real Apollo project was carried out successfully,” Aoike told AFP as he sorted out samples taken in its first training voyage.
“So this is a second and serious attempt to complete another key exploration for mankind,” he said. “We are so excited to witness the mantle for the first time.”
Source: Physorg.com.
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