Drilling Record: Japan's 'Chikyu' Research Vessel Bores 25,000 Feet Below Surface

TOKYO -- A Japanese deep-sea drilling probe has set a new world record for depth, reaching 7,740 meters (25,400 feet) below the sea surface, the research institute that launched it says.

The Chikyu, operated by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, was digging the seabed off Japan's northern coast to take fault samples and study last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The agency said Friday that the probe's drilling pipe hit the fault zone at 6,883.5 meters (22,600 feet) undersea before reaching the target of 7,740 meters Wednesday. That's nearly 8 kilometers (5 miles) deep.

Maritime organizations say the U.S. vessel Glomar Challenger set the previous record of 7,049.5 meters (23,130 feet) below sea surface in the Mariana Trench in 1978.

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Comments

[golfet33]

11:48 PM on 04/30/2012

There is group that wants to stop drilling because they say the earth is hollow and a hole would let all the water drain into the earth.

[Forever Jung]

03:56 PM on 04/30/2012

Why didn't the drill melt? Didn't Al Gore say: "...two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees..."? The science is settled: the drill melted way before the 2 kilometer mark.

[ceekreewd]

03:19 PM on 04/30/2012

Ya know, you would think that they would've learned with all their monster problems back in the 50 and 60's, that they should stop trying to wake one up again...

[Derpwood]

09:15 PM on 04/29/2012

Did they find any whales?

[CRAZYWORLD2]

01:17 PM on 04/30/2012

im sure they to lunch with them