China Makes Waves With Ambitious Ocean Research Plan

摘要

SHANGHAI-Last July, when the Jiaolong submersible plunged 5000 meters below the Pacific Ocean waves, China joined an elite set of nations capable of crewed exploration of the deep sea. Jiaolong's program this coming summer will be even more eyecatching. First, the sub will attempt a world record-breaking dive 7000 meters below sea level; then it will carry out its first research mission in a region of high scientific and political significance: the South China Sea. The target is enticing. Its sediments hold clues to the evolution of the East Asia monsoon and how tropical conditions over the eons have influenced global climate patterns. To tackle these questions, China has just embarked on South China Sea Deep, an 8-year, $24 million project feted last month at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco. Complementing Jiaolong's dives will be research cruises in the area this spring with France and Germany. And China is leading an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) project on the dynamics of as much as 570 million tons of sediments that rivers disgorge into the South China Sea each year.