Japan's Ocean Drilling Vessel Debuts to Rave Reviews

摘要

Two years after leaving the shipyard, Japan's first deep-ocean drilling vessel has finally got down to business. Wrapping up its first scientific voyage earlier this month, the Chikyu stopped at Shingu, a port town on the Kii Peninsula, about 400 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, where researchers rhapsodized about findings that promise a better understanding of processes that generate earthquakes and tsunamis. "I've been on five [ocean drilling] cruises before, and these are the most exciting results I've seen so far," says Elizabeth Screaton, a geologist at the University of Florida, Gainesville.