 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Team To Drill Below Ocean Earthquake Zone
Columbia MO (UPI) Aug 30, 2006 Japanese scientists will lead a multi-year international project to place seismographic instruments below the ocean's floor, where earthquakes occur. The project's first step began this month with a shakedown cruise of Japan's state-of-the-art deep-sea drilling ship named Chikyu. The project is a multidisciplinary study of tectonic plates located in southwest Japan, a region that experiences severe earthquakes and earthquake-generated tsunamis. The project's proponents say Chikyu is the first scientific ocean drilling ship capable of drilling as far as 23,000 feet below the ocean floor. University of Missouri-Columbia geologist Michael Underwood, one of a handful of U.S. scientists participating in the shakedown cruise, said scientists plan to drill directly into the plate boundary zone where earthquakes are generated and install instrumentation to measure activity over time. Previously, this was not possible because the seismogenic zone was too deep for other drilling ships to reach. "Based on the expenditures and goals of this project, it's comparable to sending a spaceship to the moon," Underwood said. The shakedown cruise, which began Aug. 6, is expected to conclude in mid-October.
Source: United Press International Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links A world of storm and tempest Tectonic Science and News
CSIRO Reveals How Continents Can Break Apart
Perth, Australia (SPX) Aug 02, 2006Continents drift on the surface of the Earth in response to a recycling of oceanic plates, with new plates formed at rifts which are mostly located as sea-floor spreading centres in the middle of oceans. However, occasionally, the forces that cause the spreading of oceans can also break a continent apart to form a new ocean. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
