The busiest year in CHIKYU’s history

　Last year saw the CHIKYU involved in three projects for scientific drilling as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) alone.

　The Japan Trench Fast Drilling (JFAST) expedition which took place from spring through to summer was probably the fastest implemented project in the long history of scientific drilling. Even though the expedition was beset by bad weather and equipment failures, it ultimately managed to achieve its goals. One of its research outcomes was published in the Science, one of the world's top scientific journal, issue of February 8, 2013. I think that the reason that all this, from planning the project through to the publication of a scientific paper, was achieved in such an extraordinary brief period of time lies in the researchers’ passionate feelings with regard to disastrous earthquakes. We can surely say that the achievement of implementing this international project in response to the state of urgency created by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, forms a great experience for future activities.

　The Deep Coalbed Biosphere off Shimokita Drilling expedition in the fall succeeded in drilling to a subseafloor depth of 2,466 m in a 1,180 m deep sea. For the drilling in this expedition the CHIKYU’s riser drilling technology was used to its full potential, and coal samples could be extracted that were in an extremely good state. The results of this research will be published in future, but we are expecting fine results from the analyses.

　During the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment in the winter drilling unfortunately had to stop at a subseafloor depth of 2,000 m as opposed to the planned 3,600 m, but the schedule was revised and drilling on another site was carried out which had originally been planned for 2014. Drilling while remaining in place in the fast Kuroshio Western Boundary Current, which has a speed of 6 knots (approx. 11 km/h), was more difficult than expected, but we have decided to resume drilling beyond a subseafloor depth of 2,000 m next year.

　This past year has been the busiest in CHIKYU’s history. Many researchers have worked with us, and we have also received various requests from researchers. It has been a fruitful year, both for the CHIKYU and for its staff. I hope we can repeat this in future, and would like to further improve the scientific drilling capacity of the CHIKYU.