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Andrew Taranto -
If Land of the Lost taught me anything, it’s that cool things lurk just below the surface of the earth (and Will Ferrel is the greatest actor of his generation). That’s where the Chikyu Hakken Deep Sea Drill comes in.
The Deep Sea Drilling Vessel D/V Chikyū Hakken (“Earth Discovery” aka “Godzilla-Maru”) is a Japanese scientific drilling ship completed in 2005 for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program and is operated by the Japanese centre for Deep Earth Research. It’s designed to bore seven kilometers beneath the seabed and into the Earth’s mantle, deeper than any past ocean-drilled hole.
Once into the mantle, the Chikyu will study and collect samples from the seismogenic zone, shedding light on the internal structure of the planet and how it affects the formation of Earthquakes, as well as look for the presence of undiscovered life in the Earth’s crust and deep-sea resources.
The Chikyu is 210m long, 38m wide and over 16m high. It weighs in at roughly 57,087 tons and a top speed of 12 knots. Rising 70m above the deck (100m above the water), the amidships derrick has a lifting capacity of 1250 tons and uses a 10,000m drill string – three times longer than the height of Mt Fuji.
The Chikyu supports 150 crew members, including 50 science personnel with at-seas crew changes and resupplies handled via helicopter transfer. Since the Chikyu can’t move once it starts drilling, the ship is equipped with an advanced GPS system and six computer-controlled, 3.8m wide azimuth thrusters that work to counteract the effects of tides and currents, keeping the ship directly above the bore site. It also uses a riser system to negate wave action, allowing the rig to drill in waters as deep as 2500m.
The Chikyu drills at a varying rate, depending on how deep its gotten. It cuts through 15m/hr down to 1000m, 8m/hr down to 2000m, but only 3m/hr below that. Once the pipes hit 4000m, it takes approximately 6 hours to fish out and replace a worn drill bit. At those rates, the Chikyu will have to remain stationary in the sea for over a year to reach its 7000m goal.
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