CHIKYU owned by Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) is the first riser-equipped deep-sea drilling vessel designed for scientific research to drill more than 7,000 meters into the ocean floor in water depth of up to 2,500 meters. The vessel is capable of drilling into the Earth to reach the seismogenic layer, over which most earthquakes are initiated, and beyond into the Earth’s mantle. This capability also enables CHIKYU to undertake drilling operations for various deepwater players in the oil and gas industry.
Mantle Quest Japan manages and operates CHIKYU, which was established in September 2008 jointly by Japan Drilling Co., Ltd., Japan’s sole offshore drilling contractor, and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, a leading Japanese shipping company. We are to contribute to the ambitious scientific and technological objectives set by the Center for Deep Earth Exploration (CDEX) under the direction of JAMSTEC and more specifically to conduct research into terrestrial system fluctuation, to extract rock and fluid samples from the plate-boundary seismogenic layer, and further to penetrate into the mantle underneath the oceanic crust. Full-scale operations have been underway by us since December 2008.
The quest to reach and research the new region of “the Earth’s mantle” inspired the name of the company, Mantle Quest Japan, and gives CHIKYU, which is Japanese for ‘Planet Earth’, its goal.
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