抄録
Three years have passed since the completion of the Chikyu, a state-of-the-art scientific drilling vessel. As the main platform of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), the Chikyu explores the mysteries of planet Earth. The Chikyu aims to achieve scientific breakthroughs in the mechanism of great earthquakes, the origins of life, the past and future of the Earth's global climate, and drilling into the mantle. The Chikyu is the first science research vessel to be equipped with the Riser Drilling System, and she also has shipboard research laboratories on four dedicated decks with a total area of 2,300 m2. These laboratories have an extensive array of cutting-edge equipment used to conduct physical, chemical and biological analyses of recovered cores, pore water and boreholes. After the first dry-docking from March to May 2006, the Chikyu successfully performed shakedown drilling operations off Japan's Shimokita Peninsula, and then again off Kenya and the Northwest Australian Continental Shelf. The Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE), a complex multiyear ocean drilling project implemented as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, began the Chikyu's involvement with IODP drilling. NanTroSEIZE is a multiple-expedition project involving teams of some of the top scientists from all around the world. NanTroSEIZE attempts for the first time to drill, sample, and instrument the earthquake-causing, or seismogenic, portion of a plate subduction zone. The Chikyu successfully completed the first three Stage 1 NanTroSEIZE expeditions in 2007 and 2008. This paper describes the Chikyu's operations over the past three years.
