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Deep
Trough Drilling
Jonathan Lewis, from
IUP’s Geoscience department, is one of only eight U.S. scientists selected
for an international expedition on the state-of-the-art drilling vessel
Chikyu. The expedition, organized by Japan’s Agency for Marine-Earth
Science and Technology, the leading marine-earth science research
institute in Japan, is to study plate tectonic processes in order to
better understand Earth’s largest earthquakes.
Lewis’s expedition is
part of the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment, a series of
expeditions that will occur over the next few years coordinated by the
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. These expeditions are designed to drill
through, sample, and study a multitude of plate tectonic processes
involved with the subduction zone off the coast of Japan.
 “The
Chikyu is equipped with a specialized casing system to allow us to
drill with controlled pressures within the hole and penetrate formations
that would otherwise not accommodate drilling equipment because of the
pressure of the formations,” Lewis said.
The Nankai Trough,
located off the coast of southern Japan, is one of the most active
earthquake zones on the planet and one of the best-studied subduction
zones in the world. It has a 1,300-year record of generating earthquakes
that typically cause tsunamis, including the 1944 Tonankai and the 1946
Nankaido earthquakes.
“We’re making great
progress with our work in spite of a short period of rough seas related to
the tail end of a typhoon. The collection of international scientists I’m
working with is amazing, and the discussions about what we’re coring
through are energized,” he said.
For more information
about the expedition, visit
www.jamstec.go.jp/chikyu/eng/Expedition/NantroSEIZE.
(December, 2007)
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