The Chikyu and Ocean Drilling Science

The construction of a Deep Sea Drilling Vessel, the Chikyu began in April 2001 and was completed in the summer of 2005 [Taira, 2005]. The Chkyu is a 210 meter-long vessel, with a gross tonnage of 57,087 tons, and a drilling derrick standing 121 m above sea level. The Chikyu is a state-of-the-art drilling platform, with a highly automated drill floor system capable of being run efficiently and safely by only a small number of operators, and provides a fully integrated riser and blow-out preventer (BOP) drilling system. The Chikyu enables operations in geological environments and at depths previously inaccessible to scientific drilling.