Recent And Future Developments of Deep Sea Research In JAMSTEC

The first real-time and long-term deep seafloor observatory in JAMSTEC was deployed in 1993 at a depth of 1,174 m in Sagami Bay. A continuous observation more than three years long has been carried out so far. The second observatory for monitoring submarine earthquakes will be deployed off Muroto Peninsula in Nankai Trough in March 1997. The third one, to start observations in 1998, is a re-use of the submarine telephone cable between Okinawa and Guam Islands. The full ocean depth ROV Kaiko accomplished the deepest diving to the Mariana Trench in 1995 and 1996. OD21, a Japanese deepsea drilling project for the 21st century, started planning and hardware designing in 1994.