The deep-sea drilling vessel ?Chikyu?, which will be used to drill to the deepest depths of the ocean to shed light on the mysteries beneath the planet's crust, was delivered to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which built the research vessel, held a delivery ceremony at its dockyard in Nagasaki. The 210-meter, 57,087 GT ship is theoretically capable of drilling 7,000 metres below the seabed. JAMSTEC plans to open the vessel to the public in Yokosuka, in September after fine-tuning its equipment in August. The ship, which is equipped with a 130-metre-high drilling platform, will depart for its first drilling mission off the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori next summer. The agency said earlier that the ship will drill 2,500 metres in the first mission to break the 2,111 metre record held by a U.S. drilling ship. Test drilling will be undertaken by about 60 agency staff and engineers from a Norwegian firm to confirm the ship's performance by September 2007.


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