
Japanese drill ship fails to reach the earthquake-generating zone - daddylonglegs
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01551-6
======
hcknwscommenter
I do not understand this article. According to wikipedia, the deepwater
horizon drilled to 10,683 m in 1,259 m of water. Acccording to the nature
article, the deepest ever holes drilled were successively the 2,900 and 3,200
m deep holes drilled by the Chikyu. 2,900 seems a lot less than 10,683. What
is going on here?

~~~
derekdahmer
Each drilling area has its own unique geology. Something about this specific
area (e.g. heavier mud, cracks in the bed rock) led to their hole collapsing
before they could reach their target depth despite trying a few different
techniques.

~~~
hcknwscommenter
All most likely true. And yet, the Nature article clearly states that the
Chikyu set the record for deepest hole drilled. They don't qualify about
unique geography or for-scientific-purposes. This is odd. I generally find
that Nature tries to be accurate to a fault. Having written a "news and views"
for Nature once, I find the seeming inaccuracies incomprehensible.

~~~
wavefunction
I pointed out above the Deepwater figure is depth from ocean surface while the
Chikyu figure is depth below the ocean floor, so as long as the depth of the
ocean is ~20,000 feet where the Chikyu drilled to that depth, it all checks
out.

------
darylteo
Are they trying to achieve any goals by reaching that depth other than
"because the tech could be useful to have"? Out of curiousity.

~~~
throwaway9980
Unleashing Godzilla?

~~~
dang
Not here, please.

------
RickJWagner
I remember digging holes in the back yard as a little boy, also remember
building rock and dirt dams in the curb on rainy days.

I think this is why this article fascinates me. Hopefully, grown little kids
around the world will reconsider this drilling problem and come up with an
answer.

------
mjevans
Maybe a different approach would be to have an automated robotic drilling
"rig" on the ocean floor, which a ship could restock and maybe also power via
a tether. As a bonus the under-sea rig could also have a data+power telemetry
cable run to the shore and operations might continue even without a ship
present.

~~~
bArray
Unfortunately it doesn't seem as though automation would solve any problems
regarding hole collapse. Not only this, it would probably only serve to
increase running costs and introduce more failure points. They have the choice
of going with well tested and understood drilling methods, compared with
untested automated drilling methods.

