A remotely operated 6020-meter seafloor corer

Abstract

A remotely operated coring system has been developed that achieves its extended coring depth capability by making up and breaking down a drill string to advance the hole. The system has an operating depth of 6000 meters and is capable of coring continuously in hard rock to a depth of 20 meters. The system is currently installed on the research vessel Hakurei Maru No.2 operated by the Metal Mining Agency of Japan. The methods used to achieve this system's 20 meter coring depth are also being used to develop systems with coring depths to 100 meters. This concept can also be adapted for the sampling of unconsolidated materials and gathering of in-situ data. This system should be of interest to both the commercial and scientific research communities with applications ranging from geophysical data acquisition to marine mineral assessment.