The Mainichi solutions some questions readers might have about Japan’s Urashima 8000 deep-sea exploration car and its missions.
Question: What is the Urashima 8000 autonomous underwater car (AUV)?
Answer: Originally, it was merely the AUV Urashima, succesful of diving to depths of 3,500 meters. It underwent modifications beginning in 2022 to dive even deeper.
In the deep sea, the car navigates about 100 meters above the seabed, utilizing sonar to map the terrain’s contours and hardness, in addition to geological constructions as much as 100 meters beneath the seabed. While sonar mapping will be completed from floor ships, the Urashima 8000 can obtain 100 occasions the decision in comparison with floor observations as a result of its proximity to the sea’s backside.
Q: How does it navigate in the deep sea?
A: Since GPS alerts do not attain the deep sea, navigation routes are preset. The car makes use of sonar communication with its mom ship on the floor to precisely decide its place, and it continuously measures acceleration to guage its location alongside the route.
Q: What type of analysis is being carried out?
A: After a number of check voyages, in July the Urashima 8000 ventured into the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, the deepest trench round Japan. It additionally carried out check observations at Takuyo-Daisan Seamount off Chiba Prefecture’s Boso Peninsula, anticipated to have plentiful uncommon mineral assets like cobalt-rich crusts, and in the Japan Trench off Miyagi Prefecture in the nation’s northeast, the focus of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Q: What has been found?
A: In the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, the seabed, beforehand regarded as flat, was revealed to have intricate contours with valleys about 40 meters deep. Toshiya Fujiwara, a senior researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), expressed his shock and delight, saying, “I was amazed by the detailed data and felt a happy sense of wonder about how to interpret it.”
Q: How a lot has been surveyed?
A: Fujiwara’s analysis group surveyed an space equal to Koto Ward in Tokyo (spanning about 41 sq. kilometers) over 141.7 kilometers and 25 1/2 hours of navigation in the Japan Trench. They recognized a cliff with a most peak distinction of about 60 meters working north-south, believed to be the edge of the land that moved eastward throughout the Great East Japan Earthquake, and several other ridges and grooves with peak variations of 30 to 50 meters to the west.
Examining the subsurface construction revealed that the sedimentary layers had been displaced or bent in locations, with advanced mesh-like faults working north-south and east-west. Fujihara said, “We want to analyze the data in detail and interpret how such topography was formed.”
Q: Is Urashima dealing with all of Japan’s deep-sea exploration?
A: With the potential to dive to about 8,000 meters, the vessel can cowl 98% of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). However, whereas it excels at broad seabed surveys, it can not absolutely descend to the seabed to take images from the backside or gather samples of soil and organisms.
Q: Are there different strategies?
A: Various exploration automobiles are being developed to go well with totally different functions and depths.
For the “Full Depth” problem at the deepest level in Earth’s floor, 11,000 meters, a system combining a seabed-installed commentary machine and a small autonomous exploration car is being developed. The commentary machine has a big energy provide for fixed-point observations and communication with ships. It has already been efficiently examined at 9,200 meters. The small exploration car, set to start operations round 2027, will autonomously transfer horizontally whereas amassing seabed organisms and rocks.
Q: Can people dive that deep?
A: Japan’s Shinkai 6500 manned submersible has made quite a few discoveries. Built in 1989, it led the world in deep-sea exploration, however abroad analysis establishments and personal firms are actually creating automobiles that may dive deeper. Shinkai 6500 will attain the finish of its design lifespan in the 2040s, however as a result of the value and technical challenges, no particular plans for a successor have been made.
The present plan is to maximise the use of present automobiles and effectively conduct analysis voyages by assigning roles to a range of exploration automobiles, together with unmanned ones. The mom ship Yokosuka, which carries numerous exploration automobiles, is additionally set to get a successor by the 2030s, permitting for simultaneous operation of a number of automobiles and tripling effectivity.
Q: Does this imply analysis will transfer ahead?
A: Japan’s deep seas current quite a few analysis wants, together with catastrophe prevention associated to earthquakes, tsunamis and submarine volcanoes, in addition to understanding marine plastic air pollution and investigating worthwhile seabed mineral assets and deep-sea organisms. The future missions of numerous exploration automobiles are extremely anticipated.
(Japanese unique by Tomoko Mimata, Lifestyle, Science & Environment Department)