Japan unveils new deep-sea probe for 8,000-meter dives
The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, unveiled on Monday a deep-sea explorer capable of reaching a depth of 8,000 meters, the most capable of such probes that the country has.
The explorer, Urashima 8000, is an improved version of the Urashima vehicle, which can dive to a depth of 3,500 meters.
Researchers hope that detailed study of the topography of the seabed such as around the Japan Trench can help uncover the mechanism behind the occurrence of giant earthquakes.
The Urashima is an autonomous probe under development since 1998. It can navigate without a crew on board by following a route entered into a built-in computer and can avoid obstacles by itself.
It was used to study landslides and volcanoes on the seabed.
The Urashima 8000 is 10.7 meters long and weighs 7 tons. The design of the previous version of the probe was refined so that equipment on board can withstand the water pressure at 8,000 meters below sea level, while the propeller was modified to enable faster diving.
According to JAMSTEC, the Urashima 8000 has reached a depth of about 6,600 meters so far in test dives. It is slated to dive to a depth of 8,000 meters in the Japan Trench off the Boso Peninsula in eastern Japan in July.
In November, the probe will conduct a survey of the sea area where the magnitude 9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in March 2011. It is set to begin full-scale operations in fiscal 2026.
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