Japanese Deep Sea Drilling Recognized by Guinness World Records

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Sep 24, 2025 22:32 (JST)

Tokyo, Sept. 24 (Jiji Press)–Deep sea drilling research conducted last year by the Japanese vessel Chikyu has been recognized as the world’s deepest scientific ocean drilling by the Guinness World Records, the vessel’s owner said Wednesday.

The 980 meters of drilling by the Chikyu started from 6,897.5 meters under the sea, making its drilling pipe 7,906 meters long.

The drilling research was conducted in September last year along the Japan Trench off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, to unravel the mechanism of a massive earthquake that struck in March 2011.

The Chikyu is owned by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, and operated by Mantle Quest Japan Co.

“We are very happy, thinking this as proof that our technology was recognized,” JAMSTEC President Hiroyuki Yamato said at a certificate ceremony in Tokyo.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press