A joint Chinese-Chilean expedition will plumb the uncharted depths of the Atacama Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Setting off from Valparaiso aboard the Chinese research vessel Tan Suo Yi Hao, the three-month mission seeks new life forms and insights into earthquakes and tsunamis. The collaboration provides Chilean scientists with tools no other country possesses.
On Monday, the Chinese research vessel Tan Suo Yi Hao will depart from the Chilean port city of Valparaiso, carrying researchers on a three-month expedition covering 700km (435 miles) around the Atacama Trench. The Atacama Trench is one of the deepest and least explored regions of the eastern Pacific. The expedition, three years in the making, is led by the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Millennium Institute of Oceanography (IDO) of the University of Concepcion, Chile.
The expedition committee has described it as “the largest [such operation] in the area carried out to date”. The university said in a statement on January 9: “an alliance formed years before which allows Chilean scientists to use tools that no other country currently possesses, accelerating years of research in only one mission”.
The mission will involve 33 research stations and nearly 20 submersible dives to probe the trench's depths. It is seen as key to understanding subduction processes along the Pacific seismic belt – with direct implications for China, Japan, the Koreas and Southeast Asia.