The scientific research ship Dayang Yihao (Ocean
No.1) set off on Monday from the eastern coastal city of
Qingdao. The occasion is worth marking since part of the trip will
be led by Han Xiqiu, an ocean scientist and China's first female
chief scientist for maritime exploration.
"The 220-day journey will consist of six different phases, and
each phase will have its own chief scientist," said 38-year-old
Han, a renowned researcher on seabed science with the Second
Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration.
Han will board the ship prior to the Spring Festival, China's lunar New Year that is
to fall on February 18, while the ship navigates the Indian
Ocean.
Researchers will monitor and map the ocean floor for potential
deep-sea mining operations and conduct deep-sea biological
research. The research will cover the southwestern part of the
Indian Ocean, the southwest Pacific Ocean and the western part of
the Pacific Ocean.
"We are expecting to find new areas of sea floor with positive
signs of hot liquid sulfides," said Han. Scientists refer to these
"thermal vents" as "black chimneys."
Han explained that "black chimneys" are greatly important to the
study of marine resources and the origins of life since signs of
life have been found around the phenomena.
"First-hand data about life formations near thermal vents are
also a focus of the research mission, as biological gene study in
this extreme environment may help in the fight against human
diseases," she said.
Han?said that studies of the distribution of hot liquid
sulfides on the sea floor will provide data to follow up Dayang
Yihao's previous mission.
On January 23, 2006, after a transoceanic voyage, Dayang
Yihao returned home with over a ton of hydrothermal sulfide
samples containing copper, zinc and precious metals such as gold
and silver, after 300 days at sea.
Setting off from Qingdao in April 2005, Dayang Yihao
traveled 43,230 nautical miles (79,975 kilometers), sailing the
Pacific and joining the Atlantic through the Panama Canal. It then
traveled to the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope before
returning to the Pacific through the Straits of Malacca,
and?completed its round-the-globe voyage.
"More than 150 pieces of sea floor with hot liquid sulfides have
been found worldwide, but we Chinese have done little," Han
said.
China began oceanic science research in the 1970s and drew up
its oceanic mine resource plan in 1984. China has since established
hi-tech work platforms for deep-sea mineral exploitation,
transportation and smelting.
Dayang Yihao, China's major oceanic science research
vessel, was launched in 1995.
Up until now, Dayang Yihao has never had a female chief
scientist. "Life aboard a research ship is not normal," Han said.
"You've got to work, work and work and there is no perception of
time, even though the days on the calendar change."
(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2007)
