For the first time, automated, long-term observatories are to be established on the sea floor in one of the world's most active earthquake zones. Their measurements could help forecast future earthquakes. An array of sensors will be placed down deep boreholes about 150 kilometres off the east coast of Japan. The region is known as the Japan Trench. The sensors will record earthquakes as well as the slow collision between two of the Earth's plates.
Subduction zones are the sites of the largest and most destructive earthquakes on the planet.
These are caused by the sudden release of built-up stress as one plate grinds past the other. Monitoring seismic activity over an extended period of time will enable scientists to understand better how and when strain is released at the Japan Trench. The data may help scientists to forecast earthquakes more accurately. Deep down The Joides Resolution, the world's largest research ship, will drill the holes. The boreholes will drill 1,000 metres into the sea floor Scientists hope to establish the long-term geophysical observatories in the bottom of two boreholes.