China's first deep-ocean drilling vessel enters service, marking new exploration era

The Meng Xiang, China’s first domestically designed and built deep-ocean drilling vessel with a maximum drilling depth of 11 kilometers, was officially commissioned in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou on Sunday, marking a significant step toward exploring depths where humanity has never ventured before.

As China’s largest scientific research vessel, the Meng Xiang measures 179.8 meters in length and 32.8 meters in width, with a displacement of 42,600 tonnes. It boasts a range of 15,000 nautical miles, self-sustainability for 120 days, and the capacity to accommodate 180 people.

The vessel is the first in the world to integrate functions such as deep-ocean scientific drilling, oil and gas exploration, and natural gas hydrate investigation and trial extraction.

It is equipped with the world's first hydraulic lifting rig capable of both oil and gas exploration and core sampling, with a top drive lifting capacity of 907 tonnes. The vessel supports four drilling modes and three coring methods, meeting diverse operational needs such as deep-ocean coring and deep-sea resource exploration.

The vessel also features nine advanced laboratories covering areas such as geology, geochemistry, microbiology, ocean science, and drilling technology. It also includes the world's first automated shipborne core sample storage system which supports marine research.

Designed to meet the safety standards for super typhoons, it can operate normally in rough sea conditions and is capable of global missions in unrestricted waters.

Traditionally, human activities and scientific exploration have been confined to the Earth's crust, which averages 15 kilometers in thickness. Beneath the crust lies the mantle, a critical layer that connects the surface to the core. The commissioning of the Meng Xiang marks a significant step for humanity toward reaching or even breaking through the boundary between the crust and the mantle, known as the Mohorovicic discontinuity, or Moho.

"One of our goals is to drill through the Moho, using this vessel to enhance humanity's understanding of our blue planet," said Wang Chengshan, a renowned geologist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The deep-earth core samples it retrieves will offer global scientists direct evidence to study plate tectonics, oceanic crust evolution, ancient marine climates, and the evolution of life. This research will help humanity better understand, protect, and utilize the oceans, said Xu Zhenqiang, director of the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey under the China Geological Survey.

"Once the valuable deep-earth core samples are retrieved from the seabed, we will promptly generate scientific insights to advance our technological progress. Next, we will follow the relevant national deployment and arrangements, implement major national scientific projects, and resolve bottlenecks," said Xu.

China's first deep-ocean drilling vessel enters service, marking new exploration era

Returning to a full-scale war would have catastrophic consequences, a UN spokesman said at a press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday. Recent tensions over the Strait of Hormuz have exposed the deep divisions between the United States and Iran, further heightening uncertainty over their fragile ceasefire.

In response to a media query regarding the claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that the weeks-long ceasefire with Iran is on "massive life support," Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, stressed the need for concerted efforts to stay committed to negotiations.

He said that the United Nations will not be swayed by the rhetoric of the parties involved in the U.S.-Iran negotiations, and its core objective is to push all parties to remain committed to negotiations.

"We have tried over the years in all of our diplomatic efforts not to listen too much to the rhetoric by any particular side involved in negotiations. What we want to do is make sure that the parties themselves remain committed to negotiations. Certainly, we appreciate the role that Pakistan has been playing as a mediator, and we want the efforts to continue. A return to full-scale fighting would be, as the Secretary-General has repeatedly said, catastrophic," he said. Both U.S. and Iranian forces have fired shots at each other in the Strait of Hormuz since the ceasefire took effect earlier last month.

Returning to full-scale US-Iran war would be "catastrophic": UN official