Shallow drilling in the deep sea: The sea floor drill rig MeBo

A variety of research targets in marine sciences including the investigation of gas hydrates, slope stability, alteration of oceanic crust, ore formation and palaeoclimate can be addressed by shallow drilling in the deep sea. The offshore industry is becoming more interested in the deep sea as a target for the exploration of both hydrocarbon and mineral resources. Shallow drilling is required for geotechnical investigations for the dimensioning of anchors and foundations of for construction work as well as for prospect drilling for ore deposits. In general, standard sampling tools like gravity corers or dredges only allow recovery of fairly short cores from soft sediments or fragments of bedrock lying on the sea-floor surface. Drill ships providing deeper penetration are expensive and typically booked far in advance. Therefore, at the Marum Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen we have developed the drill rig MeBo, which can be deployed from standard research vessels, putting an affordable drilling process for the recovery of soft sediments and hard rocks entirely under our control. It is the first robotic drill that operates with wire-line coring tools.