International Cooperations

On-site Inspection of Scientific Drilling Project in Songliao Basin

Updated :08,19,2014
In August 2014, organized by China Geological Survey (CGS), heads from International Union of Geological Sciences(IUGS), International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), International Deep Carbon Observation Program (DCO) and other international geosciences research institutions, and delegates from American Science Fund Committee, Geological Society of Japan and Geological Society of Korea together with geoscientists from China, gathered in the oil city Daqing to do site inspection on the progress of International Continental Scientific Drilling Project in Songliao Basin (CCSD-SK).

International Continental Scientific Drilling Project of Songke No. 2 Well, which is jointly funded by CGS and ICDP, and the first continental scientific drilling well in the world to drill through the Cretaceous continental strata with the design depth of 6400m and the deepest scientific drilling well funded by ICDP and the deepest scientific drilling well ever in China. Approximately 4500 meters of the key core will be obtained by the implementation of Continental Scientific Drilling Project in Songliao Basin. This project together with Songke No. 1 Well completed in October 2007 will achieve Two Four-hole Wells, Ten Thousands of Meters of Continuous Coring, constituting the world's first almost complete Cretaceous continental sedimentary record in order to get high-resolution climate change record in eastern Asia during the Cretaceous period. Traditional geological time scale resolution will be improved to ten thousands of years, thus providing a more scientific basis for predicting future trends of global time scales of climate change. Top international scientific journal Nature gave a high appraisal in a special review article named Travel in Dinosaur Era. 

The academician Wang Chengshan, the chief scientist of ICDP in Songliao Basin and Commander Zhang Jinchang briefed the participants on-site, Dr. Thomas WIERSBERG from ICDP headquarters, vice president of IUGS professor Yildirim DILEK and domestic scholars and experts delivered speeches respectively, and spoke highly of the project. A total of more than 200 people attended the activity.


During the event, participants have also witnessed the key device demonstration of ten thousands meters of core drilling rig Crust One and key operation demonstration, such as drilling platform, core storehouses, etc. On-site discussion was conducted to solve the problems encountered during the drilling. The international seminar on the Continental Scientific Drilling, which was held later on the same day, proved to be a success.