Chinese deep-ocean drilling ship brings home ‘precious’ South China Sea samples

The ocean drilling ship Mengxiang has returned from its first expedition in the South China Sea, where it set a national depth record and obtained basalt core samples that could help to unravel the region’s tectonic history.The 30-day expedition organised by the China Geological Survey tested the operational capabilities of the world’s most powerful deep-ocean drilling ship, according to a report published on Monday by the official ministry newspaper Science and Technology Daily.During the voyage operated by the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, the ship conducted drilling and sampling at two sites and obtained “a large number of precious core samples and data”, it said.