India, Aug. 29 -- Far beneath the Pacific Ocean, inside the Japan Trench about seven kilometers down, scientists are looking for answers to what causes some of the world's strongest earthquakes and tsunamis, as reported by the Independent.

From September to December 2024, a team of 60 scientists joined drill crews on the Chikyu, the world's largest scientific drilling ship. The project, called IODP Expedition 405, drilled into the fault zone off Japan where the 2011 Tohoku earthquake began.

The mission reached the "decollement," the base of the fault that broke in 2011. Sediment and rock cores were collected to study how such destructive quakes and tsunamis are set off.

The March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake was magnitude 9.1. It created...