China's icebreaker Ocean No. 1 departed from the Cape Town Port at 14:00 on Nov. 23 South Africa local time for China's first scientific expedition to the Indian Ocean.

According to Guo Shiqin, chief scientist of the Ocean No. 1 mission, the scientific expedition to the Indian Ocean is predicted to last for over 40 days and the voyage will extend more than 6,000 sea miles. China's Indian Ocean expedition aims to obtain samples of hydrothermal sulfide and life forms, comprehensively research the geological, geophysical and geochemical background of the mid-ocean ridge in the Indian Ocean, and look for new abnormal hydrothermal regions, in order to accumulate fundamental information for future researches on hydrothermal sulfide resources in the Indian Ocean.

Ocean No. 1 icebreaker will also go by the sea near Indonesia's Sumatra Island where the severe tsunami happened last year and collect materials and samples concerning this area's terrain, active fault structure, sediment and volcano.

(chinanews November 25, 2005)