Xi: Deep Earth sciences key to development

BEIJING: China will need to enhance research into deep Earth sciences to fulfil some of the country’s biggest strategic needs, from finding and utilising underground resources to predicting and mitigating natural disasters, experts said.In a speech addressing China’s top scientists and engineers in late May, President Xi Jinping urged the Chinese scientific community to break new ground in four strategic frontiers: deep space, deep sea, deep Earth and “deep blue”.

“Deep blue” refers to fields related to computer science and information technology, such as cyberspace security and artificial intelligence, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology, while deep Earth consists of geology, mineralogy, seismology, geothermal energy and other sciences related to understanding the Earth’s internal structure and utilising its resources.