[LANMaster]

Hole Drilled to Bottom of Earth's Crust, Breakthrough to Mantle Looms

Seeking the elusive 'Moho'

Scientist said this week they had drilled into the lower section of Earth's crust for the first time and were poised to break through to the mantle in coming years.

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) seeks the elusive "Moho," a boundary formally known as the Mohorovicic discontinuity. It marks the division between Earth's brittle outer crust and the hotter, softer mantle.

The depth of the Moho varies. This latest effort, which drilled 4,644 feet (1,416 meters) below the ocean seafloor, appears to have been 1,000 feet off to the side of where it needed to be to pierce the Moho, according to one reading of seismic data used to map the crust's varying thickness.

The new hole, which took nearly eight weeks to drill, is the third deepest ever made into the floor of the sea, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The rock collection brought back to the surface is providing new information about the planet's composition.

"It will provide important clues on how ocean crust forms," said Rodey Batiza, NSF program director for ocean drilling.

Already the types of rocks recovered show that conventional interpretation of Earth's evolution are "oversimplifying many of the features of the ocean’s crust," said expedition leader Jay Miller of Texas A&M University. "Each time we drill a hole, we learn that Earth’s structure is more complex. Our understanding of how the Earth evolved is changing accordingly."

The latest drilling was done at the Atlantis Massif, located at the intersection of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Atlantis fracture zone, two plates of the planet's broken crust. The seafloor is shallower at the center of this region and therefore easier to reach.

It's not clear yet whether drilling should continue at the new hole or if another one should be started in the effort the reach the mantle. Such work isn't likely to begin again in the next year, said Barbara John, a University of Wyoming geologist and one of the co-chief scientists on the expedition.

"We need to evaluate all the data we have from the cruise and re-analyze the seismic data, to determine whether it's better to deepen the current hole or drill elsewhere, or maybe even collect additional seismic data to better constrain where to drill," John told LiveScience. "Our major result is that we've recovered the lower crust for the first time and have confirmed that the Earth's crust at this locality is more complicated than we thought."

John said mantle material will be evident when and if it's brought up because it will have different texture and chemistry and will contain different proportions of minerals compared with rock in the crust.

Drillers use the vessel JOIDES Resolution. The 10-year, $1.5 billion program is funded by the NSF and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.

Link

[bizzt]

Cool

[angelize56]

It'll probably cause a shift in the plates...triggering multiple large earthquakes....

[LANMaster]

Prolly just doing it to suck the devil out of ther center of the Earth.

[angelize56]

In all seriousness now...what if it does trigger some catastrophic event....what if it unleashes a deadly, incurable virus or bacteria that has lurked safely there for millions of years...know what I mean!

[LANMaster]

Good question.
What if it releases tremendous pressure, like a fingerhole in a dam that automatically widens from the pressure, spewing boiling lava thousands of miles into space like popping a big zit!

What if the Earth suddenly deflates like a beach ball?

But also consider, what if we could tap into that heat and use it to generate clean energy.

I'm not too concerned about a catastrophy. I don't think the hole would be large enough to shift any tectonics.

I'm not too concerned. But it is rather interesting. Another Earth frontier.
What if we find an underground civilization? Intra-terrestrials!

[Big-K]

Anyone ever seen the movie 'The Core'? Remember how AMAZINGLY easy it was for THEM to do it? That movie wasn't too good, but it sort've relates. Except in that one they were doing it so they could nuke the core. Terrible plot, terrible.

[cheese]

Originally Posted by angelize56

In all seriousness now...what if it does trigger some catastrophic event....what if it unleashes a deadly, incurable virus or bacteria that has lurked safely there for millions of years...know what I mean!

Then were doomed

[xgerryx]

Originally Posted by LANMaster

What if the Earth suddenly deflates like a beach ball?

What if the earth took off like a let go balloon flying around the living room of outer space.

[LANMaster]

Originally Posted by xgerryx

What if the earth took off like a let go balloon flying around the living room of outer space.

LMAO! That's a funny thought.

[brite750]

a deadly virus? I know life is very adaptable to the myraids of environments that exist on the Earth, but geeez, that would be one tough little muther virus.

[brite750]

Originally Posted by xgerryx

What if the earth took off like a let go balloon flying around the living room of outer space.

lol, and what would god say?......you poked a hole in the mantle, didnt ya?

[Big-K]

Originally Posted by brite750

a deadly virus? I know life is very adaptable to the myraids of environments that exist on the Earth, but geeez, that would be one tough little muther virus.

It would be one tough little muther bacteria. Viruses are non-living, they require bacterial hosts to reproduce. If there's a virus down there, there's bacteria as well that has amazing survival abilities.

[poochee]

I'd rather see this money spent on disease research.

[brite750]

Originally Posted by Big-K

It would be one tough little muther bacteria. Viruses are non-living, they require bacterial hosts to reproduce. If there's a virus down there, there's bacteria as well that has amazing survival abilities.

yeeew, thanks for planting that image in my head