Attempt to drill through Earth’s crust begins this week
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029412
BBC : A team of researchers and drillers aboard a ship in the Indian Ocean is poised to begin a multiyear expedition with the goal of penetrating the ocean floor and obtaining a sample of Earth’s mantle. Chris MacLeod of Cardiff University is leading the project, under the auspices of the International Ocean Discovery Program. The first outing has been funded for two months. The drill site is in an area called the Atlantis Bank, a thinner-than-average region of the crust located on the South West Indian Ridge. In that area, the seabed is 700 m below the ocean’s surface, and the crust is only 5–5.5 km thick. The initial drilling is expected to reach a depth of roughly 1.3 km below the sea floor. Subsequent drilling will likely resume in 2018, depending on funding and the availability of a suitable ship.
