Plan to drill into Earth’s mantle set for 2020
MAR 24, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025164
National Geographic : For the first time, scientists are planning to drill all the way through Earth’s kilometers-thick crust to the planet’s deep, hot mantle and retrieve samples, writes Richard Lovett for National Geographic. The samples, they say, would rival Moon rocks for sheer scientific importand be nearly as hard to get. Until now, suitable technology was lacking. But better knowledge of Earth’s shell and technological advancesfor example, a Japanese drill ship equipped with 10 kilometers of drilling pipehave put the goal within reach, according to a commentary in this week’s issue of Nature, cowritten by Damon Teagle, a geologist at the University of Southampton in the UK. Mantle rocks would tell us much about Earth’s origins and history, says Teagle.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
