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

LiveScience ^ | April 7, 2005 | Robert Roy Britt

[beezdotcom]

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. The rock collection brought back to the surface is providing new information about the planet's composition.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

[76834]

Phillips Petroleum drilled to 25,000+ feet in the Permian Basin in the 1960's. The well was a duster.

There are parts around Crane, Texas that a well less than 18,000 ft would be considered shallow.
Reason I know is I was a roughneck on one of em back when I was a kid /grin>

[arthurus]

What about gases being released?

Maybe this is the new approach to space travel. We don't have to build a space ship, just send Earth to the moon with the resulting megajet. Then our scientists can reach over and take samples to find out just what kind of cheese is green.

[D Rider]

Do you remeber the movie "Crack in the World"

Great movie, couldn't find a poster or trailer to link to. It has become obscure.

[tnfarmer]

Jeeze,this is little off the subject,but is the new Dr.Who on the BBC Dish Network channel ?

He was the one with the big scarf ?

[kemathen7]

Whichever. Hey, it seemed logical when I was 8! I'm much older and wiser now. And I also don't work in the sciences - it wasn't my strength, obviously.

[spinestein]

I found this information that seems interesting.


[The thermoelectric generator
While the Seebeck voltage is very small (in the order of 10-70µV/°C), if the circuit's electrical resistance is low (thick, short wires), then large currents are possible (e.g. many amperes). An efficiency trade-off of electrical resistance (as small as possible) and thermal resistance (as large as possible) between the junctions is the major issue. Generally, electrical and thermal resistances trend together with different materials. The output voltage can be increased by wiring as a thermopile.
The thermoelectric generator has found its best-known application as the power source in some spacecraft. A radioactive material, such as plutonium, generates heat and cooling is provided by heat radiation into space. Such an atomic power source can reliably provide many tens of watts of power for years. The fact that atomic generators are highly radioactive prevents their wider application.]






This leads me to believe that the efficiency of using this effect to generate electricity wouldn't be practical for a hole drilled in the Earth due to the fact that the length of wire would be many miles long (high resistance) and the difference in temperature insufficient.

[dfwddr]

MOHO,..... isn't that another name for MILF ??

[Dog Gone]

There are parts around Crane, Texas that a well less than 18,000 ft would be considered shallow.

I thought I made an 18,000 foot hole just out of Crane when I was skydiving about 20 years ago. I was out of the cast within 10 months.

Oh yes, Crane. I'll never forget that place.

[76834]

I tend to agree.
The I²R losses would be more that practical unless you had humongous conductors.
Go back to my initial thought of water, steam , condensate method.
Very similar to the Frasch Process for extracting sulphur but in reverse.
Cold water goes down and hot water/steam comes up.

[76834]

LOL
Didnt look up, was too busy working backup tongs and spinning chain.....

[spinestein]

Check out this cool product.

http://www.hi-z.com/websit04.htm

[spinestein]

I do like the water idea, though.

[Dog Gone]

So that was you! I was screaming Holy *%#@, somebody catch me, but nobody looked up.

[76834]

LOL
So that was you! I was screaming So that was you! I was screaming Holy *%#@, somebody catch me, but nobody looked up.somebody catch me, but nobody looked up.

Back in them old days, runnin backup tongs, I just said "Holy *%#@," I just hope the snub chain stays together.

[beezdotcom]

Have you also converted to Judaism for the jokes?

No, but I AM the Master of my Domain.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Steam can corrode boiler tubes. They usually add NaOH to it to even out the PH level...Also trace elements in the shaft will dissolve out...they'd have to put a liner in.

But still Geo-thermal is a great way to generate the power...too bad the greenie-weenies complian about the transmission lines...

[windcliff]

ping

[JeffAtlanta]

Thats what I thought. The teacher didn't have a really good answer as to why it wouldn't work. Honestly - this idea nagged at me for years ... until I took geology in high school. Then I got it.

What was wrong with the idea? Would the waste just become molten and then fill up the hole?

[kemathen7]

I think you'd have issues with the gases coming to the earth's surface ... unless there was some way to contain it.

I also realized its hard to get to the layer of lava. I also wonder how hard it would be to keep the hole open.

But hey - I only work in HR. I can only solve employment issues.