Posted on 04/07/2005 2:06:11 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Exactly! This could be one gigantic heat and steam pump. There's a lot of energy at the center of the earth and not just heat.
Google "Blowout Preventer" and see what you come up with.....
I remember they did this in a "Doctor Who" episode. They drilled through the crust, the resulting gasses transformed most of the science crew into troglodytes, and then the magma welled up through the hole and destroyed the Earth...in another universe. The Doctor (John Pertwee, if memory serves) escaped in the nick of time with the central control section of the TARDIS back to his Earth. He then prevented the drill from going through.
So, for goodness' sake, don't do it!
and off we go zip zapping around the Universe :O)
Well that's good news. What about gases being released? Anything nasty down there?
This does sound pretty cool, anyway. And amazing as well.
We'll even make that same weird sound.
"The former Amoco Oil company drilled a awfully deep hole (some say more than 17,000 feet), looking for oil in SE Iowa back in the 1970s. They found a few seeps but nothing of value until a neighbing farmer moved an outhouse over the hole..."
Hope the farmer didn't try to hold his breath until he heard the kerplunk!
The whole system would be pressurized.
Mel's hole bump!
Paging Art Bell. Mr. Art Bell, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
"Why does this sound to me like a really bad idea?"
Ah!...yes, well you remember - that the dwarves mined too deep and released a Balrog, a demon of the ancient world.
Been there, done that...
well, don't volcanoes spew out deadly sulfur gases?
and like heavyrunner says - these materials are already brought to the surface, courtesy of volcanoes.
Sounds like another grant bucks boondoggle
sounds pretty HOT to me ;o)
SIES!!!!!
Back in my much younger days (we're talking 8 yrs old), the big "crisis" of the day was trash/litter. Americans were going to ruin the world with all of their consumption. I remember my teachers doing unit after unit on recycling, conservation, taking the bus, picking up litter, etc. You get the idea.
Well, my "bright" idea to solve the problem was to drill a hole to the liquid hot magma and throw all the trash in there.
I'm simply beyond my time ;-)
Would be cheaper anyway to drill into the side of an active volcano.
Now, by gum, there's a think-outside-the-boxer
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