Posted on 03/05/2007 6:15:54 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British scientists has set sail on a voyage to examine why a huge chunk of the earth's crust is missing, deep under the Atlantic Ocean -- a phenomenon that challenges conventional ideas about how the earth works.
The 20-strong team aims to survey an area some 3,000 to 4,000 metres deep where the mantle -- the deep interior of the earth normally covered by a crust kilometres thick -- is exposed on the sea floor.
Experts describe the hole along the mid-Atlantic ridge as an "open wound" on the ocean floor that has puzzled scientists for the five or so years that its existence has been known because it defies existing tectonic plate theories of evolution.
"We know so little about it," said Bramley Murton, a senior research scientist at Southampton's National Oceanography Center.
"It's a real challenge to our established understanding of what the earth's surface looks like underneath the waves," he told Reuters by telephone from the brand new, hi-tech British research ship RRS James Cook.
Mid ocean ridges are places where new oceanic crust is born, with red-hot lava spewing out along the seafloor.
What scientists are keen to know is whether the crust was ripped away by huge geological faults, or whether it never even developed in the first place.
The primary motivation for the project was to understand how the earth continues to evolve.
"The area that we are looking at is part of a mountain range that spans thousands of square kilometres, but we are beginning to realize that there are probably millions of square kilometres where the ocean floor is missing," Murton said.
The six week mission, led by geophysicist Roger Searle of Durham University and Chris MacLeod of Cardiff University's School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, will recover sample cores of rock by drilling into the mantle using a rig lowered on to the sea floor.
Asked if the discovery posed a threat to the environment, Murton replied: "It's not problematic for the earth because it is a natural earth process -- but in terms of knowing how the earth works and how the world is put together it is important."
Murton also said the expedition would shed light on the composition of sea water amongst other initiatives.
Crust formation is a fundamental mechanism of the earth which affects the chemistry of the world's oceans.
Progress by the research team can be monitored via a live web link to the ship at: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/JC007/.
The Royal Research Ship James Cook sits alongside the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton in an undated file photo. A team of British scientists has set sail on a voyage to examine why a huge chunk of the earth's crust is missing, deep under the Atlantic Ocean -- a phenomenon that challenges conventional ideas about how the earth works. (Classroom @ Sea/Handout/Reuters)
Progress by the research team can be monitored via a live web link to the ship at:
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/JC007/ .
also posted a couple days ago..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1794874/posts
Earth's Crust Missing In Mid-Atlantic ^
Posted by Ma3lst0rm
On News/Activism ^ 03/03/2007 9:52:30 PM PST · 105 replies · 2,916+ views
Science Daily ^ | March 2007 | Cardiff University
Earth's Crust Missing In Mid-Atlantic"Scientists have discovered a large area thousands of square kilometers in extent in the middle of the Atlantic where the Earth’s crust appears to be missing. Instead, the mantle - the deep interior of the Earth, normally covered by crust many kilometers thick - is exposed on the seafloor, 3000m below the surface." Click to Read More About Missing Crust Could the event that caused this huge section of crust to go missing have been responsible for the change in thermohaline circulation that occurred at the end of the period known as the "Younger Dryas" in...
You're quick. ;-)
I wonder if there are "tectonic offsets" we can buy to help stop this global problem that is probably the "fault" of the USA.
Separation of the moon from where the Pacific is now, perhaps, with the rest of the crust rushing in to scab over the wound, leaving a gash on the Atlantic side?
Check Hillary's pantsuit.
Clearly this is because of global warming and is all Bush's fault for not signing onto Kyoto. /s
I think it's in my front yard,,cost ya' to check..
I suspect that Bush and Chaney have something to do with it.
Meadow Muffin
Ex-squeeze me?
Memo to Algor: Earth changes all the time, and we seldom understand why. Live with it.
Have Algore's carbon footprints been seen in the area?
Is this a GGG ping????
AlGore's carbon footprint?
Hmmmm, deeper than the Mariana Trench?
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