Earth's Interior
Friday, December 16, 2005 9:35:20 AM
With the deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu Japan hopes to dig deeper into the Earth's surface than ever before. Deep drilling has been done before, but so far only into continental or oceanic crust – the skin of the Earth so to say. Now the scientists want to dig into the mantle, something so far generally thought impossible, not only because of the depth but certainly because of the immense heat down there. The research vessel is equipped with a 121-meter drill tower that can dig 7,000 meters below the seabed, nearly three times as deep as its predecessors. Oceanic drilling is preferred over land drilling because oceanic crust is thinner and allows for deeper digs into the crust and mantle. The results won't be ready tomorrow. The first voyage is scheduled for 2007 and I suppose that the digging will go on for many years.See spacedaily at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-05zzzzzh.html
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