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Journey Towards The Center of the Earth

Posted by Zonk on from the verne-would-have-been-proud dept.

linumax wrote to mention an article detailing an ambitious Japanese-led voyage towards the center of the earth. From the article: "The deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu made a port call Thursday in Yokohama after ending its first training mission at sea since being built in July at a cost of 500 million dollars. The 57,500-ton Chikyu, which means the Earth in Japanese, is scheduled to embark in September 2007 on a voyage to collect the first samples of the Earth's mantle in human history. The project, led by Japan and the United States with the participation of China and the European Union, seeks clues on primitive organisms that were the forerunners of life and on the tectonic plates that shake the planet's foundations" They also hope to use the information to detect earthquakes more accurately. A 4 page PDF presentation about the Chikyu deep-sea drilling vessel is also available."

8 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Bush cronies jumping on the bandwagon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They say that the Actic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska would be a perfect place to drill through to the mantle, since oil offers so little resistance and simultaniously lubricates the bit. And what harm will come if a bunch of it happens to flow up to the surface by accident?

  2. The Atheist Agenda by FatAssBastard · · Score: 5, Funny
    The project...seeks clues on primitive organisms that were the forerunners of life...

    Neo-Darwinist heathens! There is only ONE "forerunner" of life on this planet, and that's GOD!

    --
    /.: why the hell am I here?
    1. Re:The Atheist Agenda by dcapel · · Score: 5, Informative

      What do you mean God?

      It was the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you insensitive clod!

      --
      DYWYPI?
  3. Detecting quakes? What about causing them? by HikingStick · · Score: 5, Funny
    I probably would not have run down this rabbit trail expcept for recent news that hints that the world's tallest building may have activated an old fault line.

    Ever see a pop can with a small hole in it? I mean, do they really have a clue what might happen if they provide a channel for deep magma flows to rise? Sure, it's a little sci-fi doomsday scenario, but I'd hate to be the one who signed off on the risk assessment for this project.

    Scientist 1: Hey, Jimmie, remember that movie we saw when we were kids? The one where they go to the center of the earth?

    Scientist 2: Sure, why'dya ask?

    Scientist 1: I got this reasearch grant and I thought we could drill down to see if those giant mushrooms were real.

    Scientest 2: Sure, I'm in.

    --
    I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
  4. Re:That drill bit better ... by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Funny
    BTW once that bit hits magma that is spining at a different rate from the platform, it will shear.
    You really need to brush up on your Hollywood Physics.

    In The Core they're using a laser drill known as the "Virgil"

    It uses LASER beams to soften up the material ahead of the drill bit. So I imagine that if they went from material of one density to another, the drill bit wouldn't really care.

    You know, a lot of very smart people put large amounts of effort into working out a believable framework for these movies.

    Geez, everyone's a critic
    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  5. Journey to the center of the earth? by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That drill is going to make about 0.1% of the way.

  6. They won't come out in China... by PavementPizza · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...digging from Japan, it looks like they'll come out off the coast of Uruguay (cool Google maps hack shows you where you will come out if you dig a hole through the center of the earth from any location).

    --
    Viper is the preferred editor of the Emacs operating system.
  7. Re:I've always wondered... by LeadfootCA · · Score: 5, Informative
    The mantle is composed primarily of solid rock. From Wikipedia:

    Mantle rock consists of olivines, different pyroxenes and other mafic minerals. Typified by peridotite, dunite, and eclogite, mantle rocks also possesses a higher portion of iron and magnesium and a smaller portion of silicon and aluminium than the crust. In the mantle, temperatures range between 100C at the upper boundary to over 3,500C at the boundary with the core. Although these temperatures far exceed the melting points of the mantle rocks at the surface, particularly in deeper ranges, they are almost exclusively solid. The enormous lithostatic pressure exerted on the mantle prevents them from melting.