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$1 Billion Mission To Reach the Earth's Mantle
black6host writes "Humans have reached the moon and are planning to return samples from Mars, but when it comes to exploring the land deep beneath our feet, we have only scratched the surface of our planet. This may be about to change with a $1 billion mission to drill 6 km (3.7 miles) beneath the seafloor to reach the Earth's mantle — a 3000 km-thick layer of slowly deforming rock between the crust and the core which makes up the majority of our planet — and bring back the first ever fresh samples."
Forgive my ignorance here but don't we already have this? What's wrong with using a volcano?
"Down there," said Golg, "I could show you real gold, real silver, real diamonds."
"Bosh!" said Jill rudely. "As if we didn't know that we're below the deepest mines even here."
"Yes," said Golg. "I have heard of those little scratches in the crust that you Topdwellers call mines. But
that's where you get dead gold, dead silver, dead gems. Down in Bism we have them alive and growing.
There I'll pick you bunches of rubies that you can eat and squeeze you a cup full of diamond-juice. You
won't care much about fingering the cold, dead treasures of your shallow mines after you have tasted the
live ones of Bism."
"My father went to the world's end," said Rilian thoughtfully. "It would be a marvellous thing if his son
went to the bottom of the world."
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
I know it isn't going to happen like this, but I cannot help but think of the flooded salt mine on Lake Peigneur. Some drillers miscalculated their location and drilled down, through a lake bed, into a nearby salt mine shaft. The lake was drained and temporarily reversed the flow of nearby rivers. Look it up on youtube... its kind of interesting to hear how a relatively small 14 inch drill bit can cause a disaster large enough to sink multiple barges and reverse rivers.
You see, they did exist. Since the universe is only 6,000 years old, what happened is that God blinked us into existence. Realizing, in his omnipotent knowledge, that humanity would some day understand the laws of the universe which he created, He decided to create 13+ billion years of history to fool us with. So the dinosaurs did exist, just long enough for God to kill them and bury their bones, so that we would have fossils and oil. Because God decided it would be easier to create everything in 6 days instead of kicking back on his supernatural couch, sipping a beer, and watch the universe grow on it's own.
Or, if you prefer, God could be at a gas station next to a dusty road in the middle of the desert. Where nothing is said because it has all been said.
sudo make me a sandwich
<speculation type="wild"/>
Ever consider if this is what happened to life on Mars? Martian life evolves, gets curious about their own planet's interior and start digging. The result?
Shutdown of their planet's magnetosphere
Venting a majority of their atmosphere into space
Olympus frikkin Mons
Enough material is ejected from the mantle to cause the crust to collapse down on it, creating the Valles Marineris
Needless to say, the martians then pack up all of their stuff, erase any evidence of them ever being there (it's too embarassing) and move to Venus. Where they promptly melt.