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Scientists Begin Another Attempt To Drill Through the Earth's Crust

Posted by timothy on from the pardon-have-you-seen-my-ring? dept.

schwit1 writes: An expedition to the Indian Ocean is about to begin an effort to drill a core down through the Earth's crust and into its mantle. Geologists have been trying to drill through the contact between the crust and the mantle, called the Moho, since the 1960s, with no success. Either the projects have gone way over budget and been shut down, have failed due to engineering problems, or were stopped by the geology itself. This last issue is maybe the most interesting: "Expeditions have come close before. Between 2002 and 2011, four holes at a site in the eastern Pacific managed to reach fine-grained, brittle rock that geologists believe to be cooled magma sitting just above the Moho. But the drill could not punch through those tenacious layers. And in 2013, drillers at the nearby Hess Deep found themselves similarly limited by tough deep-crustal rocks." This new project hopes to learn from these past problems to obtain the first rock samples from below the Earth's crust. (Here's an eccentric introduction to the Hess Deep rift.)

171 comments

  1. I remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I remember the earlier attempt. The Doctor stopped it by going forward in time, or went to an alternate dimension or something. I can't remember, but I do remember it destroyed the world. With Nazis.

    1. Re:I remember by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Informative

      >> Doctor stopped it...went to an alternate dimension or something

      Yep: 3rd Doctor in "Inferno" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... - and just like Star Trek you knew it was an alternate dimension because character's facial hair was different.

    2. Re:I remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And one of them had an eye patch. Yes, I am a nerd.

    3. Re:I remember by tarpitcod · · Score: 1

      They had that groovy computer too.

    4. Re:I remember by sunderland56 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I remember a different attempt. I believe they missed the left turn at Albuquerque.

    5. Re:I remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're using the wrong lubrication for their drill bit... Should be using KY jelly... I'll bet you never saw that cumming.

    6. Re:I remember by KGIII · · Score: 2

      Of course not. They were using KY. That means they're coming in the back door!

      Anyhow, I sometimes wonder if scientists (of which I'm told I am one though I'd disagree) are hell bent on destroying life as we know it. Now, I have absolutely no idea what will happen if they manage to drill this hole. I admit this. However, do they? Let's just weaken the crust that keeps the warm gooey bits inside. Let's unleash an unholy gob of magma onto the crust 'cause we figure that pressing the unknown red button is a good idea. What can possibly go wrong?

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Blow up the world! by p51d007 · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Can't wait for the same types that believe in man made global warming (whoops, sorry, "climate change") to weigh in on this that we'd crack open the world like an egg and the world would split apart. Same people that believe the world was flat, man couldn't fly, going faster than the speed of sound couldn't happen, setting off a nuclear weapon would destroy the atmosphere and on and on.

    1. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      I'm one of those crazy types. I believe in science and discovery but I also believe we shouldn't fuck with things with as much unknown. If all goes well and we make it to the Moho and all goes well, great, we've proved our theory. However if we drill away, make it and it somehow destabilizes the earth, we're fucked. To me this makes less sense than pushing a release to prod without a backup. - not much is gained but much could be lost.

    2. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice of you to lump the entire scientific community in with a group of people who didn't believe in science at all. I'd like to get flow chart of your logical process that led to this conclusion but unfortunately you didn't use any.

    3. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that the 'somehow destabilize the earth' isn't ... coherent.

      They're putting a tiny hole in the crust. At worst, some lava comes up, cools & seals it.

    4. Re:Blow up the world! by Arashi256 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dude, do you even physics?

    5. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      or it just doesn't stop

    6. Re:Blow up the world! by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
      If all it takes to destabilize the earth is a 10cm borehole, we'd all have been doomed eons ago.

      Maybe you've watched too much 60's scifi.

    7. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same people that believe ... man couldn't fly ...

      Wait, you can fly?!

    8. Re:Blow up the world! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Anybody can fly.

      So long as it's on a roughly parabolic trajectory.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    9. Re:Blow up the world! by Rob+Lister · · Score: 1

      ...but I also believe we shouldn't fuck with things with as much unknown

      What level of unknown are you comfortable with?

      How exactly is this going to "destabilize" the earth?

    10. Re:Blow up the world! by citylivin · · Score: 1

      S[o]me people that believe ... setting off a nuclear weapon would destroy the atmosphere and on and on.

      yes, some people like Edward Teller, Oppenheimer and Hans Bethe, hardly unscientific dullards. Then they actually ran the numbers and judged the fear to be unfounded, which you can read about below:

      https://www.metabunk.org/debun...

      That's called science. I know you don't really understand science or the scientific method, as you don't seem to realize that man made climate change is real. So what can anyone say to you at that point, but that's what happened. Scientists came up with a hypothesis and then tested it to the best of their abilities.

      --
      As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
    11. Re:Blow up the world! by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      Just move fast enough that you continually miss the ground.

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
    12. Re:Blow up the world! by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      "Notice that they do not so much fly as... plummet." -- Monty Python

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    13. Re:Blow up the world! by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Funny

      That you have no imagination doesn't make it impossible. What's the weight of the crust? I would guess the pressure is about 100,000 psi (average) on the mantle. So what happens when you have a 10 cm hole in a balloon pressurized to 100,000 psi? does it matter if the filling in the balloon is molten rock?

      Note I'm not saying what I think will happen, or my opinion on the whole matter. I'm just stating you are an idiot because you can't think of a single catastrophic thing that could happen from this.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    14. Re:Blow up the world! by Bengie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Volcanos do this all of the time. This reminds me of people saying particle accelerators could create dangerous backholes, when much much higher energy particles slam our atmosphere all of the time.

    15. Re:Blow up the world! by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      "Can't wait for the same types that believe in man made global warming"

      I have to give you credit.. You posted some shit that makes you look like an uneducated moron, but at least you had the balls to do it without posting as an AC

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    16. Re:Blow up the world! by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "does it matter if the filling in the balloon is molten rock?"

      If you ever had a nerdy card it's your time to return it... But of course yes: viscosity makes all the difference.

    17. Re:Blow up the world! by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      You're right, a hole that small won't make the world blow up unless you drill it through the exact center of the Large Hadron Collider

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    18. Re:Blow up the world! by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I'm just stating you are an idiot because you can't think of a single catastrophic thing that could happen from this.

      Oh, I know, right? For example, the drill's high pressure oil system could spring a leak and cover you with black icky stuff from head to foot. Or you could drop a pipe wrench on your big toe.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    19. Re:Blow up the world! by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      This reminds me of people saying particle accelerators could create dangerous backholes, when much much higher energy particles slam our atmosphere all of the time.

      That's not the issue. The issue is that accelerators smash things together from two opposing beams so that the average velocity is approximately zero.

      High energy particles smash into the earth and create other high energy particles that have velocities that would still be just under the speed of light. It's possible that black holes from but just fly through the earth, never accumulating enough mass to slow down and just keep on going.

    20. Re:Blow up the world! by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      "setting off a nuclear weapon would destroy the atmosphere " it actually would, giving a sufficiently powerful weapon lol. Starfish Prime was only 1.4 megatons and caused damage almost 900 miles away. It would probably take something far larger than even the Tsar bomb at 50MT, and is (hopefully) still outside our technical capabilities. But it IS possible...

    21. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That you have no imagination doesn't make it impossible. What's the weight of the crust? I would guess the pressure is about 100,000 psi (average) on the mantle. So what happens when you have a 10 cm hole in a balloon pressurized to 100,000 psi? does it matter if the filling in the balloon is molten rock?

      Note I'm not saying what I think will happen, or my opinion on the whole matter. I'm just stating you are an idiot because you can't think of a single catastrophic thing that could happen from this.

      These anti-science nuts needs to be handle the same way whenever they have this reaction. Tell them it is your 2nd amendment RIGHT as an AMERICAN to build a volcano gun. Their heads will assplode when they try to reconcile the two diatribes.

    22. Re:Blow up the world! by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That you have no imagination doesn't make it impossible.

      No, but knowing physics allows you to make informed guesses about things. I can imagine all sorts of wildly impossible things, like the earth being hollow and inhabited by lizard men. Just because I can imagine it, doesn't make it possible.

      So what happens when you have a 10 cm hole in a balloon pressurized to 100,000 psi?

      The earth isn't a balloon. The pressure in a balloon is caused by the skin. In the earth it's caused by the weight of stuff above.

      Imagine what happens---actually you do need a good imagination. The molten rock starts gushing up the hole at 100,000psi pressure (or whatever). As it goes higher and higher, the the weight of the molten rock starts increasing the pressure at the bottom, since the 100,000 psi has to support the weight of the column of molten rock, any excess pressure of course pushes more melt out of the hole. This will continue until the pressure reaches equilibrium. At that point, molten rock will stop gushing up the hole.

      Things might get a bit worse if there's a local excess of pressure due to convection currents, for example, but what you'll have there is a volcano with a very, very small chimney, and a pressure excess which isn't enough to push through the crust anyway. As the rock cools, it will plug the hole.

      I'm just stating you are an idiot because you can't think of a single catastrophic thing that could happen from this.

      Physics works. Just because I can imagine crazy outcomes like the earth popping like a balloon, an invasion of the lizard men released from their eternal prison or an unstoppable column of fire reaching half way to the moon, doesn't mean those imaginings are actually worth considering.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    23. Re:Blow up the world! by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Just because I can imagine crazy outcomes like the earth popping like a balloon, an invasion of the lizard men released from their eternal prison or an unstoppable column of fire reaching half way to the moon, doesn't mean those imaginings are actually worth considering.

      Just start writing fantasy, then they're worth considering.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    24. Re:Blow up the world! by dywolf · · Score: 1

      so you're trying to say that it's the scientists who research global warming, who belong with the flat earthers for denying science?
      what ever it is you're smoking, I think you've had enough.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    25. Re:Blow up the world! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Unless it is a left wing anti science nut, of which there are just as many.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    26. Re:Blow up the world! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you just buy a ticket on a passenger jet.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    27. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks Obama.

    28. Re:Blow up the world! by Falos · · Score: 1

      Note that the surrounding material is also under pressure. It hasn't really been "released", there won't be really "new" sudden physical conditions as they inch down.

      It's hard to imagine a catalytic surprise here. Your point still has some validity, reality itself can't be Absolutely Certain on anything, and it probably wouldn't be the first experiment that overlooked dramatic-grade potentials (which, yes, can be entirely beyond predicting), but in practice we estimate risk-reward and make a decision. That's all we /can/ do.

    29. Re:Blow up the world! by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Yes, everyone here is sure that there will be no unintended consequences, like nobody has ever been wrong about unintended consequences. It's not about being certain before acing, but being able to assess risk. Low probability high impact risk events aren't gauged by humans well, nor are high probability low impact events.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    30. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless it is a left wing anti science nut, of which there are just as many.

      That's a lie. And an demonstrably false equivalence. Sure, there's a few lefty nuts that think vaccines are a government conspiracy too, but that's about the only issue I can think of off hand. And the right wing whackjobs are all over that too, +1, see the standard (aka not right/left wing web surveys:

      The Pew Research Center finds modest differences in views about vaccination—34 percent of Republicans, 33 percent of independents, and 22 percent of Democrats believe parents should have final say on vaccination

      So yeah, Repub's are 50% more likely to be anti-vaxers and that's the worst matchup I can think up.

      Nuke power maybe? But the right wing is all up on that too and they're just so much worse on every other energy group - not unreasonably because their short term jobs are more dependent on it in coal and oil dependent regions.

      The problem with trying to create a false equivalence between these two groups are that one of these groups (starts with R) self selects based in on a belief of conspiracies and reinforces that. The other side isn't perfect, maybe not even good. It's just objectively better. I mean I don't like Obama's more drone death from above strategy from the election, but all of his opponents (Ron Paul excepted a little, RON, not Rand) wanted to do that even worse. If my only choices are get shot in the foot or shot in the foot, then the stomach too, sign me up for the non-combo foot shot.

      If you have a credible national survey (no survey monkey, huffpost/fox news etc sample biased or self selected web crap please) that shows otherwise, please do provide it and I'll update my views if applicable. I oppose ignorance and whacko's of all flavors.

    31. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Replying to AC, Repubs generally oppose Nuclear power less than Dems, (53% don't support it at all vs 76%) but yes on all other counts:

      http://www.gallup.com/poll/182180/support-nuclear-energy.aspx
      For nuclear energy, 47% of Republicans support greater emphasis, compared with 24% of Democrats.

      Of course, those that DO support it usually support it "somewhere else" and are just as NIMBY.

    32. Re:Blow up the world! by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      So true, there are ignorant people all across the political spectrum. There is also a disturbingly large amount of fraud in science.

    33. Re:Blow up the world! by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      Nuke power maybe? But the right wing is all up on that too and they're just so much worse on every other energy group - not unreasonably because their short term jobs are more dependent on it in coal and oil dependent regions.

      States which depend on coal for a large part of their industry consistently vote democrat, the only exception has been when the democrat running for president was black, they do tend to be a bit racist around here.

    34. Re:Blow up the world! by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      You are forgetting that people on all extremes of the political spectrum have been fabricating scientific studies as long as we have had scientific studies. Personally, on climate science, I don't trust either side. There are extremists in the midst of both crowds who would not hesitate to fabricate studies to convince the sheep of their view. However, knowing a little about the climate history of our planet, I doubt we are having anywhere near the effect that the extreme left is claiming, but we are certainly accelerating a trend that was going to happen anyway.

    35. Re:Blow up the world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nuke power maybe? But the right wing is all up on that too and they're just so much worse on every other energy group - not unreasonably because their short term jobs are more dependent on it in coal and oil dependent regions.

      States which depend on coal for a large part of their industry consistently vote democrat, the only exception has been when the democrat running for president was black, they do tend to be a bit racist around here.

      Are you talking about Pennsylvania? Because they are purple, due to blue Pittsburg and Philadelphia, in a sea of red.

      Checking online shows you are wrong. It also shows Illinois produces coal, which I forgot about, along with Detroit (like everyone else), but that's still a few blue dots in a reddish sea.

              Wyoming: 387.9 (39%)
              West Virginia: 115.9 (12%)
              Kentucky: 80.4 (8%)
              Illinois: 52.1 (5%)
              Pennsylvania: 50.9 (5%)
      --via: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=69&t=2

      I hope you aren't calling Wyoming and Kentucky Democratic bastions. West Virginia maybe? No, they've been red quite a while too, with 4 of 5 federal congressman being (R):
      Year Republicans Democrats
      2012 62.14% 417,655 35.45% 238,269
      2008 55.58% 397,466 42.49% 303,857
      2004 56.06% 423,778 43.20% 326,541
      2000 51.92% 336,475 45.59% 295,497

  3. The National Enquirer by Deadstick · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...will probably be all over this one. Eons ago they published a cover story about a super-deep oil well that had drilled into Hell and let the Devil escape...there was a picture of billowing black smoke over an oil well fire that had been retouched to make a satanic face.

    1. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Umm Pretty sure that was real.

    2. Re:The National Enquirer by Snowgen · · Score: 3, Informative

      That was the Weekly World News , not the National Enquirer. They have completely different styles.

    3. Re:The National Enquirer by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

      That story was published by the Weekly World News. Compared to the WWN, the National Enquirer is serious journalism.

    4. Re:The National Enquirer by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Biblically the devil is not in Hell yet. He has been cast out of heaven but will not be imprisoned in hell until after the Second Coming of Christ. I know in popular culture they like to speak of him ruling in Hell and tormenting the lost souls but that doesn't follow the scripture.

    5. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Please, if people actually read their Bibles and understood them, ESPECIALLY if they could do it in Hebrew and Koine, they wouldn't BE Christians. The Abrahamic religions are a plague upon humanity and the sooner they die off the better.

    6. Re:The National Enquirer by Deadstick · · Score: 1

      Thanks. Actually the Enquirer was pretty lurid in the old days too. As late as 1960, it used to publish graphic photography of accident victims that nobody else would touch; I remember one multipage feature of the bodies being recovered from a big airplane crash. Only newsstands that sold jerkoff magazines would carry the paper; they toned it down in the 60's to get it into supermarkets where they saw their future market going.

    7. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So? Your version and what you replied to are both stories made up by humans. Neither one are true.

      "Scripture" is just a book.

    8. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How strange. As I understand, even the most batshit of fundamentalist Christian doctrines holds that Satan isn't in hell yet. He is, purportedly, out here busily tempting us to do evil.

      Jewish people, of course, don't believe that Satan is an evil being, and properly refer to him as "the Satan" (since that's how the text is actually written), a being that works directly under God's supervision as something like a prosecuting attorney.

    9. Re:The National Enquirer by gtall · · Score: 0

      Hmmm...now we know where Donald Trump came from....don't suppose there's any chance of getting that particular toothpaste back in the tube...

    10. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Scripture" is just a book.

      Not according to God.

    11. Re:The National Enquirer by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but those pictures were real, right? WWN wouldn't bother with anything like that, because they'd rather report about aliens, wolf-men, Satan coming out of an oil well, etc.

    12. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Boy, you jerks get major butthurt when someone references or quotes the Bible, don't you? Can't WAIT to pile on them!! Jerks.....

    13. Re:The National Enquirer by prunus.avium · · Score: 2

      And Bat Boy. Never forget Bat Boy.

    14. Re:The National Enquirer by Deadstick · · Score: 1

      Your standard of "major butthurt" seems a rather low bar. And, dare I say it, a bit projective.

    15. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like how you backed this up with citations and sources for further reading. I'm also willing to bet that you can't read Hebrew and Koine (nor even ancient Greek). And then you topped it off with a nice round of name-calling. Well done. Very profound and insightful.

    16. Re:The National Enquirer by ridley4 · · Score: 0

      Jewish people, of course, don't believe that Satan is an evil being, and properly refer to him as "the Satan" (since that's how the text is actually written), a being that works directly under God's supervision as something like a prosecuting attorney.

      A prosecuting attorney, you say? I dunno, the fundies might be right on this one. You ever look at what Federal prosecuting attorneys do in America? I don't believe in evil as a concept, but they sure makes me second guess myself.

    17. Re:The National Enquirer by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I think you are entitled to your opinion. Of course, we are entitled to ignore it.

    18. Re:The National Enquirer by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

      That story was published by the Weekly World News. Compared to the WWN, the National Enquirer is serious journalism.

      Yeah. We used to refer to it as the "Wiggly World News".

      The National Enquirer occasionally threw in a real story for authenticity. (Also: When they did things like add a paragraph to a WhiteHouse memo to gin up a story, they'd sometimes use a different font for their addition. B-) )

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    19. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please, if people actually read their Bibles and understood them, ESPECIALLY if they could do it in Hebrew and Koine, they wouldn't BE Christians. The Abrahamic religions are a plague upon humanity and the sooner they die off the better.

      Yeah but that old testament stuff is just so metal.

    20. Re:The National Enquirer by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Well....I figure that whether you believe the Bible or not, the whole tale of the Devil originates from it so I'm just going back to the source.

    21. Re:The National Enquirer by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Well hell, if they mention the devil I figure they must believe a little bit.

    22. Re:The National Enquirer by Hognoxious · · Score: 0

      Meh. That's so they don't feel bad for doing deals with him.

      Because oy vey oy vey, you gotta make a living already...

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    23. Re:The National Enquirer by mrchaotica · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Jewish people, of course, don't believe that Satan is an evil being, and properly refer to him as "the Satan" (since that's how the text is actually written), a being that works directly under God's supervision as something like a prosecuting attorney.

      I'm pretty sure the "attorney" part contradicts the "[not] an evil being" part.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    24. Re:The National Enquirer by towermac · · Score: 1

      You'd need a vacuum.

      oh wait, we have one...

    25. Re:The National Enquirer by Locke2005 · · Score: 0

      But... what about Aramaic?

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    26. Re:The National Enquirer by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Hasn't Major Butthurt been promoted to the rank of General yet? Certainly a lot or people have recommended the promotion by now!

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    27. Re:The National Enquirer by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Biblically the devil is not in Hell yet. He has been cast out of heaven but will not be imprisoned in hell until after the Second Coming of Christ. I know in popular culture they like to speak of him ruling in Hell and tormenting the lost souls but that doesn't follow the scripture.

      Meh. It depends on what you mean by Hell. Do you mean Hades or Gehenna or Sheol or the Lake of Fire, or something else?

      See, the problem with your assertion is that it depends on centuries of theologians who conflated a bunch of these things (which are all distinct concepts, often from different traditions with different attributes), made assumptions about how they relate to each other, and tried to figure out consistency in a bunch of inconsistent passages.

      What you're really referring to is the passage in Revelation 20:10, which implies that the devil ("diabolos") won't be imprisoned in the "lake of fire" until after the coming of Christ. But what is your basis for declaring the "lake of fire" to be synonymous with the English word "Hell," instead of assuming that Hell could be equated with one of the other concepts already mentioned? And how do you know the "devil" isn't in any of the others? The Book of Job notes that Satan wanders about to all sorts of places and is even brought to talk to God. How do you know Satan doesn't wander into any of these other haunts?

      Some people also note that the greatest feature of Hell is "eternal torment," and the Bible identifies the most significant feature of eternal torment to be separation from God. Since most Christians agree that the "devil" (whatever that is -- word problems there too... are we talking Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub etc.? -- these guys were all different) has already been cast out of Heaven, he has already been separated from God and is thus already suffering the primary torment of "Hell," whether or not he is physically located in the "Lake of Fire."

      And how do we determine that the "diabolos" (devil) who is cast into the Lake of Fire (if that is indeed "Hell") is the same as Satan or the fallen angel or Lucifer or whoever?

      Basically, rather than saying what you did:

      Biblically the devil is not in Hell yet

      You should say:

      Biblically the Diabolos has not been cast into the Lake of Fire yet. But centuries of debates and random equivalencies created by Church dogma have led to a common interpretation that this "diabolos" is the same as what were likely understood in Biblical times to be distinct entities such as Satan and Lucifer, and the "Lake of Fire" is now equated with various conceptions of "Hell" which had different terms and would have been viewed as distinct in Biblical times. Thus, according to the Biblical text combined with a crapload of random church dogma, the traditional popular culture image "doesn't follow the scripture."

    28. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How strange. As I understand, even the most batshit of fundamentalist Christian doctrines holds that Satan isn't in hell yet. He is, purportedly, out here busily tempting us to do evil.

      Jewish people, of course, don't believe that Satan is an evil being, and properly refer to him as "the Satan" (since that's how the text is actually written), a being that works directly under God's supervision as something like a prosecuting attorney.

      It's true! I seen him!

      Apparently Keaneau Reeves is one of his partners and he is not evil, just misunderstood. He claims outright that he is.. and I quote, "A fan of man!".

    29. Re:The National Enquirer by maharvey · · Score: 1

      Who could forget that? It lives forever in an obscure wrinkle of my neocortex.

    30. Re:The National Enquirer by maharvey · · Score: 1

      Insightful and succint

    31. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno.. they'd have a better angle pointing out that a guy with the last name Dick wants to drill the deepest hole in the world. Kind of fitting, really.

    32. Re:The National Enquirer by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      "Please, if people actually read their Bibles and understood them they would immediately cease reading the Bible."

      FTFY

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    33. Re:The National Enquirer by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      No, you don't understand at all! The preacher handles all that "what you mean" stuff, and besides he has a direct line to God. If I was in trouble, and/or had a faulty perspective on God, I'm sure God would tell the Pope, would issue a press release.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    34. Re:The National Enquirer by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      I once saw a TV interview of the WWN staff. They were all British ex-pats living in Florida. Most of them were retired before they came up with the idea of starting an American tabloid that was even more outrageous than British tabloids. They were a hilarious group of people, who seemed to thoroughly enjoy working together.

    35. Re:The National Enquirer by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I'd not heard of the Weekly World News before today. So I had a look. I mean there were a variety of pretty believable stories about a cookie monster mugging kids in Times Square, Aliens and Obama added to Mt. Rushmore.

      But then there was one about "NYC being the friendliest city on earth".

      That's where they lost me.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    36. Re:The National Enquirer by laejoh · · Score: 1

      You misspelled aeons, from a Lovecraft fan :)

    37. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I was a teenager, I bought a Weekly World News once from a grocery checkout line back in like 1999. Being a nerd on the internet all the time, I was constantly hearing about news from all over the world. The thing that amazed me was not how crazy WWN was, but how virtually every single story in there had a grain of truth to it, taken from recent news from around the world, that I could actually find a source for and point to it as the foundation for the WWN article.

      For example, a Bat Boy image is obviously photoshopped, but I would almost guarantee that it came from an actual report of a live birth of a boy with bat-like features. Grabbing ideas from a sibling post, I would bet that a cookie monster mugging kids in TImes Square is similarly exaggerated reality. There probably really was a guy with a cookie monster mask on who mugged somebody. Or even just someone dressed as Cookie Monster pretending to mug people, because Times Square.

      Obama being added to Mt Rushmore? Some pundit somewhere made a joke about the idea and they ran with it. Aliens? Pretty much the go-to for any sort of unexplained phenomena reported in other papers. The devil escaping from a hole scientists drilled to the crust? Well, scientists really did do that, but the devil didn't really escape. But maybe some preacher said he did. And there's their actually strangely factual story (with photoshopped images and misleading headlines).

      It was pretty eye opening to see how you could interpret reality and tell a story without any direct lies and still come off that crazy.

    38. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Right or wrong, here's how I understand it. I'm Catholic, btw, so hopefully what I say is pretty much in line with Catholic doctrine.

      After the introduction of original sin but prior to Jesus, all people had sinned and were subject to the penalty of death. The law was given to Moses, so the people were subject to the law and responsible for following it. But because everyone had broken the law, everyone went to Sheol. This is depicted in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, in which the righteous are in the Bosom of Abraham while the wicked are in torment. By the way, Sheol is a Hebrew word and the Greek equivalent is Hades.

      This changes with the death and resurrection of Jesus, who paid the suffered the penalty for everyone's sins. The righteous were then freed from Sheol and rose, which is described in the Gospels. However, the wicked are still subject to eternal torment.

      With respect to Satan, he was cast out of Heaven immediately, but ruled the world until the coming of Jesus. He was cast out of the Garden of Eden at the introduction of original sin. In John's Gospel, Jesus talks about driving out the ruler of the world, who is Satan. This is accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Satan no longer rules the world, but is still able to tempt people to sin. This corresponds with the description in Revelation where Satan is cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. This isn't a literal thousand years, but just a long time. St. Peter addresses this in his second letter when he says that to God, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. It was written to address the doubts of those who wondered why Jesus hadn't returned by that time, and not to support any kind of young Earth intelligent design nonsense.

      At the end of the thousand years, Satan wages one final battle against God, an ultimate battle between good and evil. God wins the battle in what could be considered anticlimactic fashion though the second coming of Jesus and the final judgement. Jesus talks about this in the Gospels when the sheep and the lambs are separated. There are two judgements, the particular judgement that each person experiences at the moment of death, and the general judgement that occurs at the same time as the second coming. At the second coming, Satan, his angels, and the wicked are cast into the lake of fire forever. The difference between the bottomless pit and the lake of fire is that the lake of fire is permanent and those in the lake of fire are no longer able to tempt the righteous to evil.

      Basically, there are three versions of Hell. Prior to original sin, there was no need for Hell at all. The first version exists between the introduction of original sin and the first coming of Jesus, in which both the wicked and the righteous go there. The second version exists between the first and second comings of Jesus, in which the wicked go there but Satan is still able to tempt the people on Earth. The third version exists after the second coming, in which the wicked go there permanently and Satan is no longer able to tempt the people outside of Hell.

      That's what I understand of Catholic teaching on the subject of Hell.

    39. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well it sounds like the basis for some sci-fi. Diabolos was a an electric utility on Mars that tried to make the transition from another kind of power to core-thermal, but after they melted down into the core, disturbed planetary circulation led to the collapse of the global magnetic field followed by a series of wide-scale super-Tunguskas.

      In the sequel, artifacts sent to Earth are found, serving as prior-art invalidating many Earth patents. In the third installment, they come to collect back licensing fees, taking ownership of Earth. Satin is found to be a patent troll.

    40. Re:The National Enquirer by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Are you sure?

      https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    41. Re:The National Enquirer by surd1618 · · Score: 1

      The content of the most ancient passages of the OT is indistinguishable from the other religions of the Canaanites (elohim was the generic Canaanite word for a sort of pantheon). Abraham did not come from Ur, but likely from an area north of Palestine. The first ideas about a dichotomy between good and evil came from a Persian influence on the Hebrew religion(s). Before that Yahweh's basic message was "do as I say". The whole of the NT story is basically a crock as far as archeology is concerned, that supposed remark about Jesus in Justinian: I've heard that yarn before too, and it's not true. The story of Jesus is a hyped-up and way-overblown story about the zealots, specifically, a zealot who tried non-violent resistance. The idea of missionaries again came from a Persian religion, a later one called Mithraism. The only mention of Hell (other than as the end of life and fading from cultural memory), the only mention as an inhabited place, comes from Revelations. Many of the ideas that people associate with Christianity, are literally nowhere in the Bible, and a close reading reveals that the OT recounts a conglomerate of about 3 religions.

    42. Re:The National Enquirer by laejoh · · Score: 1

      I'm talking Lovecraft, not some kind of fantasy ;)

    43. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still a better story than those faggot Star Wars films.

    44. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There have been lots of "devil in the smoke" pictures published, but the WTC one at least was real:

      http://www.stellarimages.com/

    45. Re:The National Enquirer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They even used that issue in Men in Black: Satan Escapes from Hell LOL

  4. Oh no! They'll let out all the helium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And without the helium, the Earth will no longer float through space!

  5. Egon, remember that time you tried to drill a hole by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Egon, remember that time you tried to drill a hole through your head?

  6. Bad Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This does not go well, I've seen the movie:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059065/

    1. Re:Bad Idea by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      This is old news--that happened in 1965.

      Where do you think our second moon came from?

      (And curse you for getting here with the movie reference first!)

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  7. Hollywood did it! /SouthPark by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 0

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re:Hollywood did it! /SouthPark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but these guys did it!
      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

  8. STOP This Now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you scientists learned nothing? Drunk with hubris, seeking a Nobel Prize at the expense of humanity.

    Crack in the World http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059065/
    Dr. Stephen Sorenson plans to tap the geothermal energy of the Earth's interior by means of a thermonuclear device detonated deep within the earth. Despite dire warnings by fellow scientist Ted Rampion, Dr. Sorenson proceeds with the experiment. This experiment causes a crack to form and grow within the Earth's crust, which threatens to split the Earth in two if it is not stopped in time.

    1. Re:STOP This Now! by Immerman · · Score: 1

      The stupid, it hurts. That's pretty bad even by Hollywood standards.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  9. What will we find in the middle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aliens & Dinosaurs of course. Did no one else see that historical documentary, something about Journey to Middle Earth with the hobbit and shit.

  10. Re:Egon, remember that time you tried to drill a h by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2, Funny

    That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.

  11. Adamantine by malditaenvidia · · Score: 1

    But the drill could not punch through those tenacious layers. And in 2013, drillers at the nearby Hess Deep found themselves similarly limited by tough deep-crustal rocks.

    That's the engine warning you not to dig into hell. They will damn us all.

    1. Re:Adamantine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All you need is a copper pick though.

    2. Re:Adamantine by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Maybe they ran into bedrock, only admins can remove that.

      http://minecraft.gamepedia.com...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  12. Western Science by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    At heart, these geologists are the kids who just had to unwrap a golf ball and ended up putting out an eye.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  13. We'll never break through by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

    The Lizard Men living inside the hollow Earth won't allow it. They've already positioned plates of ultra-dense titanium right where we'll drill so we can't punch through...

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    1. Re:We'll never break through by sconeu · · Score: 2

      You laugh now, but when the Silurians come out of the well, you'll see...

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    2. Re:We'll never break through by maharvey · · Score: 1

      Wait, but they are known to be benevolent. Why would they wish to stop us?

    3. Re: We'll never break through by Frankzy · · Score: 1

      Not if you're about to drill right into one of their habitats..

    4. Re:We'll never break through by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Lizard men are NEVER benevolent. Think about snakes and komodo dragons - are THEY benevolent? The reptilian way is to kill and eat others. Clearly "Beforeitsnews.com" is a lizard man mouthpiece, the publisher hoping he'll be the last to be eaten!

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  14. For the love of Yahweh, NOOO! by meeotch · · Score: 1

    These wicked, wicked "scientists". Is it not enough that they fill our children's heads in school with nonsense like "evolution"? Now they're drilling *straight down*?!?!

    THAT'S WHERE HELL IS!!!

    1. Re: For the love of Yahweh, NOOO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You said HIS name. In the name of elohim, you must be stoned.

    2. Re: For the love of Yahweh, NOOO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He already is. Very.

  15. Re:Egon, remember that time you tried to drill a h by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That would have worked if you didn't stop me.

  16. When you dig too greedily, too deep... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you might breach the circus.

    1. Re:When you dig too greedily, too deep... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I thought that was how you released the Balrog?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  17. Fracking the Planet by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    turn the whole world into Oklahoma?

    1. Re:Fracking the Planet by tomhath · · Score: 1

      You don't seem to know the difference between drilling and hydraulic fracturing. But either way, this hole won't result in an earthquake cluster like the ones Oklahoma has experienced every 50 years or so.

  18. Re:Oh no! They'll let out all the helium by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Never mind that interstellar space (or medium) consist of helium.

    The interstellar medium is composed primarily by hydrogen followed by helium with trace amounts of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen comparatively to hydrogen.[

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium

  19. Does the mantle even exist? by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2

    Geology noob here, with a noob question. Has the mantle been definitively proven to exist? Browsing the summary, it looks to me like no one has ever seen or touched the earth's mantle, and that scientists are trying to drill through the crust and reach the mantle for the first time to do exactly that.

    It would be interesting if they they drill through the earth's crust completely, and instead of the mantle they find something else. Maybe more crust? Or....

    1. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by gtall · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, seismic waves travel differently between what we define to be the crust and the mantle. So yes, there is something else down there that is not crust, we call it the mantle. You might try wikipedia, this is the teens, honey.

    2. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by xevioso · · Score: 1

      Cheese. It's cheese.

    3. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      No, that's the moon.

    4. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

      If it's graham cracker crust, I call dibs!

      --
      Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
    5. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by prunus.avium · · Score: 2

      We know there are different layers due to the way that seismic waves move through the planet ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ).

      Kinda like how light bends and reflects at the boundary of two dissimilar materials (eg water/air or glass/air) the waves from earthquakes show the boundaries in the layers below the crust.

    6. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      It would be interesting if they they drill through the earth's crust completely, and instead of the mantle they find something else. Maybe more crust? Or....

      My bet is on pie filling.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    7. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be interesting if they they drill through the earth's crust completely, and instead of the mantle they find something else.

      Something like "fine-grained, brittle rock" perhaps.

    8. Re: Does the mantle even exist? by jimmybuffet · · Score: 1

      I'm curious when they pop through the Canadian rockies and the Indian Ocean drains into Canada...

    9. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by tomhath · · Score: 1

      Crispy bacon perhaps?

    10. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So until someone you know visits China it doesn't exist?

    11. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by randm.ca · · Score: 1

      Isn't one theory that the moon is made up of debris from a massive Earth impact? If so, and if the moon is cheese, I guess maybe xevioso is correct!

    12. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 2

      Also a geology noob but I thought that lava pools in the base of volcanoes were places where the mantle was poking through the crust. So in that sense we have seen the mantle. Or at any rate I didn't know its existence was in question.

    13. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "Has the mantle been definitively proven to exist?"

      Yes. "The Moho" sounds tad cool, but what they are talking here is about the Mohorovicic discontinuity which is, you almost can suspect it, a (seismic) discontinuity researched by some Croatian by that name.

      So there might be minor surprises about its exact nature or physical properties but, yes, we positively know the mantle is there just like you know the train is coming when you hear its whistle.

    14. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by JohnStock · · Score: 1

      No the moon is hollow and brought here by the Pleiadians, der!

    15. Re: Does the mantle even exist? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      That could only improve things.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    16. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      we positively know the mantle is there just like you know the train is coming when you hear its whistle

      So, in other words, we can be tricked by a wooden train whistle?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    17. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you drilled competely through the earth's crust and found more crust, then you didn't drill competely through the crust.

    18. Re:Does the mantle even exist? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Has the mantle been definitively proven to exist?

      Define "definitely." Define "proven."

      The front of my hard hat and the back of my coveralls say "geologist", and the FGS (Fellow of the Geological Society) sort of leans in the direction that other geologists consider me a geologist too. For me, "proven" means that the evidence of it;s existence is sufficiently strong that to believe otherwise than in it's existence would require perversely illogical special pleading.

      Others have mentioned the petrophysical characteristics - seismic velocity, density. The way that chemistry of melts of silicates and volatiles changes when held under top-of-mantle conditions of temperature and pressure matches the trends we see in individual crystals (olivines, cpxs) and the trends in eruptions of single and multiple volcanoes.

      But for me, the thing that counts is holding lumps in my hand. Which you can do quite easily. Go to a place where MORB (mid-ocean ridge basalt) or an alkaline basalt is being erupted (Iceland, Hawaii, the Azores, the Canaries, certain African Rift volcanoes, the ancient Deccan or Siberian traps ...) and nose around the pebbles of black basalt on a beach until you find one with a greenish-yellow blob in the black matrix. Pick it up, weigh it in your hand, and contemplate that it originated 30 or so km beneath your feet. Just 30km away.

      You can back this assertion up with lots of studies - the science is sound. But for me, the visceral experience of holding it in my hand makes it real to me.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  20. Eastern Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sound travels faster in space because there's no air to in the way.

  21. If they succeed... by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

    If they succeed, I hope the result is in no way similar to what happens when you squash a well fed tick.

    1. Re:If they succeed... by dywolf · · Score: 1

      nah.
      it is however how Atlantis sank.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    2. Re:If they succeed... by jittles · · Score: 1

      They won't succeed. Everyone knows that the space between the earth's crust and mantle is filled with huge diamonds. Therefore the diamond industry will never let science get that far. Duh.

  22. Turtles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...all the way down. Suck it science

  23. sup :D.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    interferometry will dustify those rocks w/ no need for drills.

    why is the military the only one using this type of tech, actually deployed in satellite and over the horizon radar weapons?

    obamasweapon.com

  24. sup :D... by strstr · · Score: 0

    interferometry will dustify those rocks w/ no need for drills.

    why is the military the only one using this type of tech, actually deployed in satellite and over the horizon radar weapons?

    obamasweapon.com

    1. Re:sup :D... by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      Do you even know what "interferometry" means?

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:sup :D... by uninformedLuddite · · Score: 1

      something to do with basketball?

      --
      The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
  25. I know because I saw the movie. by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    If they do break through they'll made a huge crack in the Earth, and a big chunk will fly up and make a second Moon. I know because I saw the movie.

  26. Mantle to drill bit: by burtosis · · Score: 1

    "You shall not pass!!"

    1. Re:Mantle to drill bit: by Wintermute__ · · Score: 1

      "Too deep we delved there, and woke the nameless fear."

    2. Re:Mantle to drill bit: by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      That's a pile of balrogs!

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  27. Movie Science by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

    In space, no-one can hear you fail.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  28. drilling through the earths crust? what? by ZippyTheChicken · · Score: -1

    don't we have active volcano that can keep theses idiots busy? .. how many billions of dollars is being spent on trying to make drill bits that can drill through a crust that for all reasonable purposes is there to protect idiots from drilling through it.. Obviously they could never plug the hole if there was some insane catastrophic incident which caused the floor of the indian ocean to spew out enough magma to make another continent which then would cause massive earthquakes around the world .... I MEAN COME ON FUKUSHIMA IS STILL MELTING DOWN ... GO FIX THAT FIRST.. THEN MAYBE WE WILL TALK.. or maybe not.. gees these idiots.. spending everyones money doing stupid stuff that doesn't need to be done.... while a fricken nuke plant has been melting down for 5 years or something.. gees. and why is my Karma so bad on this site.. my post start as -1 now .. so each post i make .. makes my karma worse.. whats that deal.. is the guy in charge of this drilling holes in the bottom of the indian ocean to try to make more land for the population to grow and live on ??? gees... sigh . just uhhh ... hmmm

  29. I wish them success by towermac · · Score: 1

    Because it's the only other answer than nuclear for our future. The longer we put off serious nuclear, the more we suffer, as we have seen. We need more power.

    On the Earth, there are three stores of power. Stored sunlight in carbon, and stored supernovas in uranium and thorium that are in the crust itself. Those two we can get to now.

    Of course the big enchilada is the stored heat from the formation of the solar system that is stored under the crust. Don't even have to build a machine to release the heat; don't have to burn or transmute anything; it's raw power itself; heat; that is there for the taking. I really can't imagine running out of that.

    It would allow us to bypass this nuclear power political war that must come, if we are to advance as a species. Doesn't matter where you're at on AGW, carbon is not cutting it anymore. Imagine that very soon 20 billion people will want 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, air conditioning, hot running water, one new car, one older...

    Where is that power coming from? Drill baby, drill.

    1. Re:I wish them success by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Because it's the only other answer than nuclear for our future. "

      Nonsense. We'll adapt and our social model and values will change. We won't all have three SUVs and 6300 sq ft McMansions built of cheap materials, and closets full of disposable clothes shipped from Bangladesh.

      You show a distressing lack of imagination if you can't picture that.

      There are other answers than "full steam ahead". No other civilization has endured, and neither will ours. Your grandkids will be far more likely to know about horseshoes than horsepower.

    2. Re:I wish them success by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We won't all have three SUVs and 6300 sq ft McMansions built of cheap materials, and closets full of disposable clothes shipped from Bangladesh.

      Sounds fucking awful.

      Why would you wish for such a horrible future?

    3. Re:I wish them success by burtosis · · Score: 1

      You do realize that the vast majority of the heat inside the earth is from radioactive decay and not latent heat left over from the formation of the solar system right?

    4. Re:I wish them success by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      So, it's man made nukes or natural nukes.

    5. Re:I wish them success by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Organic all natural nukes. The kind of nukes that you can feel good about.

    6. Re:I wish them success by towermac · · Score: 1

      Honestly, no, I had forgotten about that.

      Are they sure the majority is from decay now? As opposed to both leftover heat and the the Moon constantly cranking on it? Decay was a theory quite a few years ago.

      (They've changed science quite a few times in my lifetime.)

    7. Re:I wish them success by burtosis · · Score: 1

      The recent sources i have seen state the continuation of radiation heating is 50% or more of the total heat.

  30. Where is Jules Verne... by ccanucs · · Score: 1

    ... when you need him? :-)

  31. Doesn't that explain Cheney? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean to say that didn't happen?

  32. 666 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How dare these people try to release Satan. I shall be praying for their failure and our salvation from impending doom. Do not support these purveyors of the apocalypse, these worshippers of cataclysm. These wretched beings and their self importance. The end is nigh.

  33. So thats where the word Moho-Mine comes from... by sciengin · · Score: 1

    And it took me only 18 years to realize it. I should probably reinstall Total Annihilation now...

  34. Done by grumpy-cowboy · · Score: 1

    The Core : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt02... ;)

    --
    Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
    1. Re:Done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Different interpretation here. I believe this was more like part of the plot from The Matrix 3 (Revolutions).

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242653/?ref_=nv_sr_2

  35. Drilling in the ocean? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And if they bore beneath the crust through the ocean and all the water drains out, dousing the interior molten mass and causing a giant steam eruption? And they talk about 2 degrees for climate change... They better have a big cork at the ready.

  36. They need... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...to craft a diamond pickaxe.

  37. You could do that, or.... by Kinthelt · · Score: 1

    just walk around Gros Morne National Park.

    --

    "Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)

  38. Isn't this by rochrist · · Score: 1

    the plot of Crack in the World?

  39. I got an idea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now if err-body put on there best running shoes... And err-body on the west side of Amurica all run toward the left... And err-body on the east side all run right... And we do it real fast-like, we can slight out great nation in two! And behold a trench so deep we like just fly a dayum airplane down there to scoop up those diamonds or whatever them there scientist Demi-gods desire! Aight errbody! 1...2... 3 GO!

  40. reboot by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Just drop a "Heat bomb" in Antarctic ice sheets. You'll reboot the planet.

    --
    Casteism