Author shah
What lies beneath.
This week marks the start ofa new project to drill below Earth's crust into the planet's mantle
- that rocky shell a couple of thousand kilometres thick. Geologists have been trying for almost 60 years to reach this depth,but no one has yet succeeded: the latest mission might just have the technology and the funding to make it happen.The drill ship jOIDES Resolutionwill shortly be setting off from Sri Lanka to a point in the southwestern Indian Ocean known as Atlantis Bank. Once it reaches its destination, the ship will lower a drill bit andtunnel through some 1.5 kilometres (almost a mile) ofsolid rock, taking core samples as it goes. That's as far as the plan stretches - if the JOIDES Resolution is successful in its mission, future projects will have to take over in the drive to the boundary between Earth's crust and mantle.
- that rocky shell a couple of thousand kilometres thick. Geologists have been trying for almost 60 years to reach this depth,but no one has yet succeeded: the latest mission might just have the technology and the funding to make it happen.The drill ship jOIDES Resolutionwill shortly be setting off from Sri Lanka to a point in the southwestern Indian Ocean known as Atlantis Bank. Once it reaches its destination, the ship will lower a drill bit andtunnel through some 1.5 kilometres (almost a mile) ofsolid rock, taking core samples as it goes. That's as far as the plan stretches - if the JOIDES Resolution is successful in its mission, future projects will have to take over in the drive to the boundary between Earth's crust and mantle.
No comments:
Post a Comment