Ocean Floor Crust Wound to Be Explored 148
eldavojohn writes "A group of scientists are disembarking right now to study an open gash in the ocean floor where earth's mantle lays exposed without any crust covering it. The scientists describe this as the result of the mantle moving too quickly for the crust to keep up. Either that, or the mantle was never covered by the crust and just has always been like this. From the article, 'Regardless of how they formed, the exposed mantle provides scientists with a rare opportunity to study the Earth's rocky innards. Many attempts to drill deep into the planet barely get past the crust.'"
disembark? (Score:4, Informative)
Analogy (Score:5, Informative)
We've made it through the crust? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:disembark? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why hasn't CRUST formed there? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:disembark? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Why hasn't a volcano formed there? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mid atlantic ridge? (Score:5, Informative)
As always, when you think something's easy (make_small_hole(); while(1) { make_hole_deeper(); } ), it's just because your ignorance doesn't let you appreciate the problems, like the extreme temperature and pressure. For example, I didn't realize that the pressure compresses the rocks and when you drill a hole that deep, the rocks around it want to expand, causing engineering nightmares.
And while measuring the straightness of a hole seems quite doable (or put otherwise, I accept the assumption that there exists technology to do that), I still wonder how they can adjust the drilling direction.
Fascinating!
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Informative)
Now we turn green and hairy (Score:2, Informative)
Oh, come on, there've got to be some Doctor Who fans out there!