Scientists to Drill Earth's Mantle

[Karlis]

Would reveal nature of the Moho layer, at the base of the crust. A mantle sample would also tell us much about the Earth's origins and provide insight into how current mantle processes operate — highly important in understanding the plate tectonics that drive many earthquakes, tsunamis, and eruptions. Read more...

[Rehabinum]

Lord Kinbote, here we come! (Incase you are wondering what this nutter is talking about: go watch the X-Files episode José Chung's From Outer Space ^^)

[Keymaker]

Is this a good idea? Have they thought it through? Will it even work? I have a bad feeling about this.

[lsra]

I saw this on another site yesterday and someone brought up the story of the Siberian miners who drilled so far down they heard screams from hell. Anyone remember that story? the things people believe...

I think this could be very educational to learn more about our planet. But I think it will be very difficult to achieve.

[glyndowers heir]

Just what we need

- another expensive hole in the ground so some guys can justify calling themselves 'Scientists'.

You want rocks? come and help yourself to those in the quarry that passes for my back garden!

Spend the money on something useful for gods sake like ice creams for kids in orphanages or to find a way to deal with the Japanese nuclear reactors!

[Karlis]

Just what we need

- another expensive hole in the ground so some guys can justify calling themselves 'Scientists'.

You want rocks? come and help yourself to those in the quarry that passes for my back garden!

Spend the money on something useful for gods sake like ice creams for kids in orphanages or to find a way to deal with the Japanese nuclear reactors!

I guess you could have a point glyndowers heir. Imagine how many ice creams could have been bought with the equivalent dollars that have been spent on "space stuff".

[glyndowers heir]

I guess you could have a point glyndowers heir. Imagine how many ice creams could have been bought with the equivalent dollars that have been spent on "space stuff".

I meant give the kids a treat - not give them diabetes!

We already know all we need to about tectonic plate movements and earthquakes, we know the ground shakes, people die and buildings fall over, then we build on the same sites again.

We are never going to be able to stop it so there's no point in these guys pretending that anything useful is going to come ourt of this, other than even more scientific statistics to file away, write papers about and get fat on the tv interviews.

Space however is vital to Humanity's survival, we will need room to expand so we need to know all we can about the 'new' neighbourhood so money there is well spent!

[sepulchrave]

Is this a good idea? Have they thought it through? Will it even work? I have a bad feeling about this.

They have thought it through. Their drill might not succeed in getting to the mantle, but they have chosen a spot where there is no oil, natural gas, or magma deposits in the way.

We already know all we need to about tectonic plate movements and earthquakes, we know the ground shakes, people die and buildings fall over, then we build on the same sites again.We are never going to be able to stop it so there's no point in these guys pretending that anything useful is going to come ourt of this, other than even more scientific statistics to file away, write papers about and get fat on the tv interviews.

Getting 24 hours notice of an impending earthquake would save a lot of lives though.

Figuring out how to efficiently drill bore-holes to the Earth's mantle would be a boon for geothermal power generation (clean, environmentally friendly, and dead simple).

The high-pressure mineral phases in the mantle might provide insight into the synthesis of high-performance building materials (ok, this is a bit of a long shot, but still).

[tom47]

Indonesian Mud Volcano

The plan, estimated to cost 70 million dollars, is the latest attempt to try to stem the steaming mud that started pouring from the earth after an exploratory gas drilling team pierced a layer of strata.

The flow has engulfed homes, factories and farms over more than 600 hectares (1,500 acres) near Indonesia's second city of Surabaya on main Java island.

Despite the efforts, some 120,000 cubic metres of sludge -- equivalent to 48 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- continues to spew daily from the hole, says Ahmad Zulkarnain, a spokesman for the government agency set up to tackle the crisis.

There is a link to this story. I hope they know where they are drilling to the mantle, it is easy to get into a mess like this.

[Krigla]

I saw this on another site yesterday and someone brought up the story of the Siberian miners who drilled so far down they heard screams from hell.

LOL

[Flashbangwollap]

LOL

Yep just take a holiday in Hawaii and Bobs your kettle full of magma. LOL and Lol again.

[booNyzarC]

Is this a good idea? Have they thought it through? Will it even work? I have a bad feeling about this.

I do too. It just seems like an unwise thing to do. Aren't we mucking with the planet enough already? Perhaps we should focus on an exit strategy before doing something like this...

[Lunarstone]

WOW! This is gonna be SO COOL!

[brainiac]

I think it will be a major disaster, since there is a big pressure and very hot underneath, it is like creating a volcano that will explode suddenly. I mean volcano are created by the earth's natural vaporization process of its hot mineral. What they will do is a destruction of our mother earth.

[Swamptick]

Totally agree with post #4.

[KoasTheory]

Wow to retrieve what? Honestly we do know enough about the earth to not give a damn about drilling to the core. All that money can easily be spent on exploring our solar system and others.

[Bildr]

Hmhm... they are scientist that dream to resurrect Tesla's work... TO create clean and free energy for the benefit of nature and our kids future and to finaly get rid of archaic use of oil and dead plants for energy, to stop world hunger to stop war Discover the solar system!!! etc, etc...(WEll you see the point)

But no,instead took all this money to garbadge to do some kind of expedition that no one care about and that won't change a thing.

[sepulchrave]

I swear, this is the most depressing thread I have read in a long time.

This expedition is a reasonable experiment with genuine scientific merit.

It will not destroy the world.

It will not even destroy part of the ocean.

It will not cost billions of dollars.

It will not deny funding from space exploration, cancer cures, or anything else.

It is also a mistake to narrowly focus all scientific funding on a single specific area.

Finally, Tesla did not discover a viable source of ``free energy''. I also find it quite disappointing that people think that a genius inventor and experimentalist like Tesla knew more abstract theory than we currently know, or that Tesla's work was somehow ``lost''.

[Mandoo]

This reminds me of the Doctor Who episode The Hungry Earth. It's even the same year, 2020.

[+HerNibs]

Wasn't this Dr. Evil's plan?

Nibs