Scientists drill longest-ever piece of Earth's mantle from underwater mountain near 'Lost City'

[Grim Reaper 6]

Researchers have drilled the deepest-ever sample of rocks from Earth's mantle, penetrating 0.7 mile (1.2 kilometers) in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the seafloor is spreading apart.

At this spot, which is rich in hydrothermal vents, the interactions between mantle rocks and seawater create chemicals that are important for life. Previous efforts to drill into mantle rocks brought to the surface in the deep sea had reached only 659 feet (201 meters) — not deep enough to look for organisms such as heat-loving bacteria that might dwell farther down, said Gordon Southam, a geomicrobiologist at the University of Queensland in Australia and a co-author of a new study describing the core sample..

"Every time the drillers recovered another section of deep core, the microbiology team collected samples to culture bacteria to determine the limits of life in this deep subsurface marine ecosystem," Southam wrote in an email to Live Science. "Our ultimate goal is to improve our understanding of the origins of life and to define the potential for life beyond Earth.".

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-drill-longest-ever-piece-of-earth-s-mantle-from-underwater-mountain-near-lost-city

 

[Doc Socks Junior]

Interesting study. I find the flavors of mantle to be a bit of pareidolia. Deep microbes are interesting though.

The JR is getting canned, though. Buh-bye to a lot of ocean drilling