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http://www.reuters.com/video/2013/01...eoId=240350714
Jan. 8 - A Japanese-led project aims to drill to the Earth's mantle, a 3,000 kilometre-thick layer of slowly deforming rock between the crust and the core. In its early stages, the $US1 billion mission would deploy a drill just 30 centimetres wide to bore into the Earth's crust to bring back the first ever samples of fresh mantle rock.
We must be getting pretty desperate for nickel I tell ya.
"just 30 centimetres wide" That's a pretty big hole in drilling terms.
Russia tried this a while ago, got 12km deep and the rock was much hotter and under more pressure than anticipated and was deforming as they drilled so the hole had to be abandoned soon after. I hope they make it down but I really doubt it.
I wonder what the drill bit will be made out of. Adamantium? Water? And down hole pressure, anyone? lol
Ah humanity....trying to destroy everything it can, just cause it can....
"Let's drill a hole in this here boat so we can lookit the purdy sharks!"
oops we made a Volcano:eek:
Well if they're drilling through oceanic crust, depending on how thick that is and the isotherm associated with it...maybe. I dunno that'd have to be some pretty robust stuff to resist melting while drilling! Even if they hit the mantle, I'm a little confused on how they hope to obtain a sample. I guess whatever got onto the drill bit when they entered it and half or fully melted the bit? Definitely would like to know more about the specifics of this project.
Anyone who's interested in this stuff should check out the info on the Kola super-deep borehole
Pretty wild stuff. Deepest I've ever drilled is a measly 3800m, so something over 12,000m deep is pretty amazing to me.
drilling mud will definitely have to have some cooling properties but that's a hell of a strain on anything to suspend a pipe that long.
also i'm pretty sure it won't be like drilling into the roof of a cave. the rock will jsut get softer and softer until the rock with the lowest melting point become liquid I wouldn't imagine it would survive very far past that.
also you'd think that the time it would take to drill that deep the ground will have shifted and pinched the drill pipe.
Yeah I've done some 5500's, and thats a hell of a hole!Quote:
Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Anyone who's interested in this stuff should check out the info on the Kola super-deep borehole
Pretty wild stuff. Deepest I've ever drilled is a measly 3800m, so something over 12,000m deep is pretty amazing to me.