Tapping A Volcano's Secrets
CBS News (AP) - TOKYO, Feb. 13, 2003
In what resembles a journey to the center of the Earth, Japanese scientists launched the world's first attempt Thursday to bore a hole into the red-hotcore of a volcano and unlock the secrets of deadly eruptions.
A 164-foot-high oil-rig-like derrick perched on the scrubby slopes of Mount Unzen will begin drilling through the volcano's crust next week in a bid to sample the magma bubbling below.
...which reminds me of a Japanese Folktale called "The Serpent of Mount Unzen"
...[the Japanese people] continued hunting every day without taking a rest, and one day they saw a big snake. Recognizing it as the evil creature that had done damage to their fields, they tried many shots, but could only wound it without reaching its vital spot. The wounded monster hid itself in the depths of the mountains and came out to do evil...
(Richard M. Dorson, Folk Legends of Japan (Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1962)
