Japanese drill mother DEEPER & HARDER

[Taro Toporific]

Japanese researchers drill Mother Earth DEEPER & HARDER...
The Ultimate Drill Down
WIRED 13:03, March 2005 issue
....the Chikyu - a 689-foot-long, 57,550-ton ocean vessel. Chikyu means "Earth" in Japanese, and the ship's sole mission is to drill deeper than anyone has before: 6.2 miles down. After tests off the Japanese coast, researchers in June will head for deep Pacific waters, weigh anchor, and probe all the way to the mantle, that molten layer between the crust and the core....more...

[Taro Toporific]

UPDATE

The Biggest Dig
Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Sept 24, 2005 [ GEOSCIENCE ] --Japan builds a ship to drill to the earth's mantle
.....One risk in drilling to the mantle--or any seafloor drilling--is tapping into a pocket of gas hydrates. If a plume blows out and rises, it can sink the ship. Escaping gas can also spark catastrophic explosions and fires. But geophysicists believe that the risk is worth taking. Directly sampling and monitoring the mantle, asserts CDEX scientist Daniel Curewitz, "will greatly expand our understanding and could open new avenues of inquiry into the nature, history and future of the planet we call home."...more...

[Mulboyne]

BBC: First contact to earthquake zone

Scientists have completed the first stage of an ambitious plan to drill down into an earthquake-generating region near Japan. The project saw holes bored 1.4km into the sea floor, producing 3D images of stresses inside the quake zone. The Nankai Trough produced major lethal earthquakes and tsunami during the last century. The eventual aim is to place instruments 6km deep in the crust, possibly as an early warning system. Findings from the initial phase of the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) were presented here at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) annual meeting....The five months from last September saw eight holes drilled to various depths in the Nankai Trough, using the new Japanese research vessel Chikyu...more...

[Typhoon]

Talk about overcompensating.

Joking aside, a very interesting project.

[Charles]

This story seems familiar.

[Typhoon]

duplicate

[Typhoon]

This story seems familiar.

Closer to home: &#26085]eXer07bKqiY[/YT]

[ttjereth]

Closer to home: &#26085]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXer07bKqiY[/yt]

[So why doesn't the embbeding work for the above Youtube link?]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXer07bKqiY

Only include the code after the "v=".

<youtube>eXer07bKqiY</youtube>

but with the other brackets

[Typhoon]

Thanks, ttjereth