Drilling to the Center of the Earth

indylaw writes "Japanese scientists are attempting to explore the centre of the Earth." From the article: "Using a giant drill ship launched next month, the researchers aim to be the first to punch a hole through the rocky crust that covers our planet and to reach the mantle below. The team wants to retrieve samples from the mantle, six miles down, to learn more about what triggers undersea earthquakes, such as the one off Sumatra that caused the Boxing Day tsunami."

This article is very interesting.

[cwmonkey]

This article is very interesting. This article is very interesting.

Madness!

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds awfully risky. I hope Bruce Willis and his team are involved.

Question

[Deltan]

Is the drill tip made of unobtanium?

Gosh...

[fullcircleflight]

I hope they consult Hilary Swank or other well-known Hollywood "terranauts" before they commence all this.

Re:Wrong bloody title.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree 100%, the earth is flat.

Re:a new low !

[noelmarkham]

I even emailed the on duty editor before the article was posted to warn him. I even emailed the on duty editor before the article was posted to warn him.

Re:How interesting...

[rokzy]

it's not so funny when not only have 10 other people made the joke before you, but you also *explain* it.

Begin project Vulcan!

[concreationist]

1. Build giant probe to drill to the center of the earth
2. Arm the probe with nuclear weapons
3. Hold the world hostage for... ONE MILLION DOLLARS
4. Profit!

perhaps...

[nEoN nOoDlE]

Perhaps people drilling to the center of the earth is what's causing the tsunamis... Oh the tragic irony that would be!!

Re:This article is very interesting.

[bgarcia]

They just decided to get the repost out of the way now by reposting into the same article!

It's ingenious!

Where are my mod points when I need 'em?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was like.. funny :)

They really seem to be working on streamlining the reposting process. The next post may look something like this:

"Uussiinngg aa ggiiaanntt ddrriill sshhipp llaauunncchheedd nneexxtt mmoonntthh, tthhee rreesseaarrcchheerrrss aaiimm ttoo bbee tthhee ffiirrsstt ttoo ppuunncchh aa hhoollee..."

Soon they will perfect both instances occupying the same space, resulting an a repost singularity.

Godzilla!!

[Skiron]

I hope they don't wake up some million year old creature that then terrorises Tokyo and makes all the girls scream!

Re:a new low !

[iwan-nl]

It's a good thing though, they would open up a gate to hell [snopes.com] if they went that deep.

Re:Wrong bloody title.

[CastrTroy]

I can do that in my back yard with a shovel then. Or if you want to get really anal about using the word drill, then using a ground auger.

Re:This article is very interesting.

[sonamchauhan]

> This article is very interesting... ad infinitum.

Slashdot editors repeat articles
On their website, despite 'em
Dupes repeat phrases, which the comments repeat,
And so it threads ad infinitum

Re:NEWS FLASH: English is ambiguous.

[Fussen]

Hold on.. I've taken a drill to an M&M before, and the thing blasted apart with the majority of it wedged into the drill bit.

So if the Earth suddenly shatters to pieces.. we can blame Japan?

No

[A nonymous Coward]

To be pedantic, the mantle does not go all the way to the center. There's the core below the mantle. To extend your analogy, the crust is the M&M's chocolate shell, the mantle is the chocolate below that, and the core is the peanut.

No no no

[some guy I know]

This is serious. Somebody should stop them. Otherwise, they will pop the planet like a balloon, causing the insides to gush out into space, and the Earth's crust to fragment and fly off in all directions. Those parts of the crust left intact will shrink to a small fraction of their former size (just like a ballon's skin), once the air is let out of the Earth. On the plus side, traveling from point A to point B will take much less time, once the crust has shrunk, but point A and point B will themselves be much smaller. Houses in the suburbs will start to look like houses in the city, i.e., scrunched up against each other with small to non-existent back yards. No back yards! Where will yuppies hold their barbeques? My god, my god! We have to stop them before they pop the planet!

Re:No

[zippthorne]

I will further butcher the analogy by pointing out that the core is likely composed of two regions: a liquid outer core and a solid inner core. So the earth is really more like those crazy chocloate covered cherry liquor thingies. (if covered in a sweet candy shell. mmmm)

Re:Wrong bloody title.

[rsynnott]

Certainly; they'll fall through and land on the turtle. Serves them right ;)