Journey Towards The Center of the Earth

linumax wrote to mention an article detailing an ambitious Japanese-led voyage towards the center of the earth. From the article: "The deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu made a port call Thursday in Yokohama after ending its first training mission at sea since being built in July at a cost of 500 million dollars. The 57,500-ton Chikyu, which means the Earth in Japanese, is scheduled to embark in September 2007 on a voyage to collect the first samples of the Earth's mantle in human history. The project, led by Japan and the United States with the participation of China and the European Union, seeks clues on primitive organisms that were the forerunners of life and on the tectonic plates that shake the planet's foundations" They also hope to use the information to detect earthquakes more accurately. A 4 page PDF presentation about the Chikyu deep-sea drilling vessel is also available."

Obscure Reference?

[RDFozz]

Gee, better be on the lookout for green slime and primords....

Did they detect this one?

[TubeSteak]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280 ,-5484820,00.html [guardian.co.uk]

Friday December 16, 2005 8:16 PM

TOKYO (AP) - An undersea earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook northern Japan early Saturday, but there was no danger of a tsunami, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.

The quake occurred shortly after 3:30 a.m. and was centered about 30 miles below the seabed off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, about 180 miles northeast of Tokyo, the agency said.

Sounds like they just got the idea from a movie

[agentofchange]

Oh they did - The Core: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/ [imdb.com] [imdb.com]

Small fix.

[falzer]

From the PDF:

> The proposed program OD21 will evolve into, in close collaboration with the current ODP and international partners, a new international program, named as the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), which will use the "CHIKYU" and a U.S. drilling vessel.

Small fix: micro-evolve. No transitional "international program" between Ocean Drilling Programs has ever been found.

Bush cronies jumping on the bandwagon

[Anonymous Coward]

They say that the Actic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska would be a perfect place to drill through to the mantle, since oil offers so little resistance and simultaniously lubricates the bit. And what harm will come if a bunch of it happens to flow up to the surface by accident?

Re:That drill bit better ...

[Anonymous Coward]

BTW once that bit hits magma that is spining at a different rate from the platform, it will shear.

Because, as we all know, the mantle is spinning at a high RPM, thus acting as a gyroscope, providing stability to the earth.

I'm glad ...

[ta ma de]

That the japanese have decided to put team Zissuo on this. The Belefonte was the perfect choice for a drilling platform. Hopefully no harm will come to the recon dolphins.

The Atheist Agenda

[FatAssBastard]

The project...seeks clues on primitive organisms that were the forerunners of life...

Neo-Darwinist heathens! There is only ONE "forerunner" of life on this planet, and that's GOD!

Detecting quakes? What about causing them?

[HikingStick]

I probably would not have run down this rabbit trail expcept for recent news that hints that the world's tallest building may have activated an old fault line.

Ever see a pop can with a small hole in it? I mean, do they really have a clue what might happen if they provide a channel for deep magma flows to rise? Sure, it's a little sci-fi doomsday scenario, but I'd hate to be the one who signed off on the risk assessment for this project.

Scientist 1: Hey, Jimmie, remember that movie we saw when we were kids? The one where they go to the center of the earth?

Scientist 2: Sure, why'dya ask?

Scientist 1: I got this reasearch grant and I thought we could drill down to see if those giant mushrooms were real.

Scientest 2: Sure, I'm in.

Re:That drill bit better ...

[TubeSteak]

BTW once that bit hits magma that is spining at a different rate from the platform, it will shear.

You really need to brush up on your Hollywood Physics.

In The Core they're using a laser drill known as the "Virgil"

It uses LASER beams to soften up the material ahead of the drill bit. So I imagine that if they went from material of one density to another, the drill bit wouldn't really care.

You know, a lot of very smart people put large amounts of effort into working out a believable framework for these movies.

Geez, everyone's a critic

Hayabusa...

[markild]

Well that was convenient. They can't make their stuff work in space exploring, so they're going for... well.. none-space exploring :P

Another Glomar Explorer?

[zelbinion]

Tinfoil Hat: On

Okay, who lost the submarine [wikipedia.org] THIS time?

Tinfoil Hat: Off

Scott Adams quote...

[Daedalus-Ubergeek]

(From the Dilbert Future or the Dilbert Principle) I remember reading something along the lines of, "If you drill a hole in the earth, all the gravity would escape!" Better send the Japanese a copy!

Even more obscure reference

[Zordak]

Perhaps they'd better check with the Brigadier and ask him what happened when he tried.

Best. Science Fiction. Ever.

Re:ANWR oil is a stop-gap measure at best...

[guygee]

I guess that explains why oil just came bubblin' up when Jed Clampett missed the critter and shot his rifle into the ground...

My Bad...

[guygee]

Humor is such a fragile little butterfly, grasp at it too hard and it is a sticky mess - but still colorful!

My prediction

[pondelik]

The earth's mantle is hot. I mean really hot.

I hope they know what they're doing...

[Max Nugget]

Drilling even a small hole that deep into the earth seems like it could cause all sorts of problems. A crack in a hard material tends to permeate outward. If you drill down just a little bit into the earth, cracks will be very limited in how far from the origin point they can spread. As you drill deeper into the earth, though, I imagine the cracks that form back up toward the surface can get further and further from the origin point, and increase in severity as you go up (in addition to the fact that a crack five feet below the surface is relatively inconsequential whereas a crack 50 feet below the surface could be catastrophic.

I hope they've really thought this through, 'cause to me it sounds sooooo not worth the risk.