Scientist Are Planning A Real Journey To Middle Earth

Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:24 pm » by **Savwafair2012**

Scientists plan to drill all the way down to the Earth's mantle

PhysOrg.com) -- In what can only be described as a mammoth undertaking, scientists, led by British co-chiefs, Dr Damon Teagle of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England and Dr Benoit Ildefonse from Montpellier University in France, have announced jointly in an article in Nature that they intend to drill a hole through the Earth’s crust and into the mantle; a feat never before accomplished, much less seriously attempted.

The Earth’s mantle is the part of the planet that lies between the crust and the iron ball at its center, and to reach it, would require drilling down from a position in the ocean, because the crust is much thinner there. Even still, it would mean drilling through five miles of solid rock. And if that doesn’t sound hard enough, temperatures increase the farther down you go, and could reach as high as 570 degrees Fahrenheit; high enough to render useless most modern drill bits. Last but not least is the problem of atmospheric pressure, which increases the deeper you go, to somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 million pounds per square foot near the mantle. That last one may not seem like much of a problem, but with exploratory drilling, it becomes a problem rather quickly when you remember that it’s not just a hole they plan to dig, but a hole that can be used to extract samples from very far below.

To retrieve a sample, the drillers would have to rely on drills without a riser (drills that use double pipes for venting gases) which would mean pumping seawater down into the hole through the drill pipe with sufficient pressure to force whatever is being dug back up to the surface so that it can be examined.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-sci ... antle.html

Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:27 pm » by **Richc**

Well they will only be drilling half way to the middle so it seems. ( Mantle. )

They could however go up to the North pole with parachutes and jump into the big hole thats supposed to be there. Or is it covered in sea. . :flop:

RIK

Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:22 pm » by **Samael**

Not even close to half way.

Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:27 pm » by **Lakotawanagiyat**

This is Stupid!
They drill 11 kilometers down look what happens
BP spill oil.