Geologists are planning a $1 billion mission to drill 6 km (3.7 miles) beneath the seafloor to reach the Earth’s mantle to bring back the first ever fresh samples.
To get to the mantle, scientists will be relying on a purpose-built Japanese deep-sea drilling vessel called Chikyu, first launched in 2002 and capable of carrying 10 km of drilling pipes. It has already set a world-record for the deepest hole in scientific ocean drilling history, reaching 2.2 km into the seafloor.
“It will be the equivalent of dangling a steel string the width of a human hair in the deep end of a swimming pool and inserting it into a thimble 1/10 mm wide.”
Oh shit. This makes me excited to take geology classes.
