Earth's Mantle: Drilling To Science's Deep Frontier

摘要

Fifty years after the U.S. government canceled Project Mohole, a Sputnik-era attempt to recover a complete section of the sediments and rocks that form the ocean crust, scientists empowered by 21st-century technology are discussing a renewed deep quest. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is considering a proposal by an international group of more than 60 researchers to drill through the oceanic crust into the mantle with the Japanese deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu at one of three sites in the Pacific Ocean.