Scientists to Drill Earth's Mantle, Retrieve First Sample?

Originally posted by AbleEndangered
One More Thought:
This would be the Ultimate source of Geo-Thermal Energy!

I concurr. Personally, I think geothermal is way under-utilized/studied.

It seems to me, wherever you are on the Earth, it's just a question of depth. I don't think you need to hit the mantle or magma to get effective geothermal to work though. You just need to go deep enough to get a big enough difference in temperature between the surface and the bottom of the bore to use for running a fluid of some kind through a turbine.

Obviously, in some places, that's available at much shallower depths than in other places. Ironically, the industry that probably has the "stock-pile" of data that would be needed (i.e. how far down in various locations are different temperatures found), is the oil and natural gas exploration industry. They've been drilling holes all over the planet for decades. They are probably accustomed to dealing with heat along the way - as a nuisance.

Of course, I do understand the fears also, this idea of deliberately drilling all the way to the mantle has definitely been explored in Science-Fiction ...

"Crack in the World" - [Wikipedia Page], [IMDB Page]

reply to post by FarBeyondDriven69


Good info and great first thread as well.

how do we even know the earth HAS a mantle? because of some freakin' sound waves?

this will be interesting if they don't create a volcano.

Am I the only one who thinks this is utter stupidity and foolishness. They are comparing this to a swimming pool filled with water? Seriously? I mean, are they trying find Hell and the Devils lair?

I hope the entire operation fails.

This must come to a halt. When something goes wrong, what then? They have no backup initiative, no plan, no quick-fix. nothing.

Originally posted by etoibmys
This must come to a halt. When something goes wrong, what then? They have no backup initiative, no plan, no quick-fix. nothing.

Enough of this 'Precautionary' stuff!

Without taking chances, man, (as we are today), would not be where we are!

You don't want to move forward?

Ok so what you are saying... essentially... is the scientific community intends on drilling what would be a giant man made lava tube...... that would bore directly into what is essentially a giant ball of ultra-pressurized magma.... am I right so far?

Tell me again how this is even remotely a good idea?

Sounds to me like a direct line to the mantle could create something that makes Yellowstone look like a pimple..

who allows these people to do these things.....oooh yeah forgot, with enough cash you can do pretty much anything. though it seems like people only want to do the bad, risky stuff.
i'm no expert on this subject but isnt drilling down deep gonna cause vibration, friction and mess with pressures that could have some negative conscequences?
I am curious as to what is down there but not curious enough to start punching holes in OUR planet.

might be like popping a balloon and we'll all go zooming across galaxy

after lying dormant for over a year....

somehow this thread revs back to life...

does anyone know if they made it?

I'd hate to be working on that drilling rig. The deepest wells I've been a part of drilling have been 22,000' of pipe, some of which was horizontal, so we only went about 16-17,000' true vertical depth. That is ALOT of drillpipe to pull out and trip in everytime the bit wears out.

One resource I looked at says the thinnest places in the crust are around 16 miles thick, which is 84,480'. If they use drillpipe which has an outside diameter of 5", which weighs 19.5 lbs/ft, that gives us a string weight (weight of the entire drill pipe assembly) of 1.6 million pounds. A lot, but not out of reason. Some offshore rigs could handle that.

The biggest hurdle in drilling that deep is is mud pump horsepower. Drilling rigs have large pumps that pump drilling fluid ("mud") down the drill pipe, out through the bit, and back up the hole between the wall and the outside of the pipe. This mud cools the bit and brings the cuttings to the surface. The horsepower necessary to have the surface pressure required to move mud that far is mind-blowing. Then the mud engineers would have to figure out what the mud would need to weigh to provide sufficient hydrostatic pressure at the bottom of the hole to keep it under control, lest the bottom hole pressure not balance out the pressure coming into the well from the formation (blowout, deepwater horizon).

I'll believe it when I see it.