Japan is starting an expedition to accomplish a place no human has ever witness , although we stand hard above it : the Earth ’s mantle .
Japan ’s Agency for Marine - Earth Science and Technology(JAMSTEC ) plans to drill through 6 kilometers ( 3.7 stat mi ) of oceanic encrustation to reach the mantle for the first metre . A team of investigator from JAMSTEC will conduct a preliminary work in the amniotic fluid of Hawaii in September .
" There are still issuing to be adjudicate , peculiarly the cost , " Susumu Umino , a professor at Kanazawa University who specialize in petrology , toldThe Japan News . " However , the preliminary study will be a large step forward for this project to enter a new microscope stage . "
The project is estimated to be $ 540 million and will be expect out by Chikyu , a flagship Japanese cryptic - sea drilling vessel . The researchers hope to bulge out the charge in the former 2020s , or by 2030 at the very latest .
Two other sites are also being considered , one off the glide of Mexico and one off the coast of Costa Rica . The oceanic crust is much thin than the continental crust , which is on middling around 20 kilometers ( 12.4 miles ) .
This newly announced project is just one of many so far unsuccessful attempts at attain the mantle , with both sea beds and lands drilled . The deepest we have ever make was theKola Superdeep Borehole , which reached 12,262 meters ( over 40,000 foot ) . Due to lack of fundings , the labor and the website were abandoned in 2008 .
A mixture of gamy price and modified technology has hindered late missions , but the JAMSTEC squad believe the applied science is now correct to carry through the impertinence and give the mantle .
What we have intercourse of the Earth ’s interior was acquire indirectly through earthquake . Even magma from volcanos does n’t offer utter sample of the mantel , as it ’s all blend up with liquefied impertinence . oil production provides the unique probability to learn the composition of the chimneypiece as it truly is . With that , we could hopefully clarify some unclear point of plate tectonics and maybe even understand how our planet formed .
[ H / T : The Japan News ]
