First Ever Rocks from the Earth’s Mantle

well maybe we can do this.  do understand though that we really do not have any collection of samples from the so called mantle at all and everything we know below perhaps 20,000 feet is pure conjecture unsullied by serious evidence

also understand that deep material able to rise at all is altered bigly.  We also understand that diamond bearing rock rockets to the surface and that pressure release allows diamonds to form.  this is from liquid carbon and most is obviously consumed on the way.  The so called rock is also altered, but that is as good as we get to see and the result is repeated globally.

We at least know that the mantle is different from all the upper crust which has given us our continents and half the earth surface is sort of uncovered by this material.  I am not too optimistic here because the rock is already at 200 C, so we will push tech a little further.  I would like to see a drill hole traverse across the ridge, repeated over a thousand miles.  good luck on that.

First Ever Rocks from the Earth’s Mantle

June 1, 2023 by Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/06/first-ever-rocks-from-the-earths-mantle.html#more-183362

On April 12, 2023, geologists, microbiologists and other scientists sailed to the Atlantis Massif, a 14,000-foot underwater mountain sitting on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The plan: To dig into an already existing 4,640-foot hole drilled nearly 20 years ago to 6,750 feet. The hole will was able to collect rock from the Earth’s mantle. The temperatures are crossed 204 degrees Celsius. Such expeditions are currently underway all across the world.

This is the first time humans have dug through the Earth’s crust.

In the early 1960s, a group of scientists flagged off “Project Mohole”. It aimed to drill a hole (Mexico) through the core to reach the boundary between the crust and mantle called Mohorovičić Discontinuity or Moho, in short. Oceanic crusts are thinner than their continental counterparts. So, the sea route was a natural choice. This expedition was crucial in demonstrating that drilling was technologically possible. But due to a lack of funding the project was dissolved.

In 1989, a Russian project in the Kola peninsula drilled 12.2 km into the earth’s crust — the deepest hole dug so far. The rocks extracted from it at a depth of about 3 km were almost identical to lunar soil. At 10 km depth, the team found petrified remains of ancient living organisms.

In 2015, an expedition led by an Indian researcher (Dhananjay Pandey) spent about 60 days drilling two holes in the Lakshmi basin of the Arabian Sea. The team reached depths of 1.1 km below the sea floor in 3.6 km deep water. The motive was to collect samples and investigate when the South Asian monsoon intensified.

So far, the 12.2 km record has not been broken.

The JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO) manages and operates the riserless drillship, JOIDES Resolution, for the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). The JRSO is based in the Office of the Vice President for Research of Texas A&M University.

The JRSO is responsible for overseeing the science operations of the riserless drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution, archiving the scientific data and samples and logs that are collected, and producing and disseminating program publications. The drillship travels throughout the oceans sampling the sediments and rocks beneath the seafloor. The scientific samples and data are used to study Earth’s past history, including plate tectonics, ocean currents, climate changes, evolutionary characteristics and extinctions of marine life, and mineral deposits. Drilling operations are conducted purely for scientific purposes and do not include oil exploration.