Could New Mantle Drilling Project Destroy the World?

Geoscientists state nothing of the sort could happen, yet some dangers do exist.

Scene from 1965 film, "Crack in the World."

(CHICAGO) - High pressure drilling deep into the earth's mantle worries some people who remember the 1965 film, "Crack in the World."

Damon Teagle Benoît Ildefonse

That hair-raising British movie depicted determined scientists boring into the Earth's mantle and accidentally triggering a crack in the mantle that threatens to split the planet apart.

They're unable to stop the catastrophe and only the explosive birth of a new moon saves earth.

Geoscientists state nothing of the sort could happen, yet some dangers do exist. The worst that might happen is a new volcano is accidentally created.

Drill, baby, drill

Now French and English scientists Dr. Benoit Ildefonse of the Montpellier University in France and Dr. Damon Teagle of the National Oceanography Center in Southampton, England have announced a bold plan to drill into the earth's crust and continue past it deep into the high-pressure, superheated mantle.

Others have tried in the past; all attempts failed. Conditions inside the mantle are extreme: 600 degrees Fahrenheit and up to 4 million pounds of pressure per square foot.

Expert drillers say drilling into the mantle raises a slew of engineering problems, not the least of which requires that the drilling operation must use drills without the traditional "riser."

Risers, in gas and oil drilling, are the pipes that permit venting of superheated and explosive underground gas pockets.

They believe that to counter the immense forces at such great depths, pressure has to be used to force what's being drilled through up towards the surface.

Pumping seawater into the borehole with greater pressure might work.

But, they point out, if the idea fails to force pieces of the mantle up towards the surface the entire project would be a failure.

The dangers of a worldwide catastrophe continued at original article here: Determined scientists vow to drill into Earth's mantle on helium.com

Terrence Aym is a Salem-News.com Contributor based in Chicago, who is well known nationally for his stirring reports on the top ranked site, helium.com. Born in Minnesota, Terrence Aym grew up in the Chicagoland suburbs. Having traveled to 40 of the 50 states and lived in 7 of them, Aym is no stranger to travel. He's also spent time in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Western Africa. An executive for many years with Wall Street broker-dealer firms, Aym has also had a life-long interest in science, technology, the arts, philosophy and history. If it's still possible to be a 'Renaissance man' in the 21st Century, Aym is working hard to be one.

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