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Scientist said this week they had drilled into the lower section of Earth's crust for the first time and were poised to break through to the mantle in coming years.

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The new hole, which took nearly eight weeks to drill, is the third deepest ever made into the floor of the sea, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The rock collection brought back to the surface is providing new information about the planet's composition.

"It will provide important clues on how ocean crust forms," said Rodey Batiza, NSF program director for ocean drilling.

Already the types of rocks recovered show that conventional interpretation of Earth's evolution are "oversimplifying many of the features of the ocean’s crust," said expedition leader Jay Miller of Texas A&M University. "Each time we drill a hole, we learn that Earth’s structure is more complex. Our understanding of how the Earth evolved is changing accordingly."

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[ 10 April 2005: Message edited by: Amy ]

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This is a terrible idea! They did this on Doctor Who and once they pierced the crust, everyone started turning into freakish monkey men in a quasi-fascist alternative universe!

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[ 10 April 2005: Message edited by: Mandos ]

It's not like they're exploding bombs or anything. It's just a drill hole a few cms in diameter! By the way, do you know that there are much bigger holes (much, much bigger, and much hotter) under Hawaii, Iceland and other volcanic hotspots?

[ 10 April 2005: Message edited by: Surferosad ]

Or is it...

Cheese can replace fossil fuels as a great source of energy. This is why no one has been to the moon in ages, they are secretly mining all the cheese and it is running low.

The cheese at the centre of the earth will probably taste fresher also, since it kinda like buying local compared to the cheese from the moon.

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This is a terrible idea! They did this on Doctor Who and once they pierced the crust, everyone started turning into freakish monkey men in a quasi-fascist alternative universe!

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Would we notice the difference with George W. Bush in charge?

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That's exactly what I was thinking. Ain't sumthin like this already happen in the US?

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Maybe they'll find Rick Wakeman's career, which was last reported seen in the area.

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Hey. I still got that album! I ain't listened to it in about 25 years, but I remember it well. Maybe I'll play it when they punch a hole into the mantle and Magma spirts up and fries us all.

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Stevenson figures that a nuclear device would likely be the best way to blast the necessary gap, as long and deep as several football fields and about 1 foot wide (30 centimeters). The event would be commensurate with an Earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter Scale.

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[ 11 April 2005: Message edited by: venus_man ]

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Originally posted by venus_man:

Wouldn’t it cause (or already causing) an earthquake or few? Some of the ‘scientist’, for the purposes of fulfilling their sometimes egoistic curiosity, can destroy (and probably already destroying) lives and may be the Earth itself.

[ 11 April 2005: Message edited by: venus_man ]

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Nobody is going to use no "nucular" devices anywhere. They're using a drill very similar to the ones used for oil prospecting.

Funny, I thought it was gullibility, ignorance, short term thinking and egoism who were destroying the Earth... Oh well, I guess I must be wrong.

Maybe it's them damn evil power mad scientists who are doing it! They're meddling with the forces of nature! How dare they play GOD! "They LAUGHED at my theories at the institute! Fools! Fools! I'll destroy them all!" --

[ 11 April 2005: Message edited by: Surferosad ]

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Originally posted by Surferosad:

Funny, I thought it was gullibility, ignorance, short term thinking and egoism who were destroying the Earth... Oh well, I guess I must be wrong.

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[ 11 April 2005: Message edited by: Surferosad ]

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Originally posted by Surferosad:
... It's up to the public and politicians to use it (science) for good or for evil. Now, what scientists should do (and they don't do it enough) is get out of their ivory towers and discuss these things with everyone involved.

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And you're right, scientists are people too. Some of them will have ideas and support causes that we both would consider to be wrong. You can't impose a moral code on them, like you can't impose morals on other citizens. So yeah, some of them will work for the military, and some of them will create weapons...

It would be great if we could know immediately all the consequences of a new invention or discovery. But we can't. Science and technology are often double edged swords. If you don't do something because of the bad things it may do, you will also miss on the good things it might bring.

Tesla is not the best example of a "scientist". First, he was an engineer and inventor, not a scientist. He wasn't very interested in first principles. Like Edison, he was more into technological applications. Second, he was a bit of a crank.

[ 11 April 2005: Message edited by: Surferosad ]

How big in diameter is the hole? How big is the earth? I'm not sure we can drill a hole large enough in diameter to make any significant effect on the globe.

Myself, I'd be drilling another hole beside it, and intersecting them at the bottom, and filling it up with water, with a generator on the top.

We need all the electricity we can get to keep those billboards illuminated through the wee hours of the night, so five or six people can see them, and be adequately advertized at.

[ 11 April 2005: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ]