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To find out the mantle – the largest layer of the rocky body of the earth – the breakthroughs pierce deep nuclei from the ground.
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The scientists have broken the deepest nucleus so far and restore coils, which is formed when the salt water interacts with the mantle rock.
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Although this is the deepest in the mantle students who have ever punched, the mission has not revealed a virgin mantle, which is beyond the interruption of Mohorovic, or Moho, the border.
If you want to understand the geology of our native planet, learning the mantle is a great place to start. By dividing the rocky crust on the planet and the melted outer nucleus, the mantle represents 70 percent of the earth mass and 84 percent of its volume. But despite its huge impact on the geological processes of the planet, scientists have never made rocks directly from this extremely important geological layer.
And this is understandable, especially when you think the crust is approximately 9 to 12 miles thick. Fortunately, this average value contains hermits – arei of the world, where the crust is actually incredibly thin and lifting exposes the mantle through cracks. One such area is the middle-Atlantic ridge, especially near an underwater mountain called the Atlantis Massive.
On the south side of this massif is an area known as the lost city – a hydrothermal field, whose ventilation liquids are highly alkaline and rich in hydrogen, methane and other carbon compounds. This makes the area a particularly convincing candidate for explaining how early life develops on Earth. It also contains a mantle rock that interacts with seawater in a process known as “snake”, which changes the structure of the rock and gives it a green, marble -like appearance.
It was here, 800 meters south of this field, in May 2023 the members of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) – on board of JOIDES a resolution, A 470-foot research ship hired by the US National Scientific Foundation-a core of 1268 meters containing abisal peridotitis, which are the main rocks that make up the upper mantle of the Earth. The results of the survey were published In the magazine ScienceS
Although this makes this specific nucleus of well the deepest sample of the mantle so far, this deep in the rock was not the purpose of this record expedition.
“We had planned to break through only 200 meters because it was the deepest people who had ever been able to break into Mantle Rock,” said Johann Lidenberg, a Cardiff University and co-author of the study, said Johann Lissenberg, a Cardiff University and a co-author of the study NatureS He said drilling was so easy that they progressed three times faster than usual. The team eventually drilled the shocking 1.268 meters and only stopped due to the limited mission window.
Andrew McCage-Sutor and Scientist at the University of Leeds-Poschi in an article from Conversation This, according to a preliminary analysis of the scale, the nucleus composition contains a variety of peridotitis called Harzburgite, which is formed by partial melting of the mantle rock. It also contained rocks known as Gabros, which are rude -grained magnetic rocks. Then both rocks chemically reacted with seawater, changing their composition.
While this nucleus is an incredible opportunity to learn more about the earth’s mantle, as well as to give a thorough look at the geological substrate on which the lost city rests, the mission did not end the “big challenge” to cross the Mohor. Otherwise known as Moho, the interruption of Mohorovic is recognized as the true border between the crust and the virgin mantle.
Future missions may continue to explore this site near the Atlantis array, but unfortunately these missions will not include JOIDES a resolution-The NSF refused to finance more basic drilling in 2024. Just as the scientists were knocking on the door of the most forthcoming geological layer on the ground, the future of this type of drilling missions is already uncertain.
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