Journey to the Center of the Earth: Not Just a Fantasy Anymore

One of my favorite books as a kid was Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Just in case you missed that one, the premise of this 1864 bestseller recounted the fantastic adventures of a group of explorers who just happened to find their way to the earth's core thanks to a passage way in an extinct volcano.

Fast-forward 150 years or so and all of sudden Jules Verne incredible tale isn't so far-fetched after all.

Over 50,000 meters below the ocean's surface -- in a hidden area sandwiched between the Capo Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean -- a secret scientific mission is taking place. Its objective: to study a mysterious hollow point that scientists say may reveal "...a window into the heart of the earth's core..."

The protagonist of this melodrama is the British naval vessel RSS James Cook and it's staff of 32 researchers who -- according to an article published in early March in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera (www.corrieredellasera.it) -- are hoping to discover why in this remote corner of the world, the earth's crust is missing 100 of kilometers of what is called the "mantel." In fact say scientists quoted in The London Times (www.times.u.k), this very fact contradicts the "Teutonic Plate" theory which states that under a protective layer of about 6 to 7 kilometers sits the core of the earth, which just happens to be one huge molten volcanic mass. This remote area deep below the Atlantic Ocean is -- according to team leader Professor Chris MacLeod -- "...like a big open wound..."

An open wound that merits studying. In fact, this particular research project is garnering so much attention, that it has its own website: www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@seawhere an interested public can follow the voyage day by day.

According to the "Classroom@SeaProject website which chronicles the voyage, scientists have discovered a large area thousands of square kilometers in extent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where the Earth's crust seems to be missing entirely. Instead, the mantle - the deep interior of the Earth, normally covered by crust many kilometers thick - is exposed on the seafloor, 3000m below the surface. What scientists don't know is whether the ocean crust was first developed, and then ripped away by huge geological faults, or whether it never even developed in the first place.

Mid-ocean ridges are a fascinating component of our planet's armor plating. Mid-ocean ridges are the place where new oceanic crust is born, with red-hot lava spewing out along the spreading axis as seafloor spreading progresses. However, the mechanisms by which this occurs are still not well understood by scientists - hardly surprising when you consider that mid-ocean ridges are located thousands of meters below the surface the surface of the ocean.

Of particular interest is how the research team is exploring at such great depths. While scientists on board the RSS James Cook follow its every move, a robotic submarine drone nicknamed "TOBI" (Towed Ocean Bottom Instrument) is busy darting about, mapping the entire quadrant with techniques not unlike those of the remote-control submarine used to locate the doomed trans-Atlantic ocean line RSS Titanic in 1994. Slowly but surely, TOBI is creating a detailed visual of what lies so far down beneath the Ocean surface.

When the team has selected suitable sites for drilling, they will use a robotic rock drill to take samples of the seabed. The drill is mounted on a metal tripod and is lowered onto the seafloor by a special cable. A camera on the tripod allows the scientists to see exactly where they are placing the drill. The rotating drill bit is diamond-tipped to ensure that it's hard enough to cut through the rock, and produces cylindrical 'rods' of rock (cores, see below). An important feature of this particular drill is that the cores are specially marked to show which way is north so that the scientists know how they are oriented - very important when you're taking lots of samples across an area and you want to know how certain properties vary across space. By taking a series of these cores across the area and analyzing them, the scientists will be able to determine how the seafloor spreading process varies across the region, and how the mantle came to be so close to the surface in this area.

This unique research project is already garnering results, but isn't coming at a cheap price: the James Cook cost more than $60 million dollars and is the most advanced research vessel of its kind.