SCIENTISTS have dug a staggering 4,160ft into the Earth’s mantle – deeper than anyone has ever drilled before.
Researchers are now studying a huge chunk of rock which they say might hold clues to the origins of life on Earth.
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On the groundbreaking expedition in the Atlantic Ocean, scientists only planned to dig 656ft down over fears their drill might get jammed.
But the team ended up digging a whopping 4,160ft into the seabed – a record achievement.
They returned with a tube-shaped chunk from the mantle – a layer of solid rock sandwiched between Earth’s outer crust and hot core.
Frieder Klein, an expedition team member at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told the New York Times: “We did it.
“We now have a treasure trove of rocks that will let us systematically study the processes that people believe are relevant to the emergence of life on the planet.”
The drill site was located near an area known as the “Lost City” – an area where the seawater reacts with mantle, producing chemicals such as hydrogen and methane.
Andrew McCaig, a geologist and study co-author from the University of Leeds, said: “One suggestion for the origin of life on Earth is that it could have happened in an environment similar to Lost City.”
Deborah Kelley, an oceanographer at the University of Washington, told the New York Times that the research is “really important” and “lays a foundation for new understanding”.
Geologist Johan Lissenberg of Cardiff University, lead author of the study published in the journal Science on Thursday, spoke about the ground-breaking discovery.
He told the New York Times: “We were like kids in a candy store seeing core after core coming up.
“It’s too early to say anything really specific, because the results are not yet in, but we’ll find out. That’s the excitement.”
“We were astounded at how easily the rocky samples came to light. They tend to fracture quite easily, and that jams the drill.
The expedition – led by International Ocean Discovery Program – took place last spring, but results from the study have just been published.
The tube-shaped chunk comes from the mantle – a layer of solid rock sandwiched between Earth’s outer crust and ferociously hot core.
Lissenberg’s team said their sample shows the chemical processes at work when it interacts with seawater over a range of temperatures.
McCaig admitted: “We did have quite a bit of difficulty starting our hole.”
But the team “drilled unexpectedly easily”.
Lissenberg said: “The recovery is record-breaking in that previous attempts of drilling mantle rocks have been difficult, with penetration no deeper than 656ft and with relatively low recovery of rocks.
“In contrast, we penetrated 4,160ft, recovering large sections of continuous mantle rocks.”
The sample they recovered is around 2.5 inches in diameter – or 6.5cm.
The team of scientists used equipment aboard the ocean-drilling ship JOIDES Resolution to complete the digging back in 2023.
The mantle is notoriously tricky to access but the team ventured to the Atlantis Massif – an underwater mountain near the Atlantic seabed to drill.
It’s located just west of the mid-Atlantic Ridge that forms the boundary between the North American, Eurasian and African plates.
The exact drill site was located close to the Lost City Hydrothermal Field on the Atlantis Massif.
The cylindrical sample is thought to be representative of the mantle rock beneath the “Lost City” vents.
McCaig added: “One suggestion for the origin of life on Earth is that it could have happened in an environment similar to Lost City.”
Researchers are still analysing the sample – but hope it can reveal new information about how life on Earth started.
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