Drill through the earth's crust

A team of scientists from the United States, Britain and the middle 12 countries boarded the us "determination" to drill for the first time in the Indian Ocean to drill through the boundary of the earth's crust.
The face of the earth is expected to be revealed step by step in the future.
What challenges will the plan face?
What's the point?
Are there fears that drilling could trigger earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?
For this, the Beijing news reporter interviewed the Chinese and foreign experts on the "determination" to solve the mystery.
The 12 scientists form an "super strong" squad
"When we arrived at the drilling site on December 18 last year, we started to build our equipment and start drilling.
It has reached the bottom of 407 meters below the sea floor.
Without technical problems, with an average drilling speed of 45 meters per day, we might be able to reach the target of 1,300 meters ahead of the anticipated drilling on January 27."
Chris macleod, co-head of the project, told the Beijing news.
This is the 36th voyage of the international ocean discovery programme and the first voyage of the SloMo programme.
The project aims to test a geological hypothesis by striking the boundaries of the earth's crust and mantle for the first time in a section of the southwest Indian Ocean ridge known as the "shoal of Atlantis."
"It takes a long process to get a lot of ocean drilling, because it's complicated, and it's going through a lot of rigorous international scientific reviews.
To develop ocean drilling 'international ocean found plan may be the world's largest international earth science scientific cooperation plan, led by the United States, Japan, Europe and other countries, budget of $150 million.
China has increased its contribution in recent years to $3 million a year.
Zhou huaiyang, a professor of Marine geology at tongji university, told the Beijing news.
Zhou huaiyang has been the chief scientist of ocean-1, a Chinese research vessel, and is one of two Chinese scientists recommended by the expert advisory committee of the China ocean discovery program to participate in the voyage.
However, before the voyage, zhou huaiyang became a shore-based scientist on the voyage and participated in the scientific research on the voyage.
His doctoral student ma qiang became one of two Chinese experts who boarded the resolution, and the other was liu chuanzhou, a researcher at the Chinese academy of sciences.
The team including rock experts and structural geologists, geochemist and geological physicist from 12 countries 30 scientists, team, head of the joint is the woods hole oceanographic institution and Dr Henry dick macleod.
In addition to the team, "determination", and 88 other people, including the crew, drilling operator, operating the most advanced science laboratory support team on board and some officials in education and outreach.
To understand the structure and composition of the earth
Zhou said China, as a member of the international ocean discovery plan, can send two scientists on each voyage.
In general, domestic scientists have submitted applications to the China ocean discovery plan expert advisory committee, which is recommended by the committee to the international ocean discovery plan committee.
Due to the need for different majors and direction scientists to cooperate, the recommended standard should be considered as a scientist in the field of science.
Mr Macleod is highly positive to Chinese experts and regrets that zhou was unable to board the ship.
"They (wilmop and Liu Chuanzhou) is a" China ocean found plans "excellent example for the next generation of scientists, we also hope that under the leadership of professor zhou I can a drilling in the southwest of the Indian Ocean voyage."
The project is progressing smoothly with the cooperation of multinational scientists.
The drilling is roughly similar to the oil drilling principle, and the difference is that the core sample is obtained, and the drill is drilled into the depths of 1, 300 meters in the hard rock.
"The most important project of this voyage is to drill a hole to the surface of the earthquake boundary and into the mantle," macleod said.
At the current drilling site, the boundary is five kilometers below the ocean floor and requires at least three voyages to drill down to the depth.
It is estimated that this will drill down to a depth of 1300 meters, leaving a hole that can be re-entered and can be continuously deepened in the future, and we will continue to drill down this hole."
Mr Macleod's "moho" is a part of the earth's crust, named after the Croatian seismologist, moholovitch, and has been a mysterious presence in the geological sciences.
Scientists can only infer the composition of their material by means of indirect means, simulated experiments and complex calculations.
Mr Macleod believes that the core of the drill will provide new insights into the core of the earth's tectonic cycle.
"In addition to minerals, earthquakes, volcanoes and other geological phenomena, the earth's surface atmosphere is affected by the material and its structure.
The most important discovery of the moho surface, previously known only to seismic wave detection, is not yet clear of its substance and structure.
We hope to be able to obtain samples of the rock in mojo to confirm whether some of the related speculation is correct."
"Said zhou.
Facing the high temperature and other challenges
Shallow drilling site is located in the "Atlantis", current here is very big, most seafloor sediments were washed away, compared with the average thickness of the continental crust, 40 kilometers here crustal thickness is only about 5 km.
In addition, scientists have successfully drilled two deep boreholes in the area.
The new hole will be composed of two previous holes to carry out the study of the sequence of transverse igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks and structures, and to investigate the activities of the deep earth.
Zhou huaiyang explained that the formation of stone is the formation history of the earth.
By analyzing the relationship between the interior and the upper and lower part of the rock sample, the source of minerals and elements in rock samples was studied, and how they were formed and transformed.
In view of this, the acquisition of rock samples is an important task in the plan and a major difficulty.
In the next more than a month, the "determination" will keep drilling in this hole.
But the process faces many challenges, as humans have limited means of studying the earth's interior compared to space.
The biggest challenge comes from drilling in hard rock.
Mr. Zhou pointed out that the drill site was about seven or eight hundred meters deep.
In this case, the drilled into the rock is difficult, and in drilling at the same time also the core, take up the sample, "we hope every one meter shall take the down core, namely the core rate of 100%.
Although the core rate is more than 50% at present, it may be reduced later."