You may have heard about this project:
Jeff L. writes in WUWT Tips and Notes:
You have to see this version of climate insanity – using climate alarmism to justify drilling BILLION dollar well to the mantle. I am a geologist & I love the idea of drilling a well to the mantle, but selling it on the idea that it is some how related to climate change is COMPLETELY INSANE !!
Here’s the story, you have to read it to believe it:
http://www.iodp.org/why-does-scientific-ocean-drilling-matter-to-you
Why Does Scientific Ocean Drilling Matter To You?
Increasing population and use of resources and energy has made global environment and climate change one of the major challenges posed by the 21st century. Research on deep-sea drill cores tells a story of profound climate and environmental change of the past that helps us to better understand the nature, mechanisms and driving forces behind such changes. And therefore provides a context in which to monitor and understand the importance of ongoing changes as we see them unfold on annual to human time scale. Can the past history show how dramatic and rapid changes can be? Are there signs of imminent, major changes that can be observed? How well can we model past history of global change? Such knowledge is fundamental in order to predict how dramatic future change could be, and where it may take us in terms of changing climate zones, change of sea-level and the impact on marine and terrestrial life.
It also matters to society because many of Earth’s most dynamic processes such as violent earthquakes and volcanism takes place within the oceans. These events pose major, immediate hazards to a large number of people. Placing observatories in boreholes deep within the seabed can help us understand the cycle and frequency of earthquakes. From the drill cores scientists can glean information on the history and magnitude of seismic and volcanic events, and their impact on the environment.
Drill cores from deep within the crust below the oceans are also critical for understanding the overall dynamics and history of planet Earth. New ocean crust is constantly being formed as part of the plate tectonic cycle, and subsequently being pushed back in the Earth’s mantle along tectonic subduction zones overlain by the volcanic arcs thought to be the building place for the continental crust we live on and utilize for resources.
Ocean drilling also has discovered that microbial life extends kilometer-deep into the seabed and suggests the presence of a huge, largely unknown biomass that may offer opportunities ranging from scientific insights into the development and sustainability of life under extreme conditions to possible industrial applications of unknown genetic material.
Understanding the complex working of our planet, its interplay with life, and the potential changes to global climate and environment caused by human activity is simply no longer just an option to satisfy scientific curiosity: It has become a critical societal responsibility for sustainable development within the 21st century. This is why ocean drilling sciences matters to all of us.
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program is a research program global in scope and participation, and the only of its kind.
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I am reading here in other news the drill will be 10Km – so maybe it is rather 6 miles than 6 Km…
In search of the true global warming, deeper they go more of it down there. 🙂
OK, some realism injected into this post – I actually worked on the JOIDES Resolution in the 90s as a tech (we called some of the scientists pinheads! – reflecting their social skills) but the statement “Research on deep-sea drill cores tells a story of profound climate and environmental change of the past that helps us to better understand the nature, mechanisms and driving forces behind such changes.” is true. A great deal of coring activity done onboard Resolution studies shallow sedimentary facies which do provide a scientific window onto the climate of the past using many recognised techniques.
What I do agree with however, is that drilling a 6-10km hole/core into crystalline igneous crust and mantle will show us nothing related to climate. However, from experience,, the pinheads were all fully paid up members of the Kool-Aid club and the techs tended to be the realists. Work for the Gubment, drink de Kool-Aid.
“many of Earth’s most dynamic processes such as violent earthquakes and volcanism takes place within the oceans”- What earthquakes come from water? Wow those seimologists and vulcanologists had it totally wrong.
It’s beautifully written but doesn’t seem to make any sense. I think the key is the clever linking of “environment and climate” change. The researchers are interested in the first but they know the money’s in the second. So putting both together gets the money for what they want to do. And they write a press release that means whatever you want it to mean in order to justify it.
I suspect they will drill in the deep marine trenches where the distance to the mantle is shorter. The drilling platform will be a ship holding its position over the deeps, hence the 10 km drill to get down six km.
Hmm, no mention of the pressures they expect to find, no mention of how they plan to handle possible uncontrollable pressures they may unleash, are these environmentalist scientists running this circus? I did notice the prevalent references right off the bat to “global environment”, “increasing population” and “climate change”. Sure seems if this were to become Pandora’s Keyhole they may very well literally change the Earth’s climate.
For me to feel a bit more comfortable with this idea I would want many more technical details and to make sure this isn’t even remotely managed by climatologists of any flavor. BP thought they had all of the bases covered too on that hole in the gulf and look what curves nature can throw at you.
Once they drill through the mantel, what’s to keep the liquid mush from spewing up and incinerating them all? What will they learn that they can’t learn from studying volcano lava? Do we have the technology to make drill bits that won’t melt as they approach the core?
That’s a lot of torque.
In the 1950s there was the ‘Moho’ proposal to drill down through the ocean sediments. Since “everyone knew” the continents and oceans had always been in the same place, drilling through the ocean crust would also drill through all the sediment on top, and give a complete history of life in the oceans.
This was based on false premises. Nowhere in the oceans was the rock older than about 200 million years. The sediment wasn’t 10km thick – sometimes there wasn’t any at all. And, finally, the acceptance of Continental Drift killed it.
So it’s not the first time this idea has been justified on the wrong science – then, no plate tectonics; now, climate change….
here is my take on “the climate of the past”. Human evolution has clearly been altered by climatic upheavals. in the latest 30,000 years that change has been clear. But many species of dinosaur plodded about for Three Thousand times longer than that,,, millions of years, with little or no change. Its clear that for some reason that is not obvious to me, climate either changed and was irrelevant to them, or, it did not change that much over vast periods of time. Given these various “tipping points” of the alarmist world, this just does not add up. A bit of lateral thought I know but I thought I would pop it into the mix !!
Peter Ward says:
October 9, 2012 at 12:35 am
“And they write a press release that means whatever you want it to mean in order to justify it.”
I think I’ll steal the press release and start selling shoes with it.
So, let me get this right. Drilling a billion dollar bore hole into a mantle that has been changing for millions of years has a bearing on man’s activities that has zero impact on the crust or mantle, for say 100 years. Of course – perfectly logical!
One wonders what is going on in the minds of both those undertaking the drill, and also those who are funding it.
Whatever they sell the project – be it search for climate (actual today) or for devil (would be actual 500 years ago) – searching for new is always welcome!
It is much better to spend a few billions of dollars for science than for stupid wars!
Maybe it has to be climate change related to get the funding?
http://aisjournal.com/2011/05/19/book-review-when-the-world-screamed-by-arthur-conan-doyle/
Doyle wasn’t just Sherlock Holmes. I hope the drillers have a plan for this contingency.
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no! They must be banned from doing this, the Balck Hole that was created by the Large Hadron Collider will suck in all the Higgs-Bosun particles destroying our gravity, & the Earth will spin violently out of control flinging everything into space, we know this for a fact cos Gaia is such a delicate wall flower & is so so precious & sensitive to us human beans! The Sky will then definitely fall in on those of us who are left! Sarc off! It makes a nice bed-time story though, what will they think of next, probably something really silly like sending a man to the moon or something equally impossible & ridiculous? 😉
In the bad old Soviet Union, to get a financing for any research or project, on any subject and for any purpose, one had to make reverend references to some works of Marx and Lenin, preferably with quotes, however tenuous or unrelated.
Same here. In today’s sycophants’ parlance, dragging in “climate change” is tantamount to referring to “V. I. Lenin” in the USSR (and to quoting Scriptures or Koran among our more traditionally short-circuited brothers and sisters).
Same with the modern “peer review” reptilian circus. Same with the nonsense permeating Wikipedia.
“Consensus” is just another word for the French “comme il faut”: say or do like everybody else, or else face obscurity, poverty, and rejection.
If it succeeds it will increase knowledge but not about climate change. But there are many problems which will have to be overcome for the required end result.
They’d best be careful, Al reckons its millions of deg C down there !
AleaJactaEst says:
October 9, 2012 at 12:29 am
agreed – but I think the issue is the deliberate misrepresentation or misconception that deep rock drilling will help define palaeoclimate and thus climate change! The copresentation together of the two (deep rocks and climate change) strongly suggests a deliberate media attention grabbing stance and also a deliberate ploy to mislead the casual (layman) reader………..
a definite fail in my book anyway…..
The AGW scare bucket is still deep and well filled , so researchers looking for cash will dip into it if they can , its hardly the first time that a study has ‘rammed in’ a reference to climate change to ensure funded .
Ironically the sillier the ‘connection’ the more depute its brings to ‘the cause ‘ as it makes it look more like a scam .
Yes clever to stick in the “climate’ word. Probably the best “climate
research” money spent. Lets face it the worlds ultimate “sustainable” energy source – the hot core of our globe.
But it’s several million degrees down there (Al Gore Nobel Laureate says so), isn’t that going to melt the aparatus.
And if things go wrong ? Can’t we better drill on land ? Have we learned nothing from the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster !