Some days ago the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program announced a new "record" of the scientific vessel "Chikyu" (Japanese for "earth") - the at time deepest (scientific) borehole with 2.300 meters below the seafloor was completed in the 1.180 meters deep, blue sea off Shimokita-Peninsula. The longest rig ever done from board of the Chikyu was 7.740 meters long, however in the open sea the greatest problem is not the water, but drilling in the ground.
Since old times people - especially geologists - were interested to know about the interior of Earth. The Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) imagined an allegoric center of the Earth: a frozen wasteland, not reached by the divine light, where Lucifer is entrapped in eternal ice.
Since old times people - especially geologists - were interested to know about the interior of Earth. The Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) imagined an allegoric center of the Earth: a frozen wasteland, not reached by the divine light, where Lucifer is entrapped in eternal ice.
Fig.1. Illustration to Dante's "The Divine Comedy" from the "Codice Urbinate Latino 365" (1480) showing the frozen center of Earth.
The French Sci-Fi author Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 - 1905) based an imaginary "Lost World" in "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864) on more scientific ground. In his novel Verne uses the hollow conduit of an Icelandic volcano to venture inside earth, an idea supported by the geologic models of volcanoes proposed at the time - a single or a series of magma chamber(s) with conduits connecting them to the surface. Geologists assumed that during an eruption the magma reservoir becomes empty and large voids and caverns were left behind.
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Fig.2. This schema, published in the book by German professor of geophysics August Sieberg "Einführung in die Erdbeben- und Vulkankunde Süditaliens" (1914), shows the anatomy of a stratovolcano, with a main conduit, various lateral dikes and a large sill connected to the magma reservoir. In contrast to the sketch, the conduits for magma are in reality only a few meters wide - too small for travel the Center of the Earth.
Verne's vision inspired the wonderful U.S. movie of 1959 "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and was reused in the mediocre "At The Earth´s Core" (1976), even if the last movie was based on the novel "At the Earth's Core*" (1914) by Edgar Rice Burroughs (*considering the display of the "Mole"-vehicle, the supposed cavern with the mythical land of "Pellucidar" is situated in the transition zone of Outer Core - Lower Mantle).
The French Sci-Fi author Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 - 1905) based an imaginary "Lost World" in "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864) on more scientific ground. In his novel Verne uses the hollow conduit of an Icelandic volcano to venture inside earth, an idea supported by the geologic models of volcanoes proposed at the time - a single or a series of magma chamber(s) with conduits connecting them to the surface. Geologists assumed that during an eruption the magma reservoir becomes empty and large voids and caverns were left behind.
Verne's vision inspired the wonderful U.S. movie of 1959 "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and was reused in the mediocre "At The Earth´s Core" (1976), even if the last movie was based on the novel "At the Earth's Core*" (1914) by Edgar Rice Burroughs (*considering the display of the "Mole"-vehicle, the supposed cavern with the mythical land of "Pellucidar" is situated in the transition zone of Outer Core - Lower Mantle).
