A new James Cook Expedition has sailed... (LINK)
August 31st 2007 04:34
A New James Cook Expedition Has Sailed ...
An expedition to reveal the secrets of a mysterious bulge at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean has started.
In a voyage described as being inspired by the spirit of author Jules Verne, a 40 million pound British research ship has sailed on its maiden voyage to open what scientists are calling a window into the earth.
The RRS James Cook will reportedly spend six weeks sailing over the Atlantic ridge taking measurements of a gaping hole in the ocean floor that has had the experts baffled as to its cause - why hundreds of square miles of the earth's crust is missing, giving a real glimpse of the mantle, the planet Earth's underneath.
The hole in the crust allegedly covers a huge area of a mountain range hidden beneath the waves and has puzzled scientists because it apparently defies conventional tectonic plate theories.
The crust should be four miles thick, but instead there is a layer of the Earth's mantle at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The hole could have been expected to become filled with volcanic material as it was formed as the Atlantic tectonic plates pulled apart at a rate of centimetres a year, but it has been filled by the mantle. Detailed measurements will be taken of the ocean bottom.
Researchers will send a robot submarine to the foot of the range 500 metres below the surface to drill for mantle samples.
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