Toby to explore Earth’s mantle undersea
I have a friend named Toby so I could resist the title. Anyway, this is rather cool. It seems that for a small streatch of the ocean floor the Earth’s crust didn’t form! Instead the mantle is exposed!
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Canary Islands (AP) — British scientists have embarked on a mission to study a huge area on the Atlantic seabed where the Earth’s crust is mysteriously missing and instead is covered with dark green rock from deep inside the planet.
The 12-member expedition to take an unprecedented peek at Earth’s mantle left the Canary Islands on Monday with a new high-tech vessel and a robotic device named Toby that will dig up rock samples at the site and film what it sees.
Source: Wired: AP Technology and Business News from the Outside World on Wired.com
Remember now that the Earth’s crust is about 4 mi thick so we usually don’t get a good look at stuff from the mantle. Yes, occasionally chunks of mantle get tossed out by volcanoes, but this is mantle in situ!
I can’t wait for the pictures!
1 Comment
Cool Tris .. now I can add ‘robotic device’ to my collection of Toby toothbrushes, dogs, beer, (Canadian brew no less), etc.