Scientists retrieve 1km deep Atlantic rocks to learn about Earth interiors

Scientists have drilled more than a kilometer into an undersea mountain in the Atlantic Ocean, reported the LiveScience website.

Scientists retrieved a wealth of rocks to analyze and learn more about Earth’s internal processes thanks to the rock core.

Drilling into the Atlantis Massif, an undersea mountain on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, lying deep within the North Atlantic Ocean, enabled the excavation to take place.

Geologists used a drill to align at this spot and bore a hole through the mountain that reached a depth of 4,156 feet (1,267 meters), removing a significant quantity of serpentinite rocks from the Earth’s interior.

The hole is not the deepest ever drilled beneath the ocean floor, and the scientists did not actually dig into the mantle. Instead, scientists made the decision to drill at a specific tectonic window in the North Atlantic where the mantle’s rocks had been forced nearly to the surface.