By: Kevin Wang

Scientists from the International Ocean Discovery Program, an international marine research group that has members from over 20 countries, have recovered a long section of rocks that originate from deep under the Earth’s surface. The scientists’ expedition to drill deep under the Atlantic Ocean successfully gave them an almost uninterrupted 1268-meter-long sample of rock from the mantle – the section of the Earth between the crust and the core. These rocks may seem insignificant, but they could be the key to figuring out how the mantle helped create life and more. According to Astrobiology.com, “The rocks will help unravel the mantle’s role in the origins of life on Earth, the volcanic activity generated when it melts, and how it drives the global cycles of important elements such as carbon and hydrogen.” The kinds of minerals and the composition of the rocks can help scientists figure out what happened in the history of the Earth.

The scientists used an ocean drilling vessel to dig this 1268-meter-deep hole. The drill site is located at a mountain called the Atlantic Mastiff near the mid-Atlantic ridge, an underwater mountain range that runs through the Atlantic Ocean. The researchers on board only planned on drilling 200 meters because that was previously the deepest people have managed to drill into mantle rock. However, Nature.com reports that “the drilling was surprisingly easy and three times faster than usual, returning long, unbroken cylinders of rock called cores.” The discovery of these rocks was a record-breaking achievement that scientists have been attempting to accomplish since the 1960s.

The samples of rock had already led to several major discoveries about the Earth. BBC Newsground reported that Professor Johan Lissenberg from Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences said, “our results differ from what we expected.” The rocks have a different mineral composition than expected because there was more melting than predicted. The research and reports from these hard-working scientists have already uncovered many secrets about the Earth’s history. Who knows what may be discovered next?