Friday, December 26, 2008

"First Contact With Inner Earth": Drillers Strike Magma


A drilling crew recently cracked through rock layers deep beneath Hawaii and accidentally became the first humans known to have drilled into magma—the melted form of rock that sometimes erupts to the surface as lava—in its natural environment, scientists announced this week.

"This is an unprecedented discovery," said Bruce Marsh, a volcanologist from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, who will be studying the find.

Normally, he said, volcanologists have to do "postmortem studies" of long-solidified magmas or study active lava during volcanic eruptions. But this time they'd found magma in its natural environment—something Marsh described as nearly as exciting as a paleontologist finding a dinosaur frolicking on a remote island.

"This is my Jurassic Park," he said at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

cool volcano in hawaii

Anonymous said...

LOVE THE PIC IT IS ALMOST LIKE REAL

Anonymous said...

Cool volcano

Anonymous said...

Nice pic of the volcano.

Anonymous said...

I like the pic, it's like being there!!

Anonymous said...

this picture is the bomb It feels like I am there but it is not better than this class not even close.

Anonymous said...

Awesome I like anything that has to due with things erupting and or blowing up. I liked this article very interesting. Also love the pic like everyone else said. Awesome!

Anonymous said...

Its different because when I think about finding magma I think about a volcano.

Anonymous said...

I like how they found lava under a volcano instead of on top.Also that must be really exciting if the one scientist compared it to a dinosaur on a remote island.Nice picture too!

Anonymous said...

That was an interesting article!I can't believe that they drilled through the rock right in to the magma! Volcanoes are an interesting topic so i enjoyed reading it.I also liked the picture.

Anonymous said...

WOW. this is amazing!!!!!!!!!! I love the fact that it was found not during a volcano eruption!

Anonymous said...

I thougth this was realaly cool! I cant beleive it was so exciting they compaired it to a dinoasour froliking on a remote Island!! I also liked how they made the picture look so real! It was also cool how the said it was in its natural envirerment.

Anonymous said...

that was awesome i never knew that people could drill deep enough to reach magma. and that a person would say that it is like jarassic park

Anonymous said...

Thats aswome! I think its really cool that we are getting closer and closer to the center of the earth.

Anonymous said...

I did not think that it was possible to drill that far! That is so interesting!

Anonymous said...

I think the volcano was a very cool.I mean when it erupts. VALCANO'S RULE.

Anonymous said...

I love this picture. It is cool that people can get magma.

Anonymous said...

I liked when they drilled through the rock to the magma

Anonymous said...

I like the cool piicture of the volcanoe.It's interesting how they found the lava in its natural invirment.I also like how they are the first men ever recorded that have drilled through the side of a volcanoe.

Anonymous said...

I think it is so cool that the drillers drilled clear into the rock and got to the magma!!! It is like being in a helicopter over top of the volcano. Also I like the picture!!!

Anonymous said...

it is realy cool that they are the first poeple to drill in to magma.it must have bine a long way down.and the picture is very cool.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I like this article. I think it is really cool. The thing i liked the best was when it said they drilled into the rock to get to the magma. I also like the picture, It looks so real.

Anonymous said...

I thaught that was cool and informatial im glad I read it

Anonymous said...

it's cool that they were the first people to reach lava.