Mantle Drilled

Several sources have alerted me to this item of news. The longest core sample of the mantle (1,286m) has been drilled and will soon be available for examination. It was drilled by the well known drill ship "Joides Resolution" in the North Atlantic near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and not far from the Lost City hydrothermal field, which is also well known.

You can read all about it HERE (Nature), HERE (Science) and HERE (The Conversation). What you can read is that it is serpentinized abyssal mantle peridotite interleaved with thin gabbroic intrusions. Other than that they have little to say because, as yet, little has been done with the core. No doubt that will change!

A sample of mantle rock viewed under a microscope.Credit: Johan Lissenberg