First Ever Rocks from the Earth’s Mantle

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On April 12, 2023, geologists, microbiologists and other scientists sailed to the Atlantis Massif, a 14,000-foot underwater mountain sitting on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The plan: To dig into an already existing 4,640-foot hole drilled nearly 20 years ago to 6,750 feet. They collected rock from the Earth’s mantle. The temperatures were over 204 degrees Celsius. Deep digging expeditions are currently underway all across the world.

This is the first time humans have dug through the Earth’s crust. In the past 60 years, thanks to deep-water drilling by the oil industry, drilling technology has advanced significantly. We have improved drill bits, tools and instruments that are much more able to withstand heat and pressure. GPS (global positioning satellites) much it much easier to keep a drilling ship in exactly the same spot in deep water.

UPDATE: A new article explains the Earth’s crust and the thinner locations in the Ocean.

UPDATE: I have another article describing more of the work of Ocean floor drilling. Drilling into the Mantle was done at the Atlantis Massif. There is a hydrothermal field called the Lost City on the ocean floor. Drilling in and under the seafloor gives us the history of life and vent fields could be similar to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.

Composition and Layers of Oceanic Crust
The crust is the outermost layer of Earth above the mantle. As discussed earlier, crust can be divided into two types: continental crust and oceanic crust. The continental crust ranges from 25 to 70 km thick and makes up a total of approximately 70 percent of Earth’s total crust volume, though it only covers about 40 percent of the planet’s surface area. The oceanic crust is much thinner, ranging from 5 to 10 km thick.

The continental crust has an average density of 2.7 g/cm3 and is composed primarily of felsic rock. Felsic rock is rich in light elements such as silicon, aluminum, oxygen, sodium, and potassium. The presence of these lighter elements is responsible for continental crust being slightly less dense than oceanic crust, which has an average density of 2.9 g/cm3.

In 1981, Scientists discovered the thinnest portion of the Earth’s crust — a 1-mile thick, earthquake-prone spot under the Atlantic Ocean where the American and African continents connect. This is where the ocean drilling ship JOIDES Resolution dug through to the mantle.


hydrothermal field called the Lost City on the ocean floor. It is not the an actual lost city.

In the early 1960s, a group of scientists flagged off “Project Mohole”. It aimed to drill a hole (Mexico) through the core to reach the boundary between the crust and mantle called Mohorovičić Discontinuity or Moho, in short. Oceanic crusts are thinner than their continental counterparts. So, the sea route was a natural choice. This expedition was crucial in demonstrating that drilling was technologically possible. But due to a lack of funding the project was dissolved.

In 1989, a Russian project in the Kola peninsula drilled 12.2 km into the earth’s crust — the deepest hole dug so far. The rocks extracted from it at a depth of about 3 km were almost identical to lunar soil. At 10 km depth, the team found petrified remains of ancient living organisms.

In 2015, an expedition led by an Indian researcher (Dhananjay Pandey) spent about 60 days drilling two holes in the Lakshmi basin of the Arabian Sea. The team reached depths of 1.1 km below the sea floor in 3.6 km deep water. The motive was to collect samples and investigate when the South Asian monsoon intensified.

So far, the 12.2 km record has not been broken.

The JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO) manages and operates the riserless drillship, JOIDES Resolution, for the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). The JRSO is based in the Office of the Vice President for Research of Texas A&M University.

The JRSO is responsible for overseeing the science operations of the riserless drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution, archiving the scientific data and samples and logs that are collected, and producing and disseminating program publications. The drillship travels throughout the oceans sampling the sediments and rocks beneath the seafloor. The scientific samples and data are used to study Earth’s past history, including plate tectonics, ocean currents, climate changes, evolutionary characteristics and extinctions of marine life, and mineral deposits. Drilling operations are conducted purely for scientific purposes and do not include oil exploration.

111 thoughts on “First Ever Rocks from the Earth’s Mantle”

  1. They found that the gates from the poles are guarded and forbidden for humans to access the inner earth, so they are drilling to access from different places, it’s that simple no need to disguise everything as scientific research, because it is not, logically no one would spend millions to drill to reach hell.
    If this drilling will be successful, it will cause a war with the other races inside. The “scientists” are NATO, Ukraine is the mantle to drill to reach inside Russia.
    It seems that some are trying very hard to destroy humanity as quick as possible with any means and they know exactly where to dig to unleash the wrath.

  2. What is up with Russia drilling 12 kilometers into the earth and finding fossils at 10 kilometers. That seems impossible.

  3. I have worked on Sedco BP471 from 1984 to1987 as a deck hand as i was an experience righand. For three and half years on this rig (3 months on,1 month off) watching them scientist gets so excited when the corebarrel is brought to surface to collect them core samples and had a chance to see them up close working on those rocks is beyond my average brain to fully understood of what they are looking for. I have the best round the world trips too. Years after i left Sedco BP 471, i become a corehand. Only then i know that there is a name to every piece of i brought to surface.

  4. They are only looking for diamonds or other precious metals calling it exploring under the code of science and “non profits”. Wake up!

    • What the heck are you talking about? We don’t have a shortage of diamonds, and even if it were exploratory why would they lie about that? There are already very real and public exploratory expeditions. What is there to cover up?

    • So you don’t think the space station is real? Quit asking stupid questions. Go to any military airport they landed b-52’s at like Castle airfield in Atwater California. In 2 1/2 miles of air strip you can put a level on it anywhere you want and it’s dead level . Yet if a person or vehicle is at the other end you can only see them from the knees up or from the top of the tire up. Wake up!!! You probably believe the Bible too.🫤

    • No, because we’re surrounded by water. why do you think the sky is blue no matter where you are in the world. we won’t ve able to dig that deep because it’s just a thick rock beneath us the size of earth itself. And under that is the fountains of the great deep, it’s in the Bible

  6. . . A giant ball of magma is ridiculous when you think about it. Richard Hoagland describes something called hyperdimensional physics that better explains hotspots under the earth’s crust that exist in various locations, such as the Hawaiian volcano Kilauea, from it’s base larger than Mount Everest and lying at 19.5 degrees latitude — matching the location of Mars’ dormant mega-volcano Olympus Mons standing at over 13 miles high.

  7. Holy mother of all that’s holy, this is the most embarrassing comments tread I’ve ever read in my life. It was like watching a trainwreck of morons fighting over an imaginary red balloon. Either y’all are terribly trained AI bots, or the most uneducated bunch of fools the ever despoil a summary of a scientific development.

  8. What morons 3xist in science now to dig into the layers of the earth with the potential impacts of cooling our layers or evaporating our waters. We got people creating black holes on our planet and everything now like they are in a race to see who can annihilate the entirety of the earth population the fastest and most efficient.

  9. What about the effect of this drils on the giant volcanic lava lurking below the diging hole and the digging contribution to our existance? Nothing was said.

  10. Well, I’m going to read this conversation later but what is the purpose to dig so deep? Reminding me of a saying from the past… If you keep digging that hole you’re going to dig a hole to China. ? Anyone??

    • Project Mohole represented, as one historian has described it, the earth sciences’ answer to the space program. If successful, this highly ambitious exploration of the intra-terrestrial frontier would provide invaluable information on the earth’s age, makeup, and internal processes. In addition, evidence drawn from the Moho could be brought to bear on the question of continental drift, which at the time was still controversial.

      Project Mohole (1958-966) was to include three phases, the first consisting of an experimental drilling program, the second consisting of an intermediate vessel program, and the third consisting of the final drilling to the Mohorovicic Discontinuity. After ocean-going trials off La Jolla, California, Phase I began in earnest with a set of drillings off Guadalupe, Mexico, in March and April 1961. Five holes, one of which extended 601 feet beneath the seafloor, were drilled under 11,700 feet of water. Cores obtained from the holes showed that the first layer of crust extended 557 feet and consisted of sediment Miocene in age. The second layer of crust was sampled for the first time, and this was found to consist of basalt. After the unprecedented success of Phase I, it was decided to shift operational control to NSF while maintaining the AMSOC Committee as project adviser. This relationship proved to be unsatisfactory, and after a series of negotiations and redefined agreements with NSF, the AMSOC Committee in 1964 dissolved itself. Following the AMSOC Committee’s dissolution, two new National Academies committees continued to advise the NSF Mohole activity until Congress, objecting to increasing costs, discontinued the project toward the end of 1966, before Phase II could be implemented.
      Although Project Mohole failed in its intended purpose, it did show that deep ocean drilling was a viable means of obtaining geological samples. Since Mohole’s demise a number of related programs have been undertaken, the most recent one being the NSF’s Ocean Drilling Program.
      -nasonline.org

  11. I don’t know what to think about this. As an environmentalist who is in love with our Earth and all that inhabit it….. I just don’t know that disturbing the marine life and the natural state of the Earth is worth just “seeing what’s up”. We have disturbed and been so hurtful to Mother Earth. The surveys done because of our human need to have so many things and to make so many things and to do so many things is not worth the destruction and devastation that is occurring. Have you looked at the ocean or even your local river? There is a a huge change in what it was meant to be for us. Mostly it is not safe in many places to be part of the water and to enjoy it because of the oil drilling, our massive footprint every single human has. It is so sad that we are too involved in things that are not that important in reality, instead of respecting and giving nurture to our beautiful planet.

    • I agree with you 💯. Some time you just need to leave things ALONE.. please stop with this nonsense 🙏😎

    • Why not use all that passion to make a trillion dollars and implement a change and develop healing technology for the environment. We have plenty of desserts for you to terraform back into forests.

    • I respect your love for our planet I really do. But tale away the bad things that some people do in the interest of money and power don’t you believe the knowledge is beneficial not only for us but for earth itself by us learning what we shouldn’t or should be doing to help prevent past developments wether it be for us learning something we are doing isn’t good for it or maybe something we are doing is right and good for the earth. How do we learn these without exploring these things.

      • The quest for Knowledge is what gets us into trouble then, now and future.
        What was wrong with just living?

    • Your literally disturbing the earth by using a computer, drawing power, using mined material etc. The idea that drilling a hole will destroy the earth or damage it is silly. They drill these hole in low seismic areas, where the lava is also well below expected drill depths.

    • These so called scientists, billionaire philantropists are playing god, they are ones causing the climate and other issues and then laying blame in everyone else. We must shut down these elites.

  12. I used to have a similar opinion regarding imperial vs. metric measurement. Then I realized that the imperial system is what built the pyramids. There’s is something sacred and transcendent about this system. It is mirrored by nature and sacred geometry. The Mayans had a similar system (pyramid builders). We should respect our ancestors and the limitations of linear thought. The known origin of our species is changing, and academia will be the last to acknowledge this. The imperial system is far more advanced than cavemen counting knuckles.

  14. Something that I’m just curious about……. What if people get carried away with drilling holes in our natural planet and what if it just messed up our eaths natural gravitational pull and sent our planet somewhere in the solar system that we could not survive in or that our planet could brake into pieces.. call me crazy but I’m concerned very much about these kinds of things.. our planet was created and formed in a way with no holes in it for a reason I’m sure that drilling all these holes a quarter of the way to the center of the earth is just starting something because before the blink of your eyes they will have a hole dug from one side of our beautiful planet to the other n trying to make a new way to travel thru it

    • I think of the same time of Theories as well. Are we disturbing Mother Earth? Are we being respectful of the nature on which it was built?
      Although they say it’s not for oil, the oil drilling is a major thing that needs to stop in order for us to maintain a livable earth in the future.

      • Lol yeah let’s stop drilling oil and instead destroy the earth mining for cobalt and other minerals to make batteries that are indisposable and toxic we’ll just dump them old dead batteries in a ditch lol

  16. Lol, we grow up in the u.s. using both methods. I mean we might might Walk a mile today and run 3k tomorrow, or I might need a 1/2 ” crescent wrench for one job and a 12mm for another, and we buy all our fun stuff in Grams 😉, and everything else in pounds and ounces.

  17. I think that man shouldn’t mess with God’s creation. Tha earth was created by God for humans to enjoy life the short time they have on earth. Everything else is futule and should be left alone cause God knows what’s hidden under the last core that might be the lake of fire he’ll. Do you think God whats humans messing with his creation I don’t think so. Like the old saying if you mess with fire you shall get burned.

  18. There’s no way for anyone to know what lies deeper than we’ve drilled. It’s an impossibility. They can guess all they want, they still don’t know without actually drilling into it. Of course if you believe you’re standing on a ball that’s spinning 1000 miles per hour while chasing the sun at 67000 miles per hour in a straight trajectory of unknown, all the while also clipping along at 448,000 miles per hour in a complete different direction with the rest of the Milky Way (a candy bar, really), but you’re believing that while reflecting on the reflection of a glass like surface of a lake that has found it’s level because there’s absolutely no motion affecting the mirror like surface of the motionless water moving at a speed of over 250 times that of a bullet that been shot. 250 times faster. You’re probably a very gullible person regarding everything that requires your own thoughts based on your observations. Santa is not real, sorry to break it to you…

    • I can’t believe the human eye works like it does. Photons of light interaction with rods and cones, how does the brain Even know the difference between what wavelength it is? But to listen to professor today, it all accidentally happened over a long time. Just like horse drawn carriages accidentally evolved into motor cars. It’s pure chance, no intelligent being did it. Surely not. Only uneducated people believe in that.

      • Hey.
        Check out drive-reduction-theory.
        An inate intelligence of the cells, consider the laws of Higgs Boson aswell as Eukaryotic cells.

        Cognition may be described as the communication between exterior stimuli and internal intelligence.

        *Pursuit of Homeostasis*
        “Here, all motivation was theorized to derive from biological imbalances or needs. A “need” in this formulation, such as hunger (here, the need is for more energy), was a biological requirement of the organism”
        -George F. Koob
        doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2014.11.044
        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380644/

        Our corneal at a normal setting is at 7 degrees.
        Stoicism believes that if something has a Color present, then there is a universal body which exists somewhat entangled in relation to that Color.
        ..perhaps we could explore the wavelengths from this philosophy in order to help us discover truths to your question on wavelengths. Keep in mind Reflacfion and mirror images #left handed and right handed mitrochondria.

  19. The debate over imperial v metric is laughable. Those supporting the imperial system keep saying the great leaps forward were done using the imperial system show how good it was This is a non-starter as one of the greatest leaps was when Homo Habalis invented the first tools but they were still cave men. Just because something incredible was achieved by a cave men does not mean the tools they used were somehow superior. The imperial system is a random generated series of measures based on biologically understandable units that in a science is as antiquated as leeches are to medicine.

    • Construction methods while I’m not an expert metric does not compete. Sure mm kilometers ect. nice even number but square imperial construction is quite a lesson.

    • There are two kinds of countries in the world.. those who use the metric system and that which put a man on the moon.

      • Well…. You better read history a little more. US put a man in the moon thanks to German engineers who used the metric system.

      • All science and engineering in the US is done in metric. Only for consumers is the measurement converted to Imperial. Space exploration is in metric

      • Are you all really arguing over this? The jellyfish has survived for 60 million years without a brain. I think this will give you all hope. Stupidest argument ever. Honestly.

    • Lol.

      I like 1/2 division because it is infinitely accurate and adjusts to tolerance well. As for the schoolyard bickering over metric vs Imperial…laughable. each or both have its place.

  20. I love how this random article about digging holes in the mantle nonchalantly plops in a map to the lost city of Atlantis.

    • With more research you will find dozens of “lost cities” below the ocean surface all over the globe. South America, Japan, China, Indian Ocean when the tsunami resided and pushed the shore way out people were able to walk the sea floor and find multi ton statues and buildings that were once on land before the oceans rose 400 ‘. Proof is out there, and many are currently studying these sites.

  22. Hey y’all… perhaps y’all lost sight of what the article is about… acessing the earth’s mantle. Now having said that, this is not the first time that mantle rocks have been available for observation or study.
    I suggest that if anyone with geological scientific interest wants to see mantle rocks, they should visit Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland where mantle rocks are exposed on surface. No need for drilling or bickering over who has the longest (whatever) in centimeters or inches. Just saying…

  23. I wonder what city’s wonders they find deep below the earths crust we stand upon what new discoverys who was here before as all with all their drilling deep beneath we all stand upon this planet earth out of every negative comes a positive with each failure comes success what lies underneath we all stand upon we call home earth each generation whom lived here before us leaves a question leaves an answer

  24. Perhaps geologically interested folks who are truly interested in the Earth’s mantle should visit Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland where mantle rocks are exposed on surface… no drilling required and metric vs imperial measurements are irrelevant. Just saying….

  25. My wife and I use our OWN measurement system based on the length, weight, and volume of a Jesus-shaped Cheeto that we found in 1992. Unfortunately, it has been missing since 1997 and we keep arguing about how many Jee-Tos tall grandson is.

  26. And let’s be honest…. I speak English and Swedish…. ( I’m English but have lived in Sweden for decades ), 2″ is 50.8mm… if I’m measuring something from the US I take inches, from Europe it’s in MM. My half a working brain can work in 2 “languages” at the same time…. No Biggie…

  27. I would like to know why there is a statement in the first paragraph that states “The hole will was able to collect rock from the Earth’s mantle”. That is all.

  28. Interesting article, but it omits any information on what was obtained. How large is the borehole? Were the rocks semi-liquid, as in the Russian borehole? What was their approximate density? How much was obtained? Did they go past the boundary later? If not, then are the rocks truly mantle or something unique in their own way?

  30. Thanks for the visuals.
    The liquid core(1) lies less than just 843km from the initial drill well in 1960’s- in this Magnetic liquid are Sulphur, Gold, Copper, Cobult and NiFe(2). The metal composition in our core is key to our planets magnetic force(3).
    That figure above in kms’ is estimated from Gayas surface, not the floor of the Ocean. ..Oxygen and other important elements lie in the depths too- full disclosure of the tampering of our planet ought be brought to the people BEFORE teams are allowed to go ahead. After all, these kind of missions not only affect our creatures, plants and planet but play a crucial role in Mercurys Orbit as well.

    Citations;
    (1) https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/core/
    (2) https://www.geomag.nrcan.gc.ca/mag_fld/fld-en.php
    (3) https://www.brown.edu/news/2022-01-13/magneticmoon#:~:text=The%20Moon%20lacks%20a%20magnetic,dissipate%20a%20lot%20of%20heat.

  31. Don’t know how this discussion went from mantel rock to metric measurements but thought l might add the fact that many thousands of feet of rock were corred and cut in my 42 year span of work as a Rig Hand.

  32. Drilling offshore in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, we drilled to 2600 m, using metric measurements. Technicians on board had to convert the metric measurements back to Imperial ,in order to be sent to Ottawa because they had not completed their conversation to metric.
    For us ‘older’ imperialists it was a huge waste of time and money, not to mention possible confusion that could occur in all the handling of info.
    ‘Just sayin’

  33. First things first, I live in a country where the metric system is used as a standard. I consider it the superior system for our modern interconected world. It offers simplicity, predictability, scalability, constancy and it is for these reasons that it has been adopted as the standard for all serious science, engineering and everything else.

    THAT BEING SAID

    The imperial system is a massive achievment for the human race and nothing to be sneered at. The genius of it, for the most part, is that it uses references that are intrinsic to the human body, and as such can be used by anyone anywhere at any time and produce a consistent result. In a world where instant communication and precision mas production didn’t exist the concept of a metre is extremely difficult to communicate, and unless you could reliably expect everyone to have access to that same standard to compare with then you couldn’t be sure that the metre being used in France was the same metre being used in Italy or something. It doesn’t have a simple grounding in the natural world, so you couldn’t expect people to generate an accurate metre for themselves (it’s the length of string that causes a pendulum to complete one cycle in one second btw) so it would have been useless for the majority of people for the majority of history. The imperial system is a breakthrough because it roots our standard of measurement in our own bodies, an inch is the length of two finger joints, a foot is the length of a foot, a hand is the width of a hand etc. Granted there is some variation in these lengths from person to person, but it was a measurment stick that everyone had on them all the time and high precision was not really required back then either.
    So long story short, even though I use the metric system, I have a lot of respect for the imperial system.

    • Although I can work in both metric and imperial, and for me, the advantage of imperial is in the devision, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 etc, metric has its advantages also. And it’s all down to water. 1 cubic centimetre of pure water at 6c weighs 1 gram…. From that you can extrapolate size, weight, and temperature for anything… Not as much fun as feet and elbows, but much more accurate!

    • Piece of string that swings every second…..hmm….but what is a second…one 60th of an hour…

  34. LOL – not a single comment as of Jun 3, 8a ET on mantle rock – just systems of measurement. We are a sad group.

  35. I was forced to learn the metric system. Gladly accept it. Being micro more accurate. Conversation has always been with us. Look how many people, culturs,races have learn to accept,speak English. By the century 9999. Who knows what they learn,speak use.

  36. Imperial is for the thinkers and metric for the simple minded. This is the secret to our global dominance. Mental acrobatics my friends.

    • Imperial is definitely not for thinkers. Imperial is for traditionalists. One does not think better simply for using traditional units. Scientists the world over use metric, not imperial, and I doubt many would argue that scientists are simple-minded.

    • Use a conversion calculator if you care so much. People shouldn’t be forced to change their site to cater to you.

      • Yeah, annoyed. It’s time America went metric – they got half way there. Something wonderful about having one degree as freezing and a hundred degrees as boiling. Some marvellout about one liter being equal to one kilogram, or that 1mm of rain on 1 sq m of roof gives 1 liter of water. Everything is carefully linked, and intelligent. And we can all speak the one language.

        • We went metric in scientific-technical areas many decades ago. Back then in physics class we all used the MKS or CGS measurements. Nobody ever used “feet” or “slugs”.

          • Not quite. My physics prof required we learn them anyway, and would occasionally slip a question into an exam using slugs or furlongs just to make sure we could do unit conversions.

            But, yes, I’ve been working as an engineer since the mid 80’s, and have always done my work in metric units.

            • Not my physics prof.: he did part of one class lecture on them and never mentioned them again. I seem to remember him having them as an available option for answering tests, but I never bothered with them.

              And of course we are reminded of the Mars Climate Observer disaster.

            • Welp I worked for nearly a decade in the oil industry as an engineer and we used imperial: 10,000 foot well, 2.4 mile pipeline, 400 barrels per day production, 3000 gallon tank, gas production at 24.5 million cubic feet per day, etcetera. Pretty sure they are still doing it, like a few years ago when Exxon declared additional 20 billion barrels of oil reserves in its Permain Basin properties due to advances in fracking technology.

            • No wonder the world is going to sh*t…all y’all smart people are here arguing about this meaningless sh*t.

    • The British built the industrial revolution on imperial measurements, and America went to the moon. What has metric done?

      (You could argue that the feet and inches are such stupid ways of measuring things that they provided for a much narrower range of products and tolerances, so made production much easier. Lots of factories produced the same 0.5 inch bolt, and a standard was accidentally set. Lots of factories variously produced 10mm, 15mm and 20mm bolts, and interchangeability remained that bit further out of reach.)

    • I’d say both might be a good idea. Here is the U.S. we use british units for everyday things, and metric for scientific-technical things.

      • Hey y’all… perhaps y’all lost sight of what the article is about… acessing the earth’s mantle. Now having said that, this is not the first time that mantle rocks have been available for observation or study.
        I suggest that if anyone with geological scientific interest wants to see mantle rocks, they should visit Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland where mantle rocks are exposed on surface. No need for drilling or bickering over who has the longest (whatever) in centimeters or inches. Just saying…

      • Scientifically speaking, yes. However the earth isn’t flat, it’s like chocolate chip cookie shaped. Not one of those raisin cookies, those are crap.

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