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Core Strength

May 24, 2016

Participants in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 360 proudly display the longest continuous piece of rock core ever recovered from the seafloor. WHOI geologist Henry Dick (far left) and Chris MacLeod of Cardiff University (third from left) were the chief scientists on the trip, which represented the first leg of the SloMo Project. Their goal is to drill two miles through Earth’s crust and into the mantle. Although drilling during Expedition 360 took them a half-mile of the way there, additional drilling legs will deepen the hole and also determine the extent to which life exists in the lower crust and underlying mantle. (Photo courtesy of Henry Dick, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)