Lake Izabal (LIBRE) Workshop
in Antigua (Guatemala) running successfully!
We are facing amplified global warming since the 1970s, a rising sea level, regional climate shifts, and extreme climate events that severely impact the human habitat. Thus, we have an obligation to conduct research that provides an understanding of present and past variations in regional and global climate.
Each day extraterrestrial matter collides with Earth. Throughout Earth's history, giant impacts created wide craters and devastations affecting the whole planet. These events may have wiped out major portions of the fauna and flora on the Earth. Still, large impacts are the fastest geological events creating new ground for evolution.
Volcanic eruptions may contribute to global climate change by changing the Earth's atmosphere. This can either be warming of the atmosphere through gases such as CO2, or global cooling through suspended volcanic particles. Understanding the interplay between volcanic activities and climate variations requires knowledge of both volcanic and climate history.
Bacteria, viruses and archaea dwell at depths to several thousand meters below ground and in temperatures of more than 120° C. With their metabolism they contribute to the generation of carbohydrates and mineral resources. These rich ecosystems are studied by scientific drilling.
Inside the Earth there is heat so intense that it melts rock and drives tectonic processes and planetary differentiation. Geothermal energy can be tapped from the Earth's natural heat at volcanoes or mantle plumes. Holes drilled into a subsurface geothermal system, or in volcanic areas, can drive turbines and generate electrical power.
Volcanic eruptions are one of Earth's most dramatic and violent agents of change. Powerful explosive eruptions can drastically alter land and water for tens of kilometers around a volcano. Some volcanoes exhibit precursory unrest that if detected, (e.g. by drilling), and analyzed in time allows eruptions to be anticipated.
Currently ca. 170 impact craters are known on Earth; about one third of those structures are not exposed on the surface, and can only be studied by geophysics or drilling. Drill cores yield information on the subsurface structures, and provide ground-truth for geophysical studies.
Plate margins are areas where the most life-threatening geological phenomena occurs. Accompanying ocean-margin geohazards include tsunamis, landslides, powerful volcanic eruptions, and other threats. Scientific drilling has a high potential for risk-mitigation studies, and must be an integral and indispensable part of this effort.
in Antigua (Guatemala) running successfully!
Drilling the Cretaceous Songliao Basin in China
Engineers of Songliao Basin Drilling Project (SK-II) developed a new drilling tool with 311 mm diameter to drill from 2865m to 4500m to retrieve cores of 214 mm diameter without reaming. This tool has been used since April and runs well with an 8.2 m footage per round trip. This is the first time that a 311 mm diameter drilling tool is used for continuous coring in the history of deep drilling.
By August 2015, SK-II has drilled 3350.15 m, including 486.92 m of 311 mm drilling with 480.30 m core (recovery =98.64%). Now persistent efforts are made to use double core barrel drilling tools which would extend the footage per round trip to more than twice than before.
The DPCSB project (SK-II) proposes to obtain about 4500 m cores of Huoshiling to Quantou Formation, to be combined with the existing SK-I(n) and SK-I(s) to form the first nearly complete Cretaceous terrestrial sedimentary record in the world. This will provide excellent high resolution climate records of the terrestrial environment for the whole Cretaceous.
In 2006 and 2007, two scientific boreholes, SK-I(n) and SK-I(s), supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) and Daqing Oilfield, were completed in the basin with total length of 2485.89 m and recovery ratio of 96.46%, covering the complete Mid to Upper Cretaceous strata.
More information about the DPCSB project can be found here.