Technical Challenges for Mantle Drilling

Mantle drilling, in which the oceanic crust is penetrated across the Moho to retrieve mantle samples, is one of the most challenging scientific projects of this century. This paper presents a literature survey on the development of mantle drilling, provides a brief introduction to mantle drilling, and introduces three drilling site candidates. Obstacles to mantle drilling are then presented, along with current R&D activities, plans, and considerations for solving those problems. For the purposes of this paper, significant contributions in mantle drilling research have been classified into the following categories: ultra-deep water, deep penetration, hard rocks, and high temperature. Necessary future research directions for mantle drilling are also described.