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Words in the News

25th March 2011
Scientists to drill deep through Earth’s crust

A team of scientists is preparing a new attempt to drill through the Earth's crust to the mantle
below for the first time ever. The team will soon drill beneath the Pacific to test the viability
of such an operation, and say an attempt to reach the mantle could begin in 2018. Neil
Bowdler reports.

They've selected prospective sites under the Pacific Ocean where the crust is at its thinnest -
just six kilometres.

Dr Damon Teagle, of the UK's National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, is leading the
quest. He likens the bid to the retrieval of Moon rocks by the Apollo programme and says
samples from the mantle will tell us how our planet was formed and how it's changing.

Dr Damon Teagle: Just as the Moon rocks told us about the composition of the Moon and
how that relates to the early formation of the Earth itself, so will these samples as well.

Reporter: Next month, the team will begin a bid to drill nearly two kilometres down through
the ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica. They say an attempt to reach the mantle could
begin as early as 2018, funds and technology permitting.

Neil Bowdler, BBC News

Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011

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Vocabulary and definitions

prospective possible or suitable

quest long, difficult search or mission

likens says something is similar

retrieval getting back

samples small parts of something, which have been collected

composition things that are in an object, and how they are arranged

relates is connected

bid attempt or aim

to drill to operate a machine which creates a hole in something

solid

permitting allowing, or making something possible

More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12841150

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/03/110325_witn_earth_page1.shtml

Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011

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