Scientific Ship Drilling in Costa Rican Waters 50% Owned by Company Responsible for Gulf Oil Disaster

In the 23rd March 2011 edition of the National Geographic News, in ‘Scientists to Drill Earth’s Mantle, Retrieve First Sample?’ Richard A. Lovett writes: “Scientists are planning to drill all the way through the planet’s miles-thick crust to Earth’s deep, hot mantle and retrieve samples for the first time. The samples, they say, would rival moon rocks for sheer scientific import–and be nearly as hard to get.”

Lovett believes that the earth’s mantle holds the clues to earthquakes and the origins of planet Earth. “Between Earth’s molten core and hard, thin crust, the roughly 2,000-mile-thick (3,200-kilometer-thick) mantle contains the vast bulk of Earth’s rocks. But we don’t know much about them, because all we have are bits that have come to the surface via volcanoes or been trapped in ancient mountain belts.”

The best place to drill according to Lovett is in the mid-ocean where the Earth’s crust is about four miles thick in comparison to continental regions where it’s far deeper.

Somewhere like Costa Rica perhaps?

Tomorrow, as part of ‘Expedition 335: Superfast Spreading Rate Crust 4’ the JOIDES Resolution (JOIDES = Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling) a “scientific drilling ship,” is to “drill a deep hole into intact oceanic basement.”

The expedition is led by Damon Teagle from the University of Southampton and Benoît Ildefonse from the University of Montpellier began and our science buffs can download the full scientific proposal for this expedition here.

“This expedition will return to Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Hole 1256D off the coast of Costa Rica to deepen ODP Hole 1256D by a significant distance into cumulate gabbros. Cores and data recovered during the Superfast 4 Expedition will provide new observations that will be used to evaluate and test models of the accretion and evolution of the oceanic crust.”

This certainly sounds very scientific, doesn’t it?

The ship is run by “The U.S. Implementing Organization, which consists of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Texas A&M University and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. The National Science Foundation provides the funding.”

The National Science Foundation is “an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…”

I think we can all safely assume that this would be primarily for the “national defense” of the USA and not Costa Rica.

According to the JOIDES Resolution website “JOIDES Resolution is owned by Overseas Drilling, Limited, which is a joint venture company owned 50% by Transocean and 50% by DSND Shipping, AS.”




You may not know ‘DSND Shipping, AS’ which is: “an underwater contracting business that specializes in the development of underwater installations and oil well maintenance.”

But you will have heard of Transocean, maybe because Transocean Ltd. just had its “best year in safety performance” or, more likely you will have heard of them because of the catastrophic explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 people and where “oil was gushing from the site at the rate of 62,000 barrels per day, eventually spilling an estimated 170 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.”

But you don’t need to worry about the safety of Costa Rica’s waters!

One of the two leaders of the expedition, Damon Teagle from the University of Southampton confirms that: “There is a risk of failure in that the hole could collapse,” he said, “but there is no perceived environmental risk.”

Phew! Don’t you feel better?

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of 1. Costa Rica Real Estate Scams & How To Avoid Them, 2. How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa, and 3. Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.