{"id":11592,"date":"2024-03-22T13:48:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T12:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/2024\/03\/voyage-au-centre-de-la-terre-avec-les-scientifiques-de-lunil\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T14:06:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T13:06:05","slug":"a-journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth-with-scientists-from-the-university-of-lausanne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/2024\/03\/a-journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth-with-scientists-from-the-university-of-lausanne\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey to the center of the Earth with scientists from the University of Lausanne"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Othmar M\u00fcntener and Gy\u00f6rgy Het\u00e9nyi. (Fabrice Ducrest \u00a9 UNIL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Experts from UNIL are co-directing a scientific drilling project almost a kilometer deep, aimed at reaching and documenting, for the first time, the base of the continental crust and the transition to the Earth’s mantle. This international project is taking place in Piedmont, Italy, in an area where usually deep-seated rocks are accessible thanks to a natural shortcut.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What constitutes the interior of our planet? How was the Earth’s crust formed, and how deep can Life be found? For years, these fundamental questions have remained partly unanswered due to technical and financial obstacles. Despite several attempts, humans have never succeeded in continuously exploring the rocks beyond the Earth’s crust to reach the next layer: the mantle, usually some thirty kilometers below the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists from the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Geosciences and Environment are coordinating an international project that could change the game. Project DIVE (for Drilling the Ivrea-Verbano zonE) carries out scientific drilling in the geological area in the Alps known as Ivrea-Verbano (Piedmont, Italy), the uniqueness of which should make it possible, as a world first, to cross the crust and reach the Earth’s upper mantle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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