2012-02-02

Chinese to drill 10 km into Earth's crust

The Rocky Depths of Heilongjiang
Last December, the 60-meter-high, 1,000-ton drilling rig, which takes up approximately 10,000 square meters of ground, was put on more than 70 delivery vehicles and trucked from Chengdu to Daqing oil field, the largest oil field in China's Heilongjiang Province.

Its first task will be to drill a 6,600-meter Sonke No. 2 Well in the Songliao Basin in northeast China. With the completed Songke No. 1 Well, it will constitute the world's only nearly complete record of Cretaceous continental deposits. By obtaining a high-resolution record of climatic changes during the Cretaceous period in East Asia, scientists say the data could be used in predicting future global climate change trends.

The deep survey project led by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS) has a budget of 1.1 billion yuan, making it one of the largest basic science projects since the founding of China. Titled the "Deep Surveying Special Project," (DPSP) scientists say a basic survey of the Songliao Basin will be completed by the end of 2012.
It doesn't sound as though they'll test the abiotic theory of oil.

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