Drilling Beneath the Deep Sea' 



By William E. Benson 



Program Director for Earth Sciences 

 National Science Foundation 



[With 4 plates] 



Two miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean off the w est coast 

 of Mexico, a drill bit studded with diamonds was gently eased inch by 

 inch into the bottom ooze. Jets of water coming down the drill pipe 

 tlien began to wash the bit farther into the mud. One of the most 

 notable modern experiments in oceanography and geophysics was 

 underway. 



The experiment, part of Project Mohole, achieved important results 

 through a combination of two factore — a scientific impetus bordering 

 on the visionary, and imaginative engineering concepts that pushed to 

 its limits today's teclinology. 



Attached to 11,700 feet of pipe dangling from a drilling derrick 

 mounted on a ship, the bit was the tip of an 85-ton probe wielded by 

 scientists intent on unlocking some of the history that is recorded in 

 the sediment that has been collecting on the bottom of the oceans 

 for millions of years. 



At the base of the steel tower, scientists and veteran petrolemn 

 drillers anxiously watched gages and recording pens trace the shakes 

 and twists of the pipe as, in high winds and heavy seas, the drilling 

 ship CUSS I held its position w^ith steering motors. 



For the scientists, the drilling operation was part of the first at- 

 tempt to retrieve samples of the earth's crust at appreciable deptlis 

 beneath the floor of the ocean basin. Their success has added a com- 

 pletely new technique to the study of the oceans of the world. 



For the engineei*s and drilling personnel who had assembled the 

 longest drilling pipe ever suspended from a ship, the operation was 

 the world's first deep-sea drilling expedition. Furthermore, a drilling 

 crew was working for tlie first time aboard an unmoored ship, and 

 in water 40 times deeper than in the usual offshore operation. 



^ Reprinted by permission from Sperryscope, Sperry Rand Corp., vol. 15, No. 10, 1961. 



397 



