92-562: Project Mohole was an attempt in the early 1960s to drill through the Earth's crust to obtain samples of the Mohorovičić discontinuity , or Moho, the boundary between the Earth 's crust and mantle . The project was intended to provide an earth science complement to the high-profile Space Race . While such a project was not feasible on land, drilling in the open ocean was more feasible, because
184-490: A budget of up to $ 2.5M. Project Mohole was to proceed in three phases: Phase 1, an experimental drilling program; Phase 2, an intermediate vessel and drilling program; and Phase 3, drilling to the Moho. Phase 1 was executed in spring 1961, with innovative ocean engineering culminating in test bore holes. Led by Bascom, Project Mohole contracted with Global Marine of Los Angeles for the use of its oil drill ship CUSS I . The name of
276-599: A deep-sea sediment drilling program. In September 1963 the new director of NSF Leland Haworth addressed the AMSOC Committee to state that Mohole should consist of two programs, the deep drilling under Brown and Root and a shallow drilling program. Lill expressed similar advice to the leaders of the oceanographic institutions in March 1964, advising the four main institutions to combine their interests into one large drilling project. The principal institutions agreed to form
368-458: A depth of 183 m (601 feet) below the sea floor. While Project Mohole was not successful, the idea led to projects such as NSF's Deep Sea Drilling Project , and attempts to drill to extraordinary depths have continued. The sci-fi novel series Red Mars has several deep holes in the Martian crust called Moholes. They are deep enough that the hole becomes hot from the mantle and provides heat to
460-521: A drilling program. Proposals to NSF to support LOCO were not successful, however, and LOCO dissolved in April 1963. The interested institutions began to coordinate and organize themselves for the project, realizing that a large drilling program could not be supported by one organization. In early 1963 an agreement called CORE for a Consortium for Ocean Research and Exploration was signed by Ewing (Lamont), Brackett Hersey (WHOI), and Revelle (SIO) to carry out
552-552: A drilling site in the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean , while Scripps in San Diego favored a North Pacific site. Any site had to be near a large port to make the logistics of the large expedition feasible, it had to have a Moho as shallow as possible, it could not be in a geologically active region, and it had to have stable weather conditions. In January 1965 a site north of Maui, Hawaii , was selected. A critical dispute
644-769: A feasibility study of Mohole, and Willard N. Bascom , an ocean engineer, oceanographer, and geologist, became the Executive Secretary of AMSOC. On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite that initiated the Space Race and a revolution in science and education in the United States. The ever-present competition with the Russians provided a positive political background to
736-411: A fly at any distance with our missiles. Despite the wide radius of destruction caused by our nuclear warheads, pinpoint accuracy was still necessary – and it was difficult to achieve". At the time, Khrushchev stated that "our potential enemies cringe in fright". The political analyst Samuel Lubell conducted research on public opinion about Sputnik and found "no evidence at all of any panic or hysteria in
828-693: A massive US crewed space program when he was in the US Senate during Eisenhower's term, public reaction to the Soviet's launch of the first human into orbit , Yuri Gagarin , on April 12, 1961, led Kennedy to raise the stakes of the Space Race by setting the goal of landing men on the Moon . Kennedy claimed, "If the Soviets control space they can control the earth, as in past centuries the nation that controlled
920-646: A means to test this theory. The project was to exploit the fact that the mantle was much closer to the ocean's floor (5–10 km) than to the surface of land over continents (ca. 30 km), suggesting that drilling to the mantle from the ocean would be more feasible. The idea for the project was initially developed by the informal group of scientists known as the American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC), including Hess, Munk, Gordon Lill, Roger Revelle , Harry Ladd, Joshua Tracey, William Rubey, Maurice Ewing , and Arthur Maxwell. Lill, who headed
1012-593: A month of the satellite launch helped to dispel some of the fears created by the Sputnik launch. However, Sputnik was not part of an organized effort to dominate space according to a Soviet space scientist. The successful launch of Sputnik 1 and then the subsequent failure of the first two Project Vanguard launch attempts greatly accentuated the US perception of a threat from the Soviet Union that had persisted since
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#17327838647691104-411: A moral panic by writing sensational pieces on the event. In the first and second days following the event, The New York Times wrote that the launch of Sputnik 1 was a major global propaganda and prestige triumph for Russian communism. Further, Fred Hechinger, a noted American journalist and education editor, reported, “hardly a week passed without several television programs examining education". It
1196-472: A sample of the Earth's mantle . The suggestion, in response to the set of fine, but modest proposals they had just reviewed, was made as a bold new idea and without regard to cost. Harry Hess , a professor of geology at Princeton University , was receptive to the idea. Hess was one of the principal proponents of sea-floor spreading or plate tectonics at the time, and he saw the Mohole Project as
1288-528: A strong economy. In Britain, the launch of the first Sputnik provoked surprise, combined with elation at experiencing the dawn of the Space Age . It was also a reminder of the decline in the British Empire's world influence . The crisis soon became part of the broader Cold War narrative. The Daily Express predicted that "The result will be a new [U.S.] drive to catch up and pass the Russians in
1380-441: A thermonuclear warhead can flash down from space at hypersonic speed to reach any spot on Earth minutes after its launching". Former US Rear Admiral Rawson Bennett, chief of naval operations, stated that Sputnik was a "hunk of iron almost anybody could launch", while former US Army general James M. Gavin described it as "the most significant military event of our time". The Sputnik crisis also spurred substantial transformation in
1472-527: Is a planet's "original" crust. It forms from solidification of a magma ocean. Toward the end of planetary accretion , the terrestrial planets likely had surfaces that were magma oceans. As these cooled, they solidified into crust. This crust was likely destroyed by large impacts and re-formed many times as the Era of Heavy Bombardment drew to a close. The nature of primary crust is still debated: its chemical, mineralogic, and physical properties are unknown, as are
1564-444: Is debated. The anorthosite highlands of the Moon are primary crust, formed as plagioclase crystallized out of the Moon's initial magma ocean and floated to the top; however, it is unlikely that Earth followed a similar pattern, as the Moon was a water-less system and Earth had water. The Martian meteorite ALH84001 might represent primary crust of Mars; however, again, this is debated. Like Earth, Venus lacks primary crust, as
1656-496: Is needed to create tertiary crust, and Earth is the only planet in the Solar System with plate tectonics. Earth's crust is a thin shell on the outside of Earth, accounting for less than 1% of Earth's volume. It is the top component of the lithosphere , a division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle . The lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates that move, allowing heat to escape from
1748-439: Is now known as dynamic positioning . By mounting four large outboard motors on the ship, positioning the ship within surrounding moorings using acoustic techniques, and guiding the motors by a central joy stick, CUSS I could maintain a position within a radius of 180 m (600 feet). Such unprecedented position keeping enabled the drilling to occur in deep water. With William Riedel as chief scientist, initial test drillings into
1840-492: The Baikonur Cosmodrome . This created a crisis reaction in national newspapers such as The New York Times , which mentioned the satellite in 279 articles between October 6, 1957, and October 31, 1957 (more than 11 articles per day). In the early 1950s, Lockheed U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union provided intelligence that the US held the advantage in nuclear capability. However, an education gap
1932-597: The Cold War had begun after World War II . The same rocket that launched Sputnik could send a nuclear warhead anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes, which would strip the Continental United States of its oceanic defenses. The Soviets had demonstrated that capability on 21 August by a 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) test flight of the R-7 booster . The event was announced by TASS five days later and
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#17327838647692024-859: The Deep Sea Drilling Project of the National Science Foundation . During discussions at the end of a panel reviewing proposals for Earth Sciences at the National Science Foundation in March 1957, Walter Munk , a professor of geophysics and oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography , suggested the idea behind the Mohole Project: to drill into the Mohorovicic Discontinuity and obtain
2116-583: The National Aeronautics and Space Act , the creation of NASA . Less than a year after the Sputnik launch, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA). It was a four-year program that poured billions of dollars into the US education system. In 1953, the government spent $ 153 million, and colleges took $ 10 million of that funding, but by 1960, the combined funding grew almost six-fold because of
2208-421: The adiabatic rise of mantle causes partial melting. Tertiary crust is more chemically-modified than either primary or secondary. It can form in several ways: The only known example of tertiary crust is the continental crust of the Earth. It is unknown whether other terrestrial planets can be said to have tertiary crust, though the evidence so far suggests that they do not. This is likely because plate tectonics
2300-440: The oil industry . The deeper hole addressed more fundamental questions about the structure of the Earth. Some viewed the more modest initial approach as developing essential engineering and drilling techniques that would later be required for the deep bore hole. Some in the geology and geophysics communities objected to Mohole because, for its enormous cost, they expected that not much would be learned from drilling. They viewed
2392-424: The 1940s. Hedberg strongly advocated an initial program for drilling shallower holes, and a second program for drilling to the Moho. Since many members of AMSOC worked for universities or industries developing bids for Mohole, many of the scientists on AMSOC resigned to avoid conflicts of interest . Bascom and his associates formed a corporation, Ocean Science and Engineering, Inc., expecting that they would continue
2484-428: The Earth, the US became a second-rate power. Politicians used the event to bolster their ratings in polls. Research and development was used as a propaganda tool, and Congress spent large sums of money on the perceived problem of US technological deficiency. After the launch of Sputnik 1 national security advisers overestimated the Soviets' current and potential rocket strength, which alarmed portions of Congress and
2576-589: The Geophysics Branch of the Office of Naval Research , had formed this whimsically-named society to assist in processing a disparate variety of proposals (of a miscellaneous nature) for funds in the earth sciences. Hess had approached Lill with the Mohole idea, and they eventually decided that AMSOC should submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation to develop the project. The name of this organization
2668-789: The House Appropriations Committee and principal supporter of Project Mohole in Congress, died of pancreatic cancer. After his passing Mohole lacked support from the Committee, and Congress discontinued the project in May 1966. Another factor was that by the mid-1960s the Vietnam War was deemed a greater priority for funding. While the termination of Mohole funding brought an end to the Brown and Root contract for drilling to
2760-661: The Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Sampling ( JOIDES ) program in May 1964. This event was the formation of the Deep Sea Drilling Project of the National Science Foundation. In October 1964 NSF provided a 2-year contract to the University of Miami to begin planning JOIDES. The first drilling expedition under JOIDES was in spring 1965 to the Blake Plateau off the southeastern United States. The expedition
2852-510: The Moho, Congress and the National Science Foundation had already begun to support a separate program of shallow sediment drilling. Well before the termination of Mohole, academic scientists began to work toward establishing drilling programs independent of Mohole. Their interest was drilling in deep-sea sediments, which the CUSS I test had demonstrated to be both feasible and cost effective. Until this test, oceanographers had only been able to sample
Project Mohole - Misplaced Pages Continue
2944-484: The Mohole Project, particularly after rumors that the Russians were attempting a similar drilling program. Other aspects favorable to Mohole were that it was the first big science project in Earth Sciences and that it was a new idea distinct from the many space programs that were underway as a result of the Sputnik crisis ; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established in 1958. With
3036-633: The Mohole drilling operation. Privately the AMSOC management committee thought the final deep drill to the Moho would cost about $ 40M. Bids were solicited to build the drill ship in March 1965. The bids received in July 1965 requested funds of about $ 125M ($ 1.21 billion in 2023 dollars). The managers of Project Mohole (AMSOC, Brown and Root, and NSF) were shocked by the increased cost, but decided to continue Mohole. National Steel and Shipbuilding in San Diego
3128-462: The Mohole project with a scathing criticism of Mohole purpose and management. He declared, "..this project can readily be one of the greatest and most rewarding scientific ventures ever carried out. I must also say that it can just as readily become instead only a foolish and unjustifiably expensive fiasco if there is not an insistence that it be carried out within a proper concept and in a well-planned, rigorously logical, and scientific manner ...." After
3220-476: The NDEA. After the initial public shock, the Space Race began, which led to the first human launched into space , Project Apollo , and the first humans to land on the Moon in 1969. Campaigning in 1960 on closing the " missile gap ", Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy , promised to deploy 1,000 Minuteman missiles . That was many more ICBMs than the Soviets had at the time. Though Kennedy did not favor
3312-578: The Socony Mobil bid the best, calling it "in a class by itself", while further review ranked Global-Aerojet-Shell first, Socony Mobil Oil second, and Brown and Root third. In a decision that was widely viewed as political, NSF selected the construction company Brown and Root as the prime contractor for the project in February 1962. Brown and Root had no experience in drilling, and its home in Houston
3404-515: The Soviet rocket that launched Sputnik into space must have produced 200,000 pounds-force (890,000 N) of thrust. In fact, the R-7 rocket that launched Sputnik 1 into space produced almost 1,000,000 pounds-force (4,400,000 N) of thrust. All of those factors contributed to the Americans' perception that they were greatly behind the Soviets in the development of space technologies. Hours after
3496-507: The Sputnik crisis was that the Soviets had not released a photograph of the satellite for five days after the launch. Until then, its appearance remained a mystery to Americans. Another factor was its weight of 184 pounds (83 kg), compared to US plans to launch a satellite of 21.5 pounds (9.8 kg). The Soviet claim seemed outrageous to many American officials, who doubted its accuracy. US rockets then produced 150,000 pounds-force (670,000 N) of thrust , and US officials presumed that
3588-447: The Sputnik crisis, leaders exploited an "awe doctrine" to organize learning "around a strong model of educational national security: with math and science serving for supremacy in science and engineering, foreign languages and cultures for potential espionage, and history and humanities for national self-definition". US leaders were not able to exploit the image of Japan as effectively, despite its representations of super-smart students and
3680-464: The US at once: the capability to send the satellite into orbit and proof of the distance capabilities of their missiles. That proved that the Soviets had rockets capable of sending nuclear weapons to Western Europe and even North America. That was the most immediate threat that Sputnik 1 posed. The United States, a land with a history of geographical security from European wars because of its distance, suddenly seemed vulnerable. A contributing factor to
3772-490: The US science policy, which provided much of the basis for modern academic scientific research. Astronomer John Jefferies, at the High Altitude Observatory in 1957, recalled that it had received funding mostly from philanthropists. "The week after Sputnik went up, we were digging ourselves out of this avalanche of money that suddenly descended" from the federal government, he said. By the mid-1960s, NASA
Project Mohole - Misplaced Pages Continue
3864-407: The United States needed to meet these challenges with "resourcefulness and vigor". The president also noted the importance of education for the Russians in their recent scientific and technological progress, and for America's response to the Russians. He remarked, "we need scientists in the ten years ahead...scrutinize your school's curriculum and standards. Then decide for yourselves whether they meet
3956-422: The area had interesting layering features, suggesting the drilling could confirm properties derived from the seismic studies. The layers were of geologic interest in their own right. Five holes were drilled, the deepest to 183 m (601 feet) below the sea floor in 3,600 m (11,700 feet) of water. This drilling was unprecedented: not because of the hole's depth, but because an untethered platform in deep water
4048-422: The argument that Sputnik was only a scientific achievement and not a military threat or change in world power. He believed that Sputnik's weight "was not commensurate with anything of great military significance, and that was also a factor in putting it in [proper] perspective". In 1958, Eisenhower declared three "stark facts" the United States needed to confront: Eisenhower followed this statement by saying that
4140-736: The case of icy satellites, it may be distinguished based on its phase (solid crust vs. liquid mantle). The crusts of Earth , Mercury , Venus , Mars , Io , the Moon and other planetary bodies formed via igneous processes and were later modified by erosion , impact cratering , volcanism, and sedimentation. Most terrestrial planets have fairly uniform crusts. Earth, however, has two distinct types: continental crust and oceanic crust . These two types have different chemical compositions and physical properties and were formed by different geological processes. Planetary geologists divide crust into three categories based on how and when it formed. This
4232-423: The crust ranges between about 20 and 120 km. Crust on the far side of the Moon averages about 12 km thicker than that on the near side . Estimates of average thickness fall in the range from about 50 to 60 km. Most of this plagioclase-rich crust formed shortly after formation of the Moon, between about 4.5 and 4.3 billion years ago. Perhaps 10% or less of the crust consists of igneous rock added after
4324-455: The drill ship was derived from the consortium of oil companies that had developed it in 1956, Continental , Union , Superior and Shell Oil. The ship was to be a technological test bed for the nascent offshore oil industry . CUSS I was one of the first vessels in the world capable of drilling in deep water, though it had been limited to depths of 100 m or a few hundred feet. Project Mohole expanded its operational depth by inventing what
4416-442: The engineering requirements, while maintaining an arrogance in their management of Mohole. Within two months, Bascom and his Ocean Science and Engineering had such a bad relationship with Brown and Root that they quit the drilling engineering effort. Ocean Science and Engineering had reviewed Brown & Root's "Engineering Plan Report" and declared it "neither a clear plan nor a sound basis for proceeding." The contract made clear that
4508-453: The entire planet has been repeatedly resurfaced and modified. Secondary crust is formed by partial melting of mostly silicate materials in the mantle, and so is usually basaltic in composition. This is the most common type of crust in the Solar System. Most of the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars comprise secondary crust, as do the lunar maria . On Earth secondary crust forms primarily at mid-ocean spreading centers , where
4600-409: The executive branch. When these estimations were released, Eisenhower was forced into an accelerated missile race to appease those concerned with America's safety. Sputnik provoked Congress into taking action on improving the US standing in the fields of science. Nikita Khrushchev , the Soviet leader, reflected on the event by saying, "It always sounded good to say in public speeches that we could hit
4692-470: The exploration ship R/V Gulfrex [ Reasonator search ] , which operated across the globe until 1975, covering some 160,000 miles (140,000 nautical miles; 260,000 kilometers). Phase One proved that both the technology and expertise were available to drill into the Earth's mantle . It was intended as the experimental phase of the project, and, by developing and employing dynamic positioning of ships during drilling, succeeded in drilling to
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#17327838647694784-556: The first US satellite Explorer 1 was ready to launch in 1956, but that fact was classified and unknown to the public. The Army's PGM-19 Jupiter from which Juno was derived had been shelved on the orders of Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson amid interservice rivalry with the US Air Force 's PGM-17 Thor rocket. The Soviets used ICBM technology to launch Sputnik into space, which gave them two propaganda advantages over
4876-463: The formation of the initial plagioclase-rich material. The best-characterized and most voluminous of these later additions are the mare basalts formed between about 3.9 and 3.2 billion years ago. Minor volcanism continued after 3.2 billion years, perhaps as recently as 1 billion years ago. There is no evidence of plate tectonics . Study of the Moon has established that a crust can form on a rocky planetary body significantly smaller than Earth. Although
4968-581: The goal of Mohole was to obtain a sample of the Earth's mantle, while many of the AMSOC scientists, such as Hedberg and Ewing, were strongly advocating an intermediate stage of drilling shallow holes in sediments. There were now four managers of Mohole: Brown and Root, AMSOC, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences, and Mohole was suffering from conflicting and poorly-focused engineering and scientific goals. In November 1963, Hedberg testified during congressional hearings on
5060-506: The governmental level, complexities of managing such a large project, and escalating costs. D. S. Greenberg, a reporter for the journal Science commented in 1964, "There is a lengthy and unattractive trail of bickering, bitterness, and shortsightedness, involving some of the leading figures of American science and science administration." The drilling that was to occur in the second phase of the project never took place. Scientists involved with Mohole had differing and irreconcilable views as to
5152-491: The igneous mechanisms that formed them. This is because it is difficult to study: none of Earth's primary crust has survived to today. Earth's high rates of erosion and crustal recycling from plate tectonics has destroyed all rocks older than about 4 billion years , including whatever primary crust Earth once had. However, geologists can glean information about primary crust by studying it on other terrestrial planets. Mercury's highlands might represent primary crust, though this
5244-416: The interior of Earth into space. A theoretical protoplanet named " Theia " is thought to have collided with the forming Earth, and part of the material ejected into space by the collision accreted to form the Moon. As the Moon formed, the outer part of it is thought to have been molten, a " lunar magma ocean ". Plagioclase feldspar crystallized in large amounts from this magma ocean and floated toward
5336-537: The launch, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Astronomy Department rigged an ad hoc interferometer to measure signals from the satellite. Donald B. Gillies and Jim Snyder programmed the ILLIAC I computer to calculate the satellite orbit from this data. The programming and calculation was completed in less than two days. The rapid publication of the ephemeris (orbit) in the journal Nature within
5428-426: The lead in space exploration from the Soviets, and it fueled its drive to land men on the Moon . American officials had a variety of opinions at the time, some registering alarm and others dismissing the satellite. Gerald Ford , a Republican US representative from Michigan, had stated, "We Middle Westerners are sometimes called isolationists. I don't agree with the label; but there can be no isolationists anywhere when
5520-413: The mantle lies much closer to the sea floor . Led by a group of scientists called the American Miscellaneous Society with funding from the National Science Foundation , the project suffered from political and scientific opposition, mismanagement, and cost overruns . The U.S. House of Representatives defunded it in 1966. By then a program of sediment drilling had branched from Project Mohole to become
5612-441: The mismanagement and possible political motivations behind the selection of Brown and Root as primary contractor. The committee deemed the construction of the drilling platform "unwise" and urged no further expenditures. Congressman Thomas was able to reverse this recommendation in conference. The possible political influences on the choice of Brown and Root continued to be revealed. In February 1966 Representative Thomas, Chairman of
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#17327838647695704-820: The new funding, AMSOC formed three panels in 1958: the Drilling Panel, the Site Selection Panel, and the Scientific Objectives and Measurements Panel, and in April 1959 Bascom became the Technical Director for the Mohole Project. The AMSOC Committee, within the National Academy of Sciences, became both advisor and manager for the project. By mid-1959, the NAS Governing Board had given AMSOC authorization to proceed with preliminary studies and Phase 1 of Mohole with
5796-627: The president of the National Academy of Sciences Frederick Seitz reprimanded him for his testimony, Hedberg resigned from AMSOC. In January 1964, Lill agreed to become the director for Project Mohole at the National Science Foundation, and the American Miscellaneous Society dissolved itself. AMSOC suggested new committees for the scientific aspects of drilling be established at the National Academy of Sciences. Project Mohole attracted criticism that such an expensive project would undermine smaller science projects. The project
5888-424: The project as an engineering stunt of little scientific value. During the CUSS I test and shortly thereafter, the Mohole project was managed by the National Academy of Sciences, with AMSOC acting as an advisor. The informal AMSOC group was insufficient to manage what was expected to be a large project in its next phase, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) took over management of the project in late 1961. AMSOC
5980-455: The public's reaction", which confirmed that it was an elite, not a popular, panic. The week after Sputnik went up, we were digging ourselves out of this avalanche of money that suddenly descended. The launch spurred a series of US initiatives ranging from defense to education. Increased emphasis was placed on the US Navy 's Project Vanguard to launch an American satellite into orbit. There
6072-439: The radius of the Moon is only about a quarter that of Earth, the lunar crust has a significantly greater average thickness. This thick crust formed almost immediately after formation of the Moon. Magmatism continued after the period of intense meteorite impacts ended about 3.9 billion years ago, but igneous rocks younger than 3.9 billion years make up only a minor part of the crust. Sputnik crisis The Sputnik crisis
6164-557: The scientific community and the oil industry. The test was completed in a timely manner and under budget, costing $ 1.7M. Bascom reviewed the geologic science behind the Mohole Project, the required drilling engineering, and the Cuss I test drills in his book A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea , published in 1961. Robert Ballard, in a talk at Wayne State University in 1969, stated that as far as he
6256-808: The scientific goals of Mohole. Part of this disagreement resulted from a long tradition of competition among the four main oceanographic institutions: Lamont Geological Observatory in New York , the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts , the University of Miami in Florida, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. The competitive nature of these institutions meant that they often refused to cooperate. The East Coast institutions favored
6348-470: The sea floor occurred off Guadalupe Island , Mexico in March and April 1961. The event was documented by John Steinbeck for an article in Life Magazine . The location was determined based on world-wide seismic refraction studies by George G. Shor and others, and its proximity to San Diego , where CUSS I was located. A recent such study by Shor near Guadalupe Island had showed that the sea floor of
6440-468: The seas dominated the continents." Eisenhower disagreed with Kennedy's goal and referred to it as a "stunt". Kennedy had privately acknowledged that the space race was a waste of money, but he knew there were benefits from a frightened electorate. The Space Race was less about its intrinsic importance and more about prestige and calming the public. The Sputnik crisis sparked the American drive to retake
6532-403: The stern demands of the era we are entering." His ability to project confidence about the situation was limited because his confidence was based on clandestine reconnaissance, so he failed to quell the fears that there was a shift in power between the Americans and Soviets. The launch of Sputnik 1 also impacted Eisenhower's ratings in his polls, but he eventually recovered. The media stirred
6624-444: The surface. The cumulate rocks form much of the crust. The upper part of the crust probably averages about 88% plagioclase (near the lower limit of 90% defined for anorthosite ): the lower part of the crust may contain a higher percentage of ferromagnesian minerals such as the pyroxenes and olivine , but even that lower part probably averages about 78% plagioclase. The underlying mantle is denser and olivine-rich. The thickness of
6716-414: The thin Martian atmosphere. The 1970 Doctor Who serial Inferno , which also deals with a scientific effort to drill into the Earth's crust, was inspired by Project Mohole. Crust (geology) In geology , the crust is the outermost solid shell of a planet , dwarf planet , or natural satellite . It is usually distinguished from the underlying mantle by its chemical makeup; however, in
6808-451: The upper 10 m of deep-sea sediment. In early 1962 Cesare Emiliani from the University of Miami proposed a drilling vessel and program called "LOCO" for "LOng COres". Scientists from the University of Miami, Lamont, Princeton, Woods Hole, and Scripps agreed that such a program was of great interest and that it should be independent of AMSOC and Project Mohole. During this time Revelle sought to have SIO as prime contractor or administrator of
6900-403: The work demonstrated in the CUSS I test. Gordon Lill resigned from AMSOC, since his employer was Lockheed and was vying to become the prime contractor. Roger Revelle similarly resigned. NSF declined a bid from Scripps as prime contractor, leaving it with bids from Socony Mobil Oil Co., Global-Aerojet-Shell, Brown and Root, Zapata Off-shore Co, and General Electric Co. A review panel at NSF rated
6992-470: The year before. By 1968, the NSF budget stood at nearly $ 500 million. According to Marie Thorsten, Americans experienced a "techno-other void" after the Sputnik crisis and still express longing for "another Sputnik" to boost education and innovation. In the 1980s, the rise of Japan (both its car industry and its 5th generation computing project ) served to fan the fears of a "technology gap" with Japan. After
7084-545: Was a period of public fear and anxiety in Western nations about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union caused by the Soviets' launch of Sputnik 1 , the world's first artificial satellite . The crisis was a significant event in the Cold War that triggered the creation of NASA and the Space Race between the two superpowers. The satellite was launched on October 4, 1957, from
7176-731: Was a renewed interest in the existing Explorer program , which launched the first American satellite into orbit on January 31, 1958. In February 1958, Eisenhower authorized formation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was later renamed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), within the Department of Defense (DoD) to develop emerging technologies for the US military . On July 29, 1958, he signed
7268-415: Was a separate appropriation from Congress, however, and did not affect existing science programs. After the initial Phase 1 success, at relatively modest cost, the project grew in expense. The Brown and Root bid was for $ 35M plus a fee of $ 1.8M to manage the project and begin organizing the engineering efforts to build the Mohole drilling platform. These costs did not include those for the drilling ship and
7360-400: Was able to drill into the sea floor. Also, the core samples proved to be valuable, penetrating through Miocene -age sediments for the first time with the lowest 13 m (44 feet) consisting of basalt . This lowest layer, of volcanic origin, confirmed the properties derived by the seismic studies. This test drilling program was seen by all as a great success, attracting the attention of both
7452-407: Was after the people of the United States were exposed to a multitude of news reports that it became a "nation in shock". The media not only reported public concern but also created the hysteria. Journalists greatly exaggerated the danger of the Soviet satellite for their own benefit. On October 9, 1957, science fiction writer and scientist Arthur C. Clarke said that the day that Sputnik orbited around
7544-574: Was awarded the contract to build the drill ship in September 1965. At the time of the termination of Project Mohole in 1966, the project had spent $ 57M. By 1963, numerous articles ridiculing Mohole and its management troubles had appeared in the popular press. An article in Newsweek was entitled "Project No Hole", while another article in Fortune was entitled "How NSF Got Lost in Mohole." There
7636-489: Was close the congressional district of congressman Albert Thomas , chair of the House Appropriations Committee . Brown and Root was also a major political contributor to vice-president Lyndon Johnson . Brown and Root proved to be troublesome to the existing Mohole scientists and engineers. To those that had been involved with Mohole, Brown and Root lacked understanding of the scientific goals and
7728-425: Was concerned, the goal of the project was never to drill down to the Moho. It was to develop the technology to drill holes in deep water with a rig that was not tethered to the bottom. As Munk commented in 2010, the success of Phase 1 of Mohole doomed the project. The many factors that proved fatal to Mohole included the human element, differing views of the engineering and scientific goals, political improprieties at
7820-480: Was identified when studies conducted between 1955 and 1961 reported that the Soviet Union was training two to three times as many scientists per year as the US. The launch and orbit of Sputnik 1 suggested that the Soviet Union had made a substantial leap in technology, which was interpreted as a serious threat to US national security, spurring the US to boost federal investment in research and development, education, and national security. The Juno I rocket that carried
7912-511: Was led by Lamont on a borrowed ship Caldrill. In June 1966 Scripps won the prime contract as the operating institution for NSF's Deep Sea Drilling Project. Construction of new dedicated scientific drill ship Glomar Challenger began in 1967, becoming operational in August 1968. The oil industry was similarly motivated to begin exploration programs of sediments in continental margins. In 1967, on Hedberg's suggestion, Gulf Oil Exploration launched
8004-756: Was little public sympathy for Project Mohole. In 1963, the Congressional Bureau of the Budget wrote to the director of the National Science Foundation Alan Waterman . Highlighting the increasing, uncertain costs, the technical uncertainties, and the "unique administrative problems," the Bureau urged NSF to withhold further financial commitments. In the Fall of 1963 NSF's Senate appropriations committee began hearings on
8096-522: Was often viewed as a joke, however, and it would later prove troublesome to the project's success. The initial proposal to NSF was rejected because of the informal nature of the originating organization, and it had to be resubmitted as a proposal from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); several members of AMSOC were also members of NAS. The proposal resulted in a $ 15,000 grant in June 1958 for
8188-497: Was providing almost 10% of the federal funds for academic research. Further expansion was made in the funding and research of space weapons and missile defense in the form of anti-ballistic missile proposals. Education programs were initiated to foster a new generation of engineers and support was dramatically increased for scientific research. Congress increased the National Science Foundation (NSF) appropriation for 1959 to $ 134 million, almost $ 100 million higher than
8280-485: Was retained as an advisor to NSF. During late 1961 and early 1962, NSF sought bids from universities and private industry for a prime contractor for Mohole. Hollis Hedberg , a geologist from Gulf Oil Corporation and professor of geology at Princeton University , chaired the AMSOC Mohole committee from December 1961 to November 1963. Hedberg had significant experience in drilling in the oil fields of Venezuela in
8372-427: Was whether Mohole should begin at a modest, conservative pace with a program of drilling shallow bore holes in sediments, or whether it should proceed at once to drill the deep hole to the Moho. The issue was critical since the two approaches required differing engineering, management, and allocation of resources. There was significant interest in a program of shallower holes from those in the oceanographic community and
8464-406: Was widely reported in other media. Five days after the launch of Sputnik 1 , the world's first artificial satellite, US President Dwight Eisenhower addressed the American people. After being asked by a reporter on security concerns about the Soviet satellite, Eisenhower said, "Now, so far as the satellite itself is concerned, that does not raise my apprehensions, not one iota." Eisenhower made
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