NEWS UPDATE: Drilling into 3.5 Billion Year Old rocks Completed!
20.07.2008 This summer scientists from the CGB (Center for Geobiology) at the University of Bergen and AEON (Africa Earth Observatory Network) at the University of Cape Town successfully completed drilling of ~800m of Archean rocks, from the Barberton Mountain land in South Africa.
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A dedicated team from Drillers in Training cc. (DiT) enabled us to collect some of the earliest and best preserved rocks in Africa. The drill cores hold clues to the nature of microbial life and environments on the ancient earth.
On site the core was carefully labeled and packed like a giant jigsaw puzzle to be transported back to the lab. The nearly continuous recovery of rock during the drilling process and its pristine un-weathered condition will allow us to reconstruct a detailed history of the evolution of life and environments on the earliest earth.
Photo: Drilling in progress with 100% core recovery, a complete 3 meter section of basalt core being packed into the rows in a core box in the foreground with the drill rig in action in the background. Photo credit Eugene Grosch
