Just an FYI related to Karen’s excellent staff report What’s at the center of the earth?
Karen informs us that
The Chikyu, a japanese ship now in final fitting-out, is expected to drill all the way through the crust to the mantle by punching through at a thin point in the sea bed. That’s 9.5 km of drill – 2.5 km for the ocean’s depth, and 7 km of crust. It’s quite a project.
When they finally emerge, I, for one, will welcome our fiery masters from under the Earth’s crust.
Crab People!
Crab People!
Taste like crab!
Talk like people!
Crab People…
And when they’re done, the SMDB will have a successor to the Mariana Trench meme!
Once, for twenty minutes, in 2005… 
An intentional volcanic eruption; well, that’s novel. Ignoring physics, I keep picturing the earth spewing out stuff and zipping around like a toy balloon. :eek:
Eek! indeed.
Japan takes pokes at deep trenches in the earth. Somehow, it just doesn’t have the same giggle-making ring as poking trenches in something that gives you the woolies. Hope they don’t elect Mr. Briston prime minister… 
What do we hope to accomplish doing this? Surely going to a volcano and gathering the lava would serve the same purpose?
(but if there’s a hole in the crust, would it be lava or magma that comes out into the ocean? I was always taught that it’s “lava” after coming out of a volcano… but here there isn’t a volcano…)
The article says that lava from a volcano may have been significantly altered before it gets to the surface, so they want a sample straight from the source.
Fortunately, the Marianas Trench (around 11km below sea level) will still be in first place, depth-wise.
SMDB? Straight Message Dope Board? A board made just for me!
RR
I hope they’re taking Jack Handey along. A deep hole without deep thoughts is like a long empty cylinder.
No, it’s an analog to the IMDB, and S stands for “Straight”. It catalogs straight porn, I guess.