Have been thinking about MOHO drilling and the Glomar Explorer...

back in the 50s and 60s. Finally decided to google Moho drilling+glomar explorer and hit a bonanza. This was the early history of deep drilling. Getting core samples from below the Mohorovicic(vicic=veechee)Discontinuity or Moho for short...the earth's mantle.

This posting is from DU in 2005:**the link to our archives isn't working...the google page shows this as number two on the page....sorry. Title is: Project Mohole: Drilling Through The Earth's Crust.

http://www.democrats.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3581390

Note who was supposed to get the contract at the bottom of paragraph one.

The Glomar Explorer was designed by Howard Hughes for very deep drilling and some other errands for the CIA...like recovering a sunken Russian sub.

I saw this very distinctive vessel at the dock in San Pedro many years ago.

This old DU thread will let you see the early history of very deep drilling. Lots of other material using that google keyword shown above.

but I remember the Mohole. It ran out of money--twice--but provided the pure science behind deep water drilling. While it provided valuable core samples, it never did quite get to the Mohorovocic discontinuity, so they're still not 100% sure what that exactly consists of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mohole

google Moho drilling+Glomar Explorer. The old DU thread is #2 on the 1st page to come up. People set up to get the contract were: KBR/Halliburton.