Project Mohole (1958-1967) was a multi-institutional federally funded science program to retrieve a sample of the Earth's mantle layer by drilling through the crust layer in the deep ocean. This collection documents its committee support, technical progress, and contributions to oceanography and ocean drilling.
Mohole Project Records, 1943, 1958-1967 (SAC 11)
Extent: 11.6 Linear feet (29 archives boxes)
Project Mohole was a multi-institutional federally funded science program to retrieve a sample of the Earth's mantle layer by drilling through the crust layer in the deep ocean. The project began under the leadership of the American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC), an informal group formed at the Office of Naval Research in 1952, with Walter Munk and Roger Revelle of Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) among the members. In 1958, AMSOC received approval and funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to begin experimental ocean drilling. At this time AMSOC began functioning as an official unit of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The project was planned for three phases: experimental drilling and technical feasibility, intermediate vessel construction and site selection, and final Mohole drilling. The first phase was completed in 1961, after a drilling a shallow experimental hole offshore of Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
With the success of the first phase, AMOSC relinquished direction of the project to the NSF, who sought proposals for a primary contractor from oceanographic institutions, construction companies, and oil and gas drilling companies. In 1962 they selected Brown & Root, a construction company based out of Houston, Texas, and subsidiary of Halliburton Co., as primary contractor in charge of all aspects of the project. AMSOC officially dissolved in 1964, but members continued to unofficially advise Brown & Root under the AMSOC title and through two subsequent committees, the Long Core Committee (LOCO) and the Consortium for Oceanic Research and Exploration (CORE).
Under the direction of Brown & Root, the project progressed into phase two, but faced technical, financial, and managerial problems. Brown & Root hired numerous subcontractors to develop the technologies needed for deep sea drilling and core retrieval, at times at odds with NSF and committee recommendations. A significant point of contention revolved around the need for "intermediate" stage drilling, with Brown & Root preferring to begin drilling the Mohole as soon as possible while the scientists advised the need for more shallow trials in geologically different sites. Sites considered for drilling included areas around Hawai'i, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and the North Atlantic Ocean. In 1965 the project officially selected the area off the north shore of Maui as the Mohole site.
In 1963 the US Congress began to question the use of funds by NSF for project Mohole, and in 1966 they terminated the project. Following the termination of Mohole, many scientists and materials were transferred to the related Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) or Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES) program.
This collection documents the operations of Project Mohole from its inception in 1958 to its termination in 1967. The majority of the collection consists of progress reports to the NSF from the primary contractor Brown & Root with updates on technological developments in areas of drilling, naval architecture, logistics, geology, seismology, bathymetry, instrumentation design, site survey, and land- and sea-based experimental drill holes. A master index exists for navigating these Progress and Technical Reports.
The remaining collection consists of administrative materials discussing AMSOC's inception of the Mohole project, early planning meetings, the process of site selection, contractor selection, discussion on the nature of and need for an "intermediate" stage, the evolving duties of AMSOC, LOCO, and CORE in Mohole activities, and congressional inquiry into Mohole spending. Committee scientists also kept extensive research files on contemporary Soviet drilling projects. The collection contains two artificial files by SIO archivists on project chronologies and bibliographies, consisting of selected AMSOC memoranda, correspondence, and documents, including a 1943 proposal "Core Drilling Under the Oceans" from Thomas Jaggar to the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG).
The collection is arranged into five series: 1) COMMITTEES, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) CONTRACTORS, 4) RESEARCH FILES, 5) PRESS COVERAGE.
Provenance
In 1978, SIO Archivist Elizabeth (Betty) Shor gathered items for a collection of documents related to the Mohole Project from the offices of project members George Shor, Russell Raitt, William Benson, and others. This material was officially accessioned into the SIO Archives in 1981 and represents the participation of SIO scientists in the Mohole Project. In 1991, an additional accession of Brown & Root and subcontractor reports were added from the SIO Library. These materials were processed together and represented in one finding aid in 2024.