description of underground goals students will be assigned, and tests/experiments they will conduct

Typical goals that students will achieve include: 

1. Determining the minimum and maximum depth at which diamonds are found in the Earth's mantle, and any lateral variation in their abundance that might be present due to crustal age, by observation and chemical analysis,

2. Locating the source of mantle plumes that might originate at the mantle/core boundary, by measuring temperature variations,

3. Determining the depth of phase changes from low- to high-pressure polymorphs by making measurements or observations with a "crystal structure microscope."

4. Measuring the viscosity and seismic velocities of the upper mantle to locate the low velocity zone.

5. Analyzing the composition of the core to determine the amounts of trace elements and reconciling this data with density measurements.

6. Measuring isotope ratios to determine source of material


description of virtual tools/instruments they will need

Several virtual tools will be made available to the explorers. These include a thermometer, a seismic velocity meter that will be able to detect velocities of P and S waves, an unusual microscope that will provide the three-dimensional crystal structure of phases upon which it is trained, a chemical analysis tool that will provide major and trace element composition, a portable mass spectrometer that will provide isotopic composition, and other similar tools. At any (virtual) location inside the Earth, all relevant bulk physical and chemical properties for samples will be available for measurement by the student.