We Americans have been galvanized by the oil spill on our gulf coast, because we see tar balls and Dead Sea birds as visceral reminders of our hubris in deepseadrilling.
By 2011 scientists aboard a Japanese deep-seadrilling ship called Chikyu hope to start drilling through a thin piece of oceanic crust to reach Earth's mantle.
The oil is considered "technically recoverable" using existing technology, but the USGS did not consider the cost of overcoming obstacles to drilling, such as permanent sea ice or deep waters.