Drilling very deep holes to conduct a seismological survey of mantle magma is not possible given that the deepest hole ever drilled was the Kola Superdeep Borehole, drilled by the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s. Its final depth was 12 262 metres - one-third of the way through the Baltic continental crust. Drilling was terminated short of the 15 000 metre target due to the rock temperature being 180 degrees Celsius.

Using electric potential variations within magma to study magma within the mantle would not be possible because the technique requires an antenna to be place in a drilled hole.