At first glance , the Kola Superdeep Borehole seems unremarkable — a rusted , abscond - shut metal cap in the Russian wild . Yet , 10 ago during the Cold War , it was one of the most impressive homo - made structures on Earth , serving as a geologic portal into the planet ’s incrustation .
Known as theKola Superdeep Borehole , the ludicrously mystifying hole was located on the Kola Peninsula in the frosty depths of northwestern Russia , not far from the Russian edge with northerly Norway .
How deep is the Kola Superdeep Borehole?
The borehole itself was actually made up of numerous holes that branch off from a central hole , the deepest of which – called SG-3 – ranaround 12,263 meters ( 40,230 feet ) deeply into Earth ’s crust . Despite these mighty deepness , however , the diam of the hole is no wide-cut than a dinner home plate .
For perspective , the gob ’s depth is the height of Mount Everest and Mount Fuji placed on top of one another . It ’s also deep than the deepest point of the ocean , theMariana Trench , which lies at a depth of 11,034 meter ( 36,201 foot ) below sea level .
What is the Kola Superdeep Borehole?
The Americans started this race to the pit of the Earth . In the former 1960s , the US launchedProject Mohole , an effort to drill through the Earth ’s crust to obtain samples of the bounds between the insolence and the mantle .
It aimed to do this by drill into the sea floor from a ship near a volcanic island in the Mexican Pacific . Unfortunately , the project was a washout and it was eventually displace after becoming wracked with scientific oppositeness , mismanagement , and money troubles .
Over inRussia , thing last more smoothly . boring began on May 24 , 1970 , and continued until 1992 , before long after the flop of the Soviet Union . It was n’t just political turmoil and cash shortfall that brought the ambitious project to an end . accord toBBC Future , boring reportedly block when temperatures at the bottom of the kettle of fish reach a red-hot 180 ° C ( or 356 ° F ) , drastically higher than their model predicted .
A bolted-shut borehole at the Kola Superdeep Borehole facility in 2012. Image credit: Rakot13/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
lamentably , the site now lies abandoned , consisting of petty more than a dilapidated building and a bolted - unopen pipe in the ground . As the web site fell into disrepair , Russiaannouncedin 2008 that it planned to destroy the borehole . Some have also speculated that the hole has been partly fill with concrete .
What was found in the Kola Superdeep Borehole?
In its efflorescence , the projection did provide a bunch of Modern scientific brainwave . First and first of all , the Kola Superdeep Borehole revealedsome invaluable insightsinto the geology of Earth , cut through some 1.4 billion yr of Earth ’s story .
Most surprisingly , the cryptic rock and roll were find to be impregnate with water supply , which was assumed impossible because the rock were seal beneath a layer of impermeable rock . They discovered 14 specie of fossilized microorganisms down there too , not to mention deposits ofgold , bull , and atomic number 28 .
Despite what you might have heard , the Kola Superdeep Borehole was n’t shut down because scientist unintentionally busted into the underworld ( yes , that was a widely spread hearsay ) . Apopular urban legendsaid that the drill broke through a layer of rock and roll and discovered a superhot cavern . To enquire , scientist purportedly get down a mike into the quarry , only to hear something that sounded like god-awful howl and rag screams .
Of of course , this account is totally unverified and likely to be meaninglessness – although it ’s easy to see why the Kola Superdeep Borehole also goes by the name " entrance to hell . "
The Kola Superdeep Borehole was a symbolisation of the scientific rivalry that heated up during the Cold War . In a period of fierce challenger , both the US and the Soviet Unionpushed boundariesto title technological and scientific mastery . The borehole was a program line of the Soviet Union ’s ambition and finding to match , if not surpass , the West ’s achievement .
The Cold War is over , but Earth ’s interior continues to be a stage for vying geopolitical power . Now , China is mistreat up , aiming to make its own groundbreaking ceremony mark beneath the surface . In November 2024 , they launchedMeng Xiang , a giant scientific enquiry ship with an unparalleled ability to exercise up to 11 kilometre ( 6.8 miles ) beneath the seafloor .
An early version of this article wasfirst publishedin May 2021 .
