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Jul 22, 2016 · Lying below a small, nondescript rusty cap in Murmansk, Russia, is the deepest hole ever drilled, reaching a whopping 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) into the Earth's crust.
- Background
- Geology
- Results
- Discovery
- Significance
While the U.S. and U.S.S.R. vied for space exploration supremacy during the Space Race, a different, less-publicized race took place between the two nations greatest drillers. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Americans and Soviets began planning separate efforts to drill as deep as possible into the Earths crust, the rocky shell that comprises the...
In actuality, the Kola Superdeep Borehole consists of several holes branching from one central hole. The deepest hole is called SG-3, and though just nine inches in diameter, it extends down a staggering 7.5 miles. Thats roughly a third of the way through the Baltic continental crust. Though the discontinuity has been detected beneath all of the co...
To meet scientific objectives and provide a nearly continuous look at the crusts profile, the Soviets even developed instruments to take direct physical measurements at the bottom of the borehole. The drilling apparatus thus allowed for greater measurement integrity since rock samples would deform under their incredible internal pressure when broug...
But the most intriguing discovery made by the Kola borehole researchers is undoubtedly the detection of biological activity in rocks more than two billion years old. The clearest evidence of life came in the form of microscopic fossils encased in organic compounds that remained surprisingly intact despite the extreme pressures and temperatures of t...
A repository of the many core samples can be found in the nickel-mining town of Zapolyarny, about ten kilometers south of the hole. For its ambitious mission and its contributions to geology and biology, the Kola Superdeep Borehole remains one of the most important relics of Soviet-era science.
Since the 1970s, scientists at the Kola Borehole have been listening to the inner workings of the Earth... from 10 kilometers below its surface. E VEN IN A HORIZONTAL, flat landscape, cosmology runs vertical. From up—heaven, to down—hell. In between, the interface—that thin crust upon which life is rooted.
Sep 23, 2020 · • 11 min read. As they flew over the sweeping Siberian tundra, a Russian TV crew recently spotted an intriguing feature: a crater more than half a football field deep gouged from the frozen...
Oct 20, 2023 · The Kola Superdeep Borehole, located in Russia, is the world's deepest man-made hole, reaching a depth of 40,230 feet (12,262 meters) or 7.6 miles (12.2 kilometers), surpassing the depth of the Mariana Trench and the height of Mount Everest.
That hole, which was around 66ft (20m) wide and up to 171ft (52m) deep, was discovered by helicopter pilots passing overhead in 2014, around 26 miles (42km) from the Bovanenkovo gas field on the...
Mar 13, 2015 · Ever since last July, when a Russian YouTube user uploaded “ Giant Hole in the Ground ,” a thirty-four-second video of, well, a giant hole in the ground—about two hundred and fifty feet...
