The deepest hole by far is one on the Kola Peninsula in Russia near Murmansk, referred to as the “Kola well .” It was drilled for research purposes beginning in 1970. After five years, the Kola well had reached 7km (about 23,000ft).
What was found in the Kola Superdeep borehole?
Microscopic plankton fossils were found 6 kilometers (4 mi) below the surface. Another unexpected discovery was a large quantity of hydrogen gas. The drilling mud that flowed out of the hole was described as “boiling” with hydrogen.
How deep can we drill into the earth?
Deepest drillings
The Kola Superdeep Borehole on the Kola peninsula of Russia reached 12,262 metres (40,230 ft) and is the deepest penetration of the Earth’s solid surface. The German Continental Deep Drilling Program at 9.1 kilometres (5.7 mi) has shown the earth crust to be mostly porous.
Why can’t we drill to the center of the Earth?
It’s the thinnest of three main layers, yet humans have never drilled all the way through it . Then, the mantle makes up a whopping 84% of the planet’s volume. At the inner core, you’d have to drill through solid iron. This would be especially difficult because there’s near-zero gravity at the core.
Is Kola borehole deeper than Mariana Trench?
The hole itself is 7.5 miles deep (12 km), but interestingly, it is only 9 inches wide in diameter. The Kola Superdeep Borehole is deeper than the Mariana Trench , the deepest point in the ocean.
How far down have we dug?
Known as the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole ever dug reaches approximately 7.5 miles below the Earth’s surface (or 12,262 meters), a depth that took about 20 years to reach.
Why did they dig the Kola Superdeep Borehole?
During the 1970s, the Soviets gave it their best shot with the Kola Superdeep Borehole project on the Kola Peninsula. The project quietly took off during the Space Race between the Soviets and the Americans. The main goal was to find ... well, whatever they could. They managed to dig to a depth of 12 262 metres.
Is it possible to drill a hole through the earth?
First, let us state the obvious: You can’t drill a hole through the center of the Earth . ... To date, the deepest hole is the Kola Superdeep Borehole. Drilling started in the 1970s and finished some 20 years later when the team reached 40,230 feet (12,262 meters). That is about 7.5 miles, or just over 12 km.
Can you drill to center of Earth?
Humans have drilled over 12 kilometers (7.67 miles) in the Sakhalin-I. In terms of depth below the surface, the Kola Superdeep Borehole SG- 3 retains the world record at 12,262 metres (40,230 ft) in 1989 and still is the deepest artificial point on Earth.
How many miles is the earth deep?
The distance to the center of the Earth is 6,371 kilometers ( 3,958 mi ), the crust is 35 kilometers (21 mi) thick, the mantle is 2855km (1774 mi) thick — and get this: the deepest we have ever drilled is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, which is just 12km deep.
Where would I end up if I dug through the world?
Greenland to Antarctica might be your best bet, but you could also make a trip from Argentina to China or Spain to New Zealand. This is all because Earth is a sphere, of course, meaning that if you dig straight down in the northern hemisphere you’ll end up just as far from the equator in the southern hemisphere.
What would happen if we drilled to the earth’s core?
Your ‘down’ trip would have gravity increasing your speed every second as you are pulled towards the core, propelling your way through Earth until you reached the center. Once there, gravity would begin acting as a buffer against you, making your ‘up’ trip increasingly slower.
How far down is the Earth’s core?
Earth’s core is the very hot, very dense center of our planet. The ball-shaped core lies beneath the cool, brittle crust and the mostly-solid mantle. The core is found about 2,900 kilometers (1,802 miles) below Earth’s surface , and has a radius of about 3,485 kilometers (2,165 miles).
Which part of the Earth’s interior is the largest?
The largest region of Earth’s interior is the mantle , a layer of semi-molten rock that extends 2,891 km (1,796 mi) from the underside of the crust to the liquid outer core. The mantle makes up around 84% of the total volume of the planet.
What happens if you dig deep into the Earth?
To make things more difficult, as they drill deeper into the Earth, they’ll encounter extreme temperatures , possibly in excess of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (538 degrees Celsius), and fantastic amounts of pressure — as much as 4 million pounds per square foot in the vicinity of the mantle.
