The borehole has now been welded shut and is surrounded by the ruins of the project. The actual borehole itself is pretty unassuming for something that goes twelve kilometers into the Earth's crust: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole#/media...
How stable are abandoned holes like that? I would imagine that at those temperatures and pressures, the rock would slowly flow and refill the hole after a while.
It's kind of hard to believe how our species has managed to explore furthest of planets, stars and galaxies while just drilling 7.62 miles through the crust of the very planet we exist on and "dominate" [0] -- a testament to how challenging crust drilling can be, right on par with exploring deepest parts of Earth's oceans.
I don’t find it surprising at all that we found traveling through a vacuum easier than traveling through solid granite.
Imagine how much mass that drillbit had to go through and now translate that into the density of interstellar medium. You could probably travel half way across the galaxy before your space ship went through as much matter as that drill.
> a testament to how challenging crust drilling can be,
> right on par with exploring deepest parts of Earth's oceans.
except if you read the footnotes it says that Exxon beat the world's record for length of borehole in 60 days. Sounds like drilling in the crust is NBD, been doing it for years, the innovation is all in how to make it turn and twist and do so on time and under budget.
My sense is that it's just not economically rational to drill a hole straight down for no other reason than you want to see how far it can go. Why bother? But it doesn't seem at all to be a technical problem.
This article lead me down the rabbit hole to the page for Mud (drilling fluid) engineer, which might be one of the most vandalized articles I've ever seen (# vandalizing edits/total edits)
glad I'm not the only one who went down that hole (pun very much intended) and started watching videos about the Reelwell Drilling Method and horizontal displacement techniques.
Really interesting experiment. Since the temperature was greater than expected would that have any bearing on being able to use bore holes for geothermal power?
I believe they are trialling this in a few places but I can't help but think that a hole that small (circumference wise!) could be easily implemented and potentially used as an energy source
Continental crust is between 20 miles deep and 50 miles deep, this borehole 'only' managed to get to 7.4 miles deep - we've still go a long way to go before we get to The Lost World of the Dinosaurs.
I would like to understand why drilling stopped at the depth it did. Was it something to do with the material at that depth, something to do with the drill, some other factor?
>Because of higher-than-expected temperatures at this depth and location, 180 °C (356 °F) instead of the expected 100 °C (212 °F), drilling deeper was deemed unfeasible and the drilling was stopped in 1992. [0]
>I would like to understand why drilling stopped at the depth it did. Was it something to do with the material at that depth, something to do with the drill, some other factor?
At that depth, pressure and temperature, the rock behaved like plastic and not solid and the drill was ineffective since the hole would immediately close as they pulled the drill. So they had to give up.
> Did they make any special geological discoveries?
[From the Wikipedia article:] To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well is that no transition from granite to basalt was found at the depth of about 7 km (4.3 mi), where the velocity of seismic waves has a discontinuity. Instead the change in the seismic wave velocity is caused by a metamorphic transition in the granite rock. In addition, the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water, which was surprising. This water, unlike surface water, must have come from deep-crust minerals and had been unable to reach the surface because of a layer of impermeable rock.
Another unexpected discovery was a large quantity of hydrogen gas. The mud that flowed out of the hole was described as "boiling" with hydrogen.
> Did they find any precious metals, etc.?
These concentrate in veins, so the single borehole would not be the best way to find out. They were probably recorded in mud logs somewhere.
> is it possible to measure the depth of the hole using a laser
Holes like this are very rarely totally straight as the geology likes to manipulate the drill string as it descends. Whilst this won't be a true deviated well (due to the research goals) I'd be very surprised if there's a vertical hole.
Looks like the drill tower used to be there, maybe they just wholesale lifted the proprietary drilling rig out of there. I'm sure they had to invent a thing or two about drilling to do this research.
You fear to go into those mines. The Dwarves dug too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm... shadow and flame.".
There's a well known urban legend about the borehole that they stopped drilling when a scientist lowered a microphone into the hole. When they played back the recording they heard terrible screams, supposedly from people trapped in hell. Nice campfire story!
[+] [-] saagarjha|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avian|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] knbknb|7 years ago|reply
This visualises a generalised lithological log: That means, some of the rocks recovered from the hole, and their thicknesses.
https://data.icdp-online.org/sites/kola/tpl/litholog_sel.htm
Let's seee if I manage to make the script more interactive.
[+] [-] ofrzeta|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Vekz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abhiminator|7 years ago|reply
It's kind of hard to believe how our species has managed to explore furthest of planets, stars and galaxies while just drilling 7.62 miles through the crust of the very planet we exist on and "dominate" [0] -- a testament to how challenging crust drilling can be, right on par with exploring deepest parts of Earth's oceans.
[0] https://www.fs.blog/2016/01/yuval-noah-hararri-on-why-we-dom...
[+] [-] avian|7 years ago|reply
Imagine how much mass that drillbit had to go through and now translate that into the density of interstellar medium. You could probably travel half way across the galaxy before your space ship went through as much matter as that drill.
[+] [-] mark212|7 years ago|reply
except if you read the footnotes it says that Exxon beat the world's record for length of borehole in 60 days. Sounds like drilling in the crust is NBD, been doing it for years, the innovation is all in how to make it turn and twist and do so on time and under budget.
My sense is that it's just not economically rational to drill a hole straight down for no other reason than you want to see how far it can go. Why bother? But it doesn't seem at all to be a technical problem.
[+] [-] asah|7 years ago|reply
What did/does such a project cost?
Is there substantial scientific value to going further?
I can imagine some tech billionaire(s) funding a follow-on project, esp in a more hospitable location that could attract tourists, press, etc.
[+] [-] wruza|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brian-armstrong|7 years ago|reply
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:History/Mud_engineer
[+] [-] mark212|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nellaby|7 years ago|reply
I believe they are trialling this in a few places but I can't help but think that a hole that small (circumference wise!) could be easily implemented and potentially used as an energy source
[+] [-] ianai|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wallace_f|7 years ago|reply
Potentially, some extra energy to go with your geothermal energy.
[+] [-] Jaruzel|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] okket|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] YeGoblynQueenne|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abhiminator|7 years ago|reply
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole#Drilli...
[+] [-] Jerry2|7 years ago|reply
At that depth, pressure and temperature, the rock behaved like plastic and not solid and the drill was ineffective since the hole would immediately close as they pulled the drill. So they had to give up.
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] awinder|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amelius|7 years ago|reply
Did they find any precious metals, etc.?
Also, I'm wondering, is it possible to measure the depth of the hole using a laser?
[+] [-] bcraven|7 years ago|reply
[From the Wikipedia article:] To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well is that no transition from granite to basalt was found at the depth of about 7 km (4.3 mi), where the velocity of seismic waves has a discontinuity. Instead the change in the seismic wave velocity is caused by a metamorphic transition in the granite rock. In addition, the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water, which was surprising. This water, unlike surface water, must have come from deep-crust minerals and had been unable to reach the surface because of a layer of impermeable rock.
Another unexpected discovery was a large quantity of hydrogen gas. The mud that flowed out of the hole was described as "boiling" with hydrogen.
> Did they find any precious metals, etc.?
These concentrate in veins, so the single borehole would not be the best way to find out. They were probably recorded in mud logs somewhere.
> is it possible to measure the depth of the hole using a laser
Holes like this are very rarely totally straight as the geology likes to manipulate the drill string as it descends. Whilst this won't be a true deviated well (due to the research goals) I'd be very surprised if there's a vertical hole.
[+] [-] lawlessone|7 years ago|reply
Would be surprised if it's perfectly straight. Drills for oil etc can turn .
[+] [-] Pandavonium|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Something1234|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitL|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Already__Taken|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] walrus01|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m0skit0|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m0skit0|7 years ago|reply
- Andre Geim, Physics, 2010
- Konstantin Novoselov, Physics, 2010
- Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Physics, 2003
- Vitaly Ginzburg, Physics, 2003
- Zhores Alferov, Physics, 2000
- Pyotr Kapitsa, Physics, 1978
- Ilya Prigogine, Chemistry, 1977
- Leonid Kantorovich, Economics, 1975
- Nikolay Basov, Physics, 1964
- Alexander Prokhorov, Physics, 1964
- Lev Landau, Physics, 1962
- Pavel Cherenkov, Physics, 1958
- Igor Tamm, Physics, 1958
- Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, Physics, 1958
- Nikolay Semyonov, Chemistry, 1956
List of Nobel Prizes educated in post-Soviet Russia:
[+] [-] dirktheman|7 years ago|reply
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_to_Hell_hoax
[+] [-] toomanybeersies|7 years ago|reply