Kola Superdeep Borehole: The World's Deepest Human-made Hole

 The World's Deepest Human-made Hole

It is the world's deepest artificial point.

The US and the Soviet Union engaged in a great deal of scientific, military, cultural, and technological showboating during the Cold War, ranging from the production of absurdly powerful bombs to the transportation of tortoises around the moon. Few of these impressive feats, however, are as little known as the Soviet Union's achievement in drilling the world's deepest artificial hole.

The absurdly deep hole, known as the Kola Superdeep Borehole, was situated not far from the Russian border with Norway on the Kola Peninsula in the icy depths of northwest Russia. 

The borehole itself was really made up of multiple holes branching out of a core hole, named SG-3, which is the deepest hole in Earth's crust at 12,261 meters (40,226 ft). Despite these impressive depths, the hole's diameter is barely larger than a dinner plate.

To put the hole's size into perspective, imagine Mount Everest and Mount Fuji stacked on top of one another. It is also deeper than the Mariana Trench, which is located at a depth of 11,034 meters (36,201 ft) below sea level and is the deepest point in the ocean. 

This race to the depths of the Earth was initiated by the Americans. The US began Project Mohole in the early 1960s in an effort to drill through the Earth's crust and collect samples from the mantle-crunch boundary. In the Mexican Pacific, close to a volcanic island, it planned to accomplish this by drilling into the seafloor from a ship.  Unfortunately, the project was a failure, and it was finally abandoned due to scientific opposition, poor administration, and financial difficulties.

Things went more smoothly over in Russia. Drilling started on May 24, 1970, and continued until 1992, just after the Soviet Union's demise. Not alone did financial constraints and political unrest force the ambitious project's termination. Drilling apparently came to an abrupt halt when temperatures at the bottom of the hole reportedly hit a scorching 180°C (or 356°F), much higher than their models had expected, according to BBC Future. 

Sadly, the location is now deserted, with nothing more than a crumbling structure and a ground-level pipe that is bolted shut. Russia announced in 2008 that it intended to plug the borehole. 

But during its peak, the project did provide a number of novel scientific discoveries. Above all, the Kola Superdeep Borehole, which spans around 1.4 billion years of Earth's history, provided some priceless insights into the planet's geology. Most shockingly, it was discovered that the deep rocks were saturated with water, which was unexpected given that the rocks were thought to be shut off beneath a layer of impervious rock. They also found amounts of gold, copper, and nickel down there, in addition to 14 types of petrified microbes.

This area was also the subject of a good number of fantastical rumors. According to a common urban legend, the drill encountered a super-hot tunnel after cutting through a layer of rock. 

When scientists lowered a microphone into the pit to investigate, they were met with the agonizing moans and howling of the condemned. Of course, this is all unproven bullshit. However, it is understandable why the Kola Superdeep Borehole is also referred to as "entrance to hell".