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The deepest hole in the earth. The deepest well on earth - hear the heartbeat of the Earth

The Kola superdeep well is the deepest borehole in the world (from 1979 to 2008). It is located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny, on the territory of the geological Baltic shield. Its depth is 12,262 meters. Unlike other ultra-deep wells that were made for oil production or geological exploration, SG-3 was drilled solely to study the lithosphere in the area where the Mohorovicic boundary is. (abbreviated Moho boundary) is the lower boundary of the earth’s crust, at which there is an abrupt increase in the velocities of longitudinal seismic waves.

The Kola superdeep well was laid in honor of the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth, in 1970. Sedimentary rock strata by that time had been well studied during oil production. It was more interesting to drill where volcanic rocks about 3 billion years old (for comparison: the age of the Earth is estimated at 4.5 billion years) come to the surface. To extract minerals, such rocks are rarely drilled deeper than 1-2 km. It was assumed that already at a depth of 5 km the granite layer would be replaced by a basalt one. On June 6, 1979, the well broke the record of 9583 meters, previously held by the Bertha-Rogers well (an oil well in Oklahoma). In the best years, 16 research laboratories worked at the Kola superdeep well, they were personally supervised by the Minister of Geology of the USSR.

Although it was expected that a clear boundary between granites and basalts would be discovered, only granites were found in the core throughout the entire depth. However, due to the high pressure, the compressed granites greatly changed their physical and acoustic properties. As a rule, the lifted core crumbled from active gas release into slurry, since it could not withstand a sharp change in pressure. It was possible to remove a strong piece of core only with a very slow lifting of the drill, when the “excess” gas, still pressed to high pressure, managed to escape from the rock. The density of cracks at great depths, contrary to expectations, increased. There was also water at depth that filled the cracks.

It is interesting that when the International Geological Congress was held in Moscow in 1984, at which the first results of research on the well were presented, many scientists jokingly proposed to immediately bury it, since it destroys all ideas about the structure of the earth’s crust. Indeed, strange things began even in the first stages of penetration. For example, theorists, even before the start of drilling, promised that the temperature of the Baltic shield would remain relatively low to a depth of at least 5 kilometers, the ambient temperature exceeded 70 degrees Celsius, at seven - over 120 degrees, and at a depth of 12 it was hot stronger than 220 degrees - 100 degrees higher than predicted. Kola drillers questioned the theory of the layered structure of the earth's crust - at least in the interval up to 12,262 meters.

“We have the deepest hole in the world - so we must use it!” - David Guberman, the permanent director of the Kola Superdeep Research and Production Center, exclaims bitterly. In the first 30 years of the Kola Superdeep, Soviet and then Russian scientists broke through to a depth of 12,262 meters. But since 1995, drilling has been stopped: there was no one to finance the project. What is allocated within the framework of UNESCO's scientific programs is only enough to maintain the drilling station in working condition and study previously extracted rock samples.

Huberman recalls with regret how many scientific discoveries took place at the Kola Superdeep. Literally every meter was a revelation. The well showed that almost all of our previous knowledge about the structure of the earth's crust is incorrect. It turned out that the Earth is not at all like a layer cake.

Another surprise: life on planet Earth turns out to have arisen 1.5 billion years earlier than expected. At depths where it was believed that there was no organic matter, 14 species of fossilized microorganisms were discovered - the age of the deep layers exceeded 2.8 billion years. At even greater depths, where there are no longer sediments, methane appeared in huge concentrations. This completely and completely destroyed the theory of the biological origin of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas. There were almost fantastic sensations. When, in the late 70s, the Soviet automatic space station brought 124 grams of lunar soil to Earth, researchers at the Kola Science Center found that it was like two peas in a pod to samples from a depth of 3 kilometers. And a hypothesis arose: the Moon broke away from the Kola Peninsula. Now they are looking for where exactly. By the way, the Americans, who brought half a ton of soil from the Moon, did nothing meaningful with it. They were placed in airtight containers and left for research by future generations.

Quite unexpectedly for everyone, Alexei Tolstoy’s predictions from the novel “Engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid” were confirmed. At a depth of over 9.5 kilometers, a real treasure trove of all kinds of minerals, in particular gold, was discovered. A real olivine layer, brilliantly predicted by the writer. It contains 78 grams of gold per ton. By the way, industrial production is possible at a concentration of 34 grams per ton. But, what is most surprising, at even greater depths, where there are no longer sedimentary rocks, natural methane gas was found in huge concentrations. This completely and completely destroyed the theory of the biological origin of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas

Not only scientific sensations, but also mysterious legends were also associated with the Kola well, most of which turned out to be fictions of journalists when verified. According to one of them, the primary source of information (1989) was the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which, in turn, took the story from a report by a Finnish newspaper. Allegedly, when drilling a well, at a depth of 12 thousand meters, the scientists' microphones recorded screams and moans.) Journalists, without even thinking that it was simply impossible to insert a microphone to such a depth (what kind of sound recording device can work at temperatures above two hundred degrees?) wrote that the drillers heard a “voice from the underworld.”

After these publications, the Kola superdeep well began to be called “the road to hell,” claiming that every new kilometer drilled brought misfortune to the country. They said that when the drillers were drilling the thirteenth thousand meters, the USSR collapsed. Well, when the well was drilled to a depth of 14.5 km (which actually did not happen), they suddenly came across unusual voids. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, the drillers sent down a microphone capable of operating at extremely high temperatures and other sensors. The temperature inside allegedly reached 1,100 °C - there was the heat of fiery chambers, in which human screams could allegedly be heard.

This legend still roams the vast expanses of the Internet, having outlived the very culprit of these gossips - the Kola well. Work on it was stopped back in 1992 due to lack of funding. Until 2008, it was in a mothballed state. A year later, the final decision was made to abandon the continuation of research and to dismantle the entire research complex and “bury” the well. The final abandonment of the well occurred in the summer of 2011.
So, as you can see, this time scientists were not able to get to the mantle and examine it. However, this does not mean that the Kola well did not give anything to science - on the contrary, it turned all their ideas about the structure of the earth’s crust upside down.

RESULTS

The objectives set in the ultra-deep drilling project have been completed. Special equipment and technology for ultra-deep drilling, as well as for studying wells drilled to great depths, have been developed and created. We received information, one might say, “first-hand” about the physical state, properties and composition of rocks in their natural occurrence and from core to a depth of 12,262 m. The well gave an excellent gift to the homeland at shallow depths - in the range of 1.6-1. 8 kilometers. Industrial copper-nickel ores were opened there - a new ore horizon was discovered. And it comes in handy, because the local nickel plant is already running short of ore.

As noted above, the geological forecast of the well section did not come true. The picture that was expected during the first 5 km in the well extended for 7 km, and then completely unexpected rocks appeared. The basalts predicted at a depth of 7 km were not found, even when they dropped to 12 km. It was expected that the boundary that gives the greatest reflection during seismic sounding is the level where the granites transform into a more durable basalt layer. In reality, it turned out that less strong and less dense fractured rocks are located there - Archean gneisses. This was never expected. And this is fundamentally new geological and geophysical information, which allows us to interpret the data of deep geophysical research differently.

The data on the process of ore formation in the deep layers of the earth’s crust also turned out to be unexpected and fundamentally new. Thus, at depths of 9-12 km, highly porous fractured rocks were encountered, saturated with highly mineralized underground waters. These waters are one of the sources of ore formation. Previously, it was believed that this was possible only at much shallower depths. It was in this interval that an increased gold content was found in the core - up to 1 g per 1 ton of rock (a concentration considered suitable for industrial development). But will it ever be profitable to mine gold from such depths?

Ideas about the thermal regime of the earth's interior and the deep distribution of temperatures in areas of basalt shields have also changed. At a depth of more than 6 km, a temperature gradient of 20°C per 1 km was obtained instead of the expected (as in the upper part) 16°C per 1 km. It was revealed that half of the heat flow is of radiogenic origin.

The depths of the earth contain as many mysteries as the vast expanses of the Universe. This is exactly what some scientists think, and they are partly right, because people still don’t know exactly what is under our feet, deep underground. Over the entire existence of earthly civilization, we have been able to go deeper into the planet a little more than 10 kilometers. This record was set back in 1990 and lasted until 2008, after which it was updated several times. In 2008, Maersk Oil BD-04A, a 12,290 meter long inclined oil well, was drilled (Al Shaheen oil basin in Qatar). In January 2011, an inclined oil well with a depth of 12,345 meters was drilled at the Odoptu-Sea field (Sakhalin-1 project). The record for drilling depth currently belongs to the Z-42 well of the Chayvinskoye field, the depth of which is 12,700 meters.

Name Mohole compound. “Hole” means a well or simply a hole, and the first syllable “Mo” is taken from the surname of the outstanding Croatian geophysicist Andrej Mohorovicic. Thanks to him, the concept of Mohorovicic surface came into scientific use. This is the name of the mysterious underground region, presumably the lower boundary of the earth’s crust, on which there is an abrupt increase in the speeds of longitudinal seismic waves from 6.7-7.6 to 7.9-8.2 km/s and transverse ones from 3.6-4. 2 to 4.4-4.7 km/s. The density of the substance also increases abruptly, presumably from 2.9-3 to 3.1-3.5 t/m³. The goal of the Mohol project was precisely to reach this surface and for the first time get a visual, and not just a speculative, idea of it.

Drilling platform CUSS I, Project Mohole

It was believed that this would be easier to achieve by starting drilling on the ocean floor, where the crust is much thinner. A location was chosen near Guadalupe Island with an ocean depth of about 3.5 km. However, it was possible to drill only 5 test wells with a depth of up to 180 meters into the bottom. After this, the project, alas, had to be closed due to cost overruns.

In 1973-1974 The Bertha Rogers well was drilled in Oklahoma. Its purpose was more prosaic - oil production, but the project also had a research load. Bertha Rogers reached a depth of 9583 m and for the time being it remained the deepest well in the world.

Meanwhile, the USSR launched a project to create about 30 ultra-deep (more than 5 km) wells in various regions of the country. Mostly they were oil producers, but not all. In 1974, the deepest of them had a depth of 7263. This was the Kola superdeep well, which occupied a special place in the Soviet deep drilling program. It was not intended for oil production, but exclusively for scientific research.

The Kola superdeep mine was laid in 1970 in the northeastern part of the Baltic shield, in a place where the oldest igneous rocks come to the surface, little studied during mining, which is often carried out in sedimentary strata. In addition, the Mohorovicic border runs shallow here (relatively speaking, of course).

We aimed for 15 km. The tasks assigned to the project participants included confirming or disproving a number of theories in practice, identifying the features of ore formation processes, determining the nature of the boundaries separating layers in the continental crust, and collecting data on the material composition and physical state of rocks.

Drilling began on May 24. The inlet diameter was 92 cm. At first, the work was carried out with a serial installation, which is usually used in oil and gas production. Then it was replaced by equipment specially developed by Uralmash from light but durable alloys. Otherwise, when rising from the depths, it would not have withstood its own weight.

The drill methodically pierced ancient granites, whose age exceeded 3 billion years. There was no shortage of surprises. The permanent director of the well, David Mironovich Guberman, said in an interview with Murmansky Vestnik in 2011:

We drilled and did not know what awaited us. At a depth of 1700 meters, deposits rich in nickel were found. Here are the job prospects for our plants! We dug further. And at three kilometers we reached the Moon! Pure Moon! - says David Mironovich and laughs: - We already had lunar soil then. We compared it with the one we lifted from three kilometers, in all physical and mechanical properties - one to one. My comrades and I joked then that the Moon had broken away from the Kola Peninsula! All that remains is to find the place where it came from...

Later, miracles began to occur, refuting many generally accepted theories. It was believed that at a depth of five kilometers granite would be replaced by basalts. At this depth, as at the Mohorovicic boundary, the instruments recorded a sharp increase in the speed of seismic waves. This phenomenon, known as the Conrad surface, was explained by the fact that here the upper granite layer of the earth's crust is replaced by a lower basalt layer. However, drilling did not confirm this. The 5 km mark was left behind, and the installation was still extracting granite cores (cylindrical rock columns intended for scientific analysis) to the surface. True, this granite was more and more unusual, compressed under high pressure, changing its physical and acoustic properties. But truly significant metamorphoses began only at the eighth kilometer, and not at all what geologists predicted. Now drilling went not through granites, but also not through basalts, but through gneisses - layered rock with a very low density for such a depth. The wellbore began to crumble, and then the drill string became jammed with rock, and the head broke off when trying to lift it. This did not discourage the researchers. The lost part of the drill string was cemented, and drilling continued with the deviation of the drilling tool.

publishing house "Nedra", 1984

Vladimir Basovich, deputy director for scientific work of the Kola superdeep well, recalls:

We had our own design bureau, we had our own programmers, we had our own workshop, we had our own forge, thermal incinerator, whatever you want. Today a need arose, an idea - tomorrow it turned into drawings. Two days later we made it ourselves. Four days later we launched it into unknown depths, into unprecedentedly critical operating conditions.

Photo: “Kola Superdeep” Ministry of Geology of the USSR,
publishing house "Nedra", 1984

The surprise from what he saw grew and grew. The rock turned out to be porous and fissured, and the voids were filled with water, which was not expected to be found in such quantities at such a depth. Along the way, we measured the temperature throughout the entire wellbore, natural radioactivity - gamma radiation, induced radioactivity after pulsed neutron irradiation, electrical and magnetic properties of rocks, the speed of propagation of elastic waves, and studied the composition of gases in the well fluid. There were surprises here too. The temperature rose much faster than predicted, and the radioactivity did not want to behave as expected.

On June 6, 1979, Soviet drillers broke Bertha Rogers' record and moved on. By 1984, the depth of the well exceeded 12 km. At the thirteenth kilometer, accidents began to follow one after another. After all, a damn dozen. At this stage, a funny urban legend arose, later replicated in all seriousness first by the Western and then by the post-Soviet press: Soviet drillers broke through the roof of hell, and recording equipment lowered into the well recorded the screams of sinners suffering there. Allegedly, this was the reason for stopping work and closing the well. But drilling had to be stopped for a completely materialistic reason: technical difficulties exceeded all conceivable limits. Lifting rocks and a drill head from such a depth is in itself incredibly difficult. Add to this high temperatures and pressure. And the inevitable differences in these indicators when rising to the surface. Actually, long before reaching the “devil’s dozen”, drilling turned into a desperately extreme activity. 50 km of pipes were used to drill the last 5 km of the well. Such was the degree of their wear.

In September 1984, the drill string broke off once again, and so unsuccessfully that the five kilometers of pipes that came off became stuck in the well, firmly blocking it. Drilling began almost anew from a depth of 7,000 m - and by 1990, a new branch reached a depth of 12,262 m, but then the column broke off again. This time, resumption of work was considered impossible. It’s a pity, but the Kola Superdeep has become a unique scientific and technical achievement, not only to surpass, but even to repeat, which no one has been able to replicate so far. But almost half a century has passed since the start! Today, there are a couple of oil production wells that are longer than the Kola, but they run at an angle to the surface and do not penetrate nearly as deeply into the bowels of the earth.

The drilling was completed, but this should not have meant the end of the scientific project. The unique twelve-kilometer core, divided into separate columns and numbered, was laid out in nine hundred boxes. They are stored in Yaroslavl. A thorough study of this invaluable material continues, and most likely will continue for a long time. The situation is worse with the well itself. Even during the work, it served as a deep observatory, where instruments were installed at different levels that recorded the characteristics of the propagation of seismic waves and a bunch of other indicators. Moreover, all this was part of a single system of deep observatories operating in three dozen other ultra-deep wells located thousands of kilometers from each other. The information collected in this way made it possible to make significant progress in a difficult matter. earthquake predictions. The observatories also recorded the characteristics of the propagation of waves from underground nuclear explosions over enormous distances and depths. Among other things, this made it possible to draw up deep maps of possible mineral deposits, which were then transferred to practicing geologists.

We got very interesting sections. From these sections we could seriously judge the structure of the earth's crust. Even up to one hundred and fifty kilometers. This opened up new opportunities for global exploration of the territory of the Soviet Union, - testifies the former Minister of Geology of the USSR Evgeny Kozlovsky.

The Kola Superdeep Observatory could still serve as a unique deep observatory. It could, but it doesn't work. They stopped funding it, closed it, and the ground complex with unique equipment was cut up for scrap metal. In an interview with Murmansky Vestnik, which turned out to be the last, David Mironovich Guberman said:

Eh, in order to maintain it and not destroy it, pennies were needed - three million, not dollars, our “wooden” rubles. They didn't give it, they saved it! And they got what they wanted... Everyone says that it’s expensive. Knowledge is expensive. Absolutely right. Why doesn’t anyone say how much ignorance costs?! Much more. Look what happened in Japan when accidents happened at nuclear power plants... I don’t understand! We didn't cost a penny! Drilling was cheap, all the equipment was domestic, not a single imported nail. No, they mothballed it, closed it, fired people! You see, all this is nonsense, that there is no money for science! Nonsense, we didn't ask for much. But what a return... And now you can install scientific equipment there, lower sensors to depth and take measurements. Invaluable information. According to the forecast of the same earthquakes...

Nowadays there is an ironic interpretation of the abbreviation RF - Resource Federation - circulating among the people. Those who repeat this bad joke seem to imagine that the resources of this very Federation are simply lying in an open field. Go out, pick it up with your bare hands and put it in containers. But all these notorious resources became available only thanks to the colossal work done by scientists and engineers. What power was poured into geological exploration, what intellect! And with what thoughtless extravagance it was then allowed to go down the drain! I really want to believe that the heirs have finally wised up and will not squander it; what is left is completely worthless. There is an opinion that the Kola superdeep can still be restored, at least as an institute for training specialists in offshore drilling. And maybe not only that. They say that the well bore is at least 8 km deep and is now quite “alive” and suitable for geophysical research. Restoring what was destroyed will, of course, not be cheap, but it is possible.

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The deepest wells in the world March 18th, 2015

The dream of penetrating into the depths of our planet, along with plans to send a person into space, seemed absolutely impossible for many centuries. In the 13th century, the Chinese were already digging wells up to 1,200 meters deep, and with the advent of drilling rigs in the 1930s, Europeans managed to penetrate to a depth of three kilometers, but these were only scratches on the body of the planet.

As a global project, the idea to drill into the upper shell of the Earth appeared in the 1960s. Hypotheses about the structure of the mantle were based on indirect data, such as seismic activity. And the only way to literally look into the bowels of the earth was to drill ultra-deep wells. Hundreds of wells on the surface and in the depths of the ocean have provided answers to some of the scientists' questions, but the days when they were used to test a variety of hypotheses are long gone.

Let's remember the list of the deepest wells on earth...

Siljan Ring (Sweden, 6800 m)

At the end of the 80s in Sweden, a well of the same name was drilled in the Siljan Ring crater. According to the scientists’ hypothesis, it was in that place that natural gas deposits of non-biological origin were expected to be found. The drilling result disappointed both investors and scientists. Hydrocarbons were not detected on an industrial scale.

Zistersdorf UT2A (Austria, 8553 m)

In 1977, the Zistersdorf UT1A well was drilled in the Vienna oil and gas basin, where several small oil fields were hidden. When unrecoverable gas reserves were discovered at a depth of 7,544 m, the first well suddenly collapsed, forcing OMV to drill a second. However, this time the miners did not find deep hydrocarbon resources.

Hauptbohrung (Germany, 9101 m)

The famous Kola well made an indelible impression on the European public. Many countries have begun to prepare their ultra-deep well projects, but the Hauptborung well, developed from 1990 to 1994 in Germany, is especially noteworthy. Reaching only 9 km, it has become one of the most famous ultra-deep wells thanks to the openness of drilling and scientific data.

Baden Unit (USA, 9159 m)

A well drilled by Lone Star near the city of Anadarko. Its development began in 1970 and lasted for 545 days. In total, this well required 1,700 tons of cement and 150 diamond bits. And its total cost cost the company $6 million.

Bertha Rogers (USA, 9583 m)

Another ultra-deep well created in the Anadarko oil and gas basin in Oklahoma in 1974. The entire drilling process took Lone Star workers 502 days. Work had to be stopped when miners stumbled upon a molten sulfur deposit at a depth of 9.5 kilometers.

Kola superdeep (USSR, 12,262 m)

Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as "the deepest human invasion of the earth's crust." When drilling began in May 1970 near the lake with the unpronounceable name Vilgiskoddeoaivinjärvi, it was assumed that the well would reach a depth of 15 kilometers. But due to high temperatures (up to 230°C), the work had to be curtailed. At the moment, the Kola well is mothballed.

I already told you about the history of this well -

BD-04A (Qatar, 12,289 m)

7 years ago, exploration well BD-04A was drilled in the Al-Shaheen oil field in Qatar. It is noteworthy that the Maersk drilling platform was able to reach 12 kilometers in a record 36 days!

OP-11 (Russia, 12,345 m)

January 2011 was marked by a message from Exxon Neftegas that drilling of the longest extended reach well was close to completion. OR-11, located at the Odoptu field, also set a record for the length of a horizontal wellbore - 11,475 meters. The miners were able to complete the work in just 60 days.

The total length of the OP-11 well at the Odoptu field was 12,345 meters (7.67 miles), thereby setting a new world record for drilling extended reach wells (ERR). OR-11 also ranked first in the world in terms of the horizontal distance between the bottom and the drilling point - 11,475 meters (7.13 miles). ENL completed the record-breaking well in just 60 days using ExxonMobil's high-speed drilling and integrated drilling quality control technologies, achieving the highest drilling performance in every foot of the OR-11 well.

“The Sakhalin-1 project continues to contribute to Russia's leadership in the global oil and gas industry,” said James Taylor, ENL President. — To date, 6 of the 10 longest EDS wells, including the OP-11 well, have been drilled as part of the Sakhalin-1 project using drilling technologies from ExxonMobil Corporation. The specially designed Yastreb drilling rig was used throughout the project, setting numerous industry records for hole length, drilling speed and directional drilling performance. We also set a new record while maintaining excellent safety, health and environmental performance.”

The Odoptu field, one of three fields of the Sakhalin-1 project, is located on the shelf, at a distance of 5-7 miles (8-11 km) from the north-eastern coast of Sakhalin Island. BOV technology makes it possible to successfully drill wells from the shore under the seabed to reach offshore oil and gas deposits, without violating the principles of safety and environmental protection, in one of the most difficult subarctic regions of the world to develop.

P.S. And here's what they write in the comments: tim_o_fay: let's separate the flies from the cutlets :) Long well ≠ deep. The same BD-04A, of its 12,289 m, has 10,902 m of horizontal trunk. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x150185 Accordingly, the vertical there is a kilometer or so in total. What does it mean? This means low (comparatively) pressure and temperature at the bottom, soft rocks (with a good penetration rate), etc. and so on. OP-11 from the same opera. I won’t say that drilling horizontals is easy (I’ve been doing this for eight years), but it’s still much easier than drilling super-deep ones. Bertha Rogers, SG-3 (Kola), Baden Unit and others with great true vertical depth (literal translation from English True Vertical Depth, TVD) - this is truly something transcendental. In 1985, former graduates from all over the Union came to the fiftieth anniversary of SOGRT with stories and gifts for the technical school museum. Then I was honored to touch a piece of granite gneiss from a depth of more than 11.5 km :)

You know that people have been unraveling the mysteries of the planet for centuries? They tried to find answers under their feet. TravelAsk will tell you about the largest wells in the world.

What history says

They tried to descend to the depths of the Earth many times. The Chinese were among the first. In the 13th century, they dug a well 1200 meters deep.

In 1930, Europeans broke this record: they drilled into the earth's surface to a depth of three kilometers.

Time passed, and this figure kept growing. So, at the end of the 1950s, the wells already reached 7 kilometers.

The deepest well in the world

In fact, most wells are made during mining. Today the record belongs to the well of the Chayvinskoye field Z-42. It was built in a very short time: just over 70 days. It belongs to the Sakhalin-1 project and is an oil project.

Its depth is 12,700 meters. Just imagine, the highest mountain on Earth is Everest. It goes almost 9 kilometers into the sky. And the deepest trench is the Mariana Trench. It is about 11 kilometers. That is, well Z-42 surpassed all indicators of Mother Nature.

Well in the Murmansk region

But we want to tell you in more detail about one special well. It is located in the Murmansk region, about 10 kilometers from the city of Zapolyarny. It is called the Kola superdeep well. Its depth is 12,262 meters. It is interesting because it was originally created not for mining, but for studying the lithosphere.

The diameter of the well at the surface of the earth is 92 centimeters, and the diameter of the lower part is 21.5 centimeters.

The temperature during drilling at a depth of 5 kilometers was 70 degrees, at a depth of 7 kilometers - 120 degrees, and at a depth of 12 kilometers - 220 degrees.

The Kola superdeep well was laid in 1970 on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. The main goal was to study volcanic rocks, which are rarely drilled for mining. More than 15 research laboratories operated here.

They curtailed their activities in 1990, as many accidents occurred here: drill strings often broke off.

Today the facility is abandoned, and the well itself is mothballed and begins to collapse.

Naturally, all the equipment was dismantled, and the building, which has not been used for a long time, is slowly turning into ruins.

To resume work, a considerable amount is needed - about 100 million rubles, so no one knows whether the well will ever be opened.

Research results

Scientists believed that at a certain depth they would find a clearly defined boundary between granites and basalts. But, alas, all the works did not provide a clear understanding of the nature of the earth’s mantle. And then the researchers even stated that the place to start work was not the most successful.

Road to hell

This is what the Kola well is called. Moreover, there are still many rumors about her related to the other world. So, there are stories that at a depth of 12 kilometers, scientists’ equipment recorded screams and moans coming from the bowels of the Earth.

American television even officially announced this legend: in 1989, the Trinity Broadcasting Network television company told this story to its viewers. Well, then there’s more: you could still find interesting stories in the tabloid newspapers of that time. For example, that scientists heard screams and moans, but did not stop the research. And every kilometer was imprinted with misfortune on the country. So, when the drillers reached the 13-kilometer mark, the USSR collapsed. And at a depth of 14.5 kilometers, they generally discovered voids. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, the researchers lowered a microphone capable of operating at extremely high temperatures and other sensors there. The temperature inside reached 1,100 degrees - well, a real hellfire. And they heard human screams.

In fact, acoustic methods for studying wells do not record the actual sound and not on a microphone. They record on seismic receivers the wave pattern of reflected elastic vibrations excited by the emitter device with a frequency of 10 - 20 kHz and 20 kHz - 2 MHz. Well, we already wrote about the depth: no one reached the 13-kilometer mark.

However, one of the authors of the project D.M. Huberman later said: “When people ask me about this mysterious story, I don’t know what to answer. On the one hand, stories about the “demon” are bullshit. On the other hand, as an honest scientist, I cannot say that I know what exactly happened here. Indeed, a very strange noise was recorded, then there was an explosion... A few days later, nothing similar was found at the same depth.”.