The USSR is a country that has surprised the world with many projects, grandiose both in scale and in cost. One of these projects was called Kola Superdeep Well (SG-3). Its implementation began in the Murmansk region, 10 km west of the city of Zapolyarny.

Scientists wanted to learn more about the bowels of the earth, and “wipe their nose” with American scientists who abandoned their Mohol project due to a lack of funds. To the question of what is the deepest well in the world, Soviet geologists dreamed with pride to answer: ours!

We will tell you in detail in this article about whether such an ambitious idea failed and what fate awaited the Kola well.

Why did the USSR need a “trip to the center of the earth”

Back in the 50s of the twentieth century, most of the material about the structure of the Earth was theoretical. Everything changed in the early 60s and 70s, when the United States and the Soviet Union launched a new version of the “space race” - a race to the center of the Earth, so to speak.

The Kola superdeep well was a unique project funded by the USSR, and then Russia in the period from 1970 to 1995. It was not drilled at all for the extraction of "black gold" or "blue fuel", but purely for research purposes.

• First of all, Soviet scientists were interested in whether the assumption about the structure of the lower (granite and basalt) layers of the earth's crust would be confirmed.
• They also wanted to find and explore the boundaries between these layers and the mantle - one of the “engines” that ensure the constant evolution of the planet.
• At that time, geologists and geophysicists had only indirect evidence of what was happening in the earth's crust, and an ultra-deep well was necessary for a better understanding of the processes underlying geology. And the most reliable way is direct observation.

The drilling site was chosen in the northeastern part of the Baltic Shield. There are little studied igneous rocks, the age of which is supposedly three billion years old. And also on the territory of the Kola Peninsula is the Pechenga structure, in shape resembling a bowl. There are deposits of copper and nickel. One of the tasks of scientists was to study the process of ore formation.

Even to this day, the information collected through this project is still being analyzed and interpreted.

Features of ultra-deep well drilling

The first four years, while driving to a depth of 7263 meters, a standard drilling rig called Uralmash-4E was used. But then her opportunities began to be missed.

Therefore, the researchers decided to use the powerful Uralmash-15000 installation with a 46-meter turbodrill. It rotated due to the pressure of the drilling fluid.

The Uralmash-15000 installation was designed so that samples of the extracted rock were collected in a core receiver - a pipe passing through all sections of the drill. The crushed rock fell to the surface together with the drilling fluid. So geologists received the latest information on the composition of the well, as the drilling rig went deeper and deeper.

As a result, several boreholes were drilled, which branched from one central well. The deepest branch was named SG-3.

As one of the scientists at the Kola State District Power Station said: “Every time we start drilling, we find the unexpected. It is exciting and disturbing at the same time. ”

Granite, granite everywhere

The first surprise drillers encountered was the absence of the so-called basalt layer at a depth of about 7 km. Previously, the most relevant geological information about the deeper parts of the earth's crust came from the analysis of seismic waves. And based on it, scientists expected to find a granite layer, and as it deepened, a basalt layer. But, to my great surprise, when they moved deeper into the bowels of the Earth, they found more granite there, but did not reach the basalt layer at all. All drilling went exactly in the granite layer.

This is extremely important, since it is connected with the theory of the layered structure of the Earth. And with it, in turn, are associated ideas about how minerals arise and are placed.

How Soviet scientists reached hell

The Kola superdeep well is a source of not only the most valuable knowledge, but also a terrible urban legend.

Having reached a depth of 14.5 thousand meters, the drillers allegedly discovered voids. Having lowered there equipment capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures, they found that the temperature in the voids reaches 1100 degrees Celsius. And the microphone, before melting, recorded 17-second audio, which was immediately dubbed the "sounds of hell." These were the cries of damned souls.

The first appearance of this story was recorded in 1989, and its first large-scale publication took place on the American television network Trinity Broadcasting Network. And she borrowed material from a Finnish Christian publication called Ammennusastia.

Then the story was widely reprinted in small Christian publications, newsletters, etc., but practically did not receive fame from the main media. Some evangelists have cited this incident as evidence of the existence of physical hell.

• People familiar with the principles of the acoustic means of well research just laughed at this bike. Indeed, in this case, acoustic logging probes are used, which catch the wave pattern of the reflected elastic vibrations.
• The maximum depth of the SG-3 is 12,262 meters. It is deeper than even the deepest part of the ocean - the Challenger Abyss (10,994 meters).
• The highest temperature in it did not rise above 220 C.

• And another important fact: it is unlikely that a microphone or drilling equipment could withstand the infernal heat above a thousand degrees.

In 1992, the American newspaper Weekly World News published an alternative version of the story that took place in Alaska, where 13 miners were killed after Satan escaped from hell.

If you are interested in this legend, then on Youtube you can easily find videos with relevant investigations. Just do not take them too seriously, part (if not all) of the audio with alleged cries of sufferers in the Underworld was taken from the 1972 Baron Blood film.

What scientists have found at the bottom of the Kola superdeep well

• Firstly, water was discovered at a depth of 9 km. It was believed that it simply should not exist at this depth - and yet it was there. Now we understand that even in granite deep in the ground, cracks can form that fill with water. Technically speaking, water is simply hydrogen and oxygen atoms displaced by tremendous pressure caused by depth and trapped in rock layers.

• Secondly, the researchers reported the extraction of dirt that was "boiling with hydrogen." Such a large amount of hydrogen at great depths was a completely unexpected phenomenon.
• Thirdly, the bottom of the Kola well turned out to be incredibly hot - 220 ° C.
• Undoubtedly, the biggest surprise was the discovery of life. At a depth of over 6,000 meters, microscopic plankton fossils have been discovered that have been there for three billion years. In total, about 24 ancient species of microorganisms were discovered that somehow survived extreme pressure and high temperatures beneath the earth's surface. This has raised many questions about the potential survival of life forms at great depths. Modern research has shown that life can exist even in the oceanic crust, but at that time the discovery of these fossils was a shock.

Despite all the efforts of drillers and decades of hard work, the Kola superdeep well traveled only 0.18% of the path to the center of the earth. Scientists believe that the distance to it is about 6400 kilometers.

Abandoned but not forgotten

Currently, SG-3 has neither personnel nor equipment. This is one of the most interesting abandoned objects of the times of the USSR. And only a rusty hatch in the earth recalls a grandiose project, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the deepest human invasion of the planet’s crust.

The project was closed in 1995 due to (you guessed it) a lack of funding. Even earlier, in 1992, drilling operations in the well were curtailed, as geologists encountered higher than expected temperatures of 220 degrees. Heat causes damage to equipment. And the higher the temperature, the harder it is to drill. It is like trying to create and hold a hole in the center of a pot of hot soup.

By 2008, the scientific and production center operating at the well was completely abolished. And all the drilling and research equipment was disposed of.

Work Summary

The gallant efforts of the participants of the Kola GRE took several decades. However, the final goal - a mark of 15 thousand meters - was never achieved. But the work done in the USSR, and then in Russia, provided a lot of information about what lies directly below the earth's surface, and it still remains scientifically useful.

• Unique equipment and ultra-deep drilling technology have been developed and successfully tested.
• Valuable information was obtained about what they consist of and what properties rocks have at different depths.
• At a depth of 1.6-1.8 km, copper-nickel deposits of industrial importance were found.
• The theoretical picture expected at around 5,000 meters has not been confirmed. No basalts were found either in this or in deeper sections of the well. But suddenly found not too strong rocks called granite gneiss.
• In the range from 9 to 12 thousand meters, gold was found. However, they did not begin to mine it from such depths — it was unprofitable.

• Changes were made to the theory of the thermal regime of the earth's interior.
• It turned out that the origin of 50% of the heat flux is associated with the decay of radioactive substances.

SG-3 has revealed many secrets to geologists. And at the same time it raised a lot of questions, which so far remain unanswered. Perhaps some of them will be given during the operation of other ultra-deep wells.

The deepest wells on Earth (table)

Watch the video: Bore hole inspection. (November 2024).