In 1970, just in time for Lenin's 100th birthday, Soviet scientists launched one of the most ambitious projects of our time. On the Kola Peninsula, ten kilometers from the village of Zapolyarny, drilling of a well began, which as a result turned out to be the deepest in the world and entered the Guinness Book of Records.
The grandiose scientific project has been going on for more than twenty years. He brought a lot interesting discoveries, entered the history of science, and in the end was overgrown with so many legends, rumors and gossip that it would be enough for more than one horror movie.
THE USSR. Kola Peninsula. October 1, 1980. Leading well drillers reaching a record depth of 10,500 meters
entrance to hell
During its heyday, the drilling rig on the Kola Peninsula was a cyclopean structure 20-story high. Up to three thousand people worked here per shift. The team was led by leading geologists of the country. The drilling rig was built in the tundra ten kilometers from the village of Zapolyarny, and in the polar night it shone with lights like a spaceship.
When all this splendor suddenly closed and the lights went out, rumors immediately spread. By all measures, the drilling was remarkably successful. No one in the world has yet managed to reach such a depth - Soviet geologists lowered the drill more than 12 kilometers.
The sudden end of a successful project looked as ridiculous as the fact that the Americans closed the program of flights to the moon. Aliens were blamed for the collapse of the lunar project. In the problems of the Kola Superdeep - devils and demons.
A popular legend says that from great depths, the drill was repeatedly taken out melted. None physical causes this was not - the temperature underground did not exceed 200 degrees Celsius, and the drill was designed for a thousand degrees. Then the audio sensors allegedly began to pick up some moans, screams and sighs. Dispatchers who monitored the instrument readings complained of feelings of panic fear and anxiety.
According to legend, it turned out that geologists had drilled to hell. The groans of sinners, extremely high temperatures, the atmosphere of horror at the drilling rig - all this explained why all work on the Kola Superdeep was suddenly curtailed.
Many were skeptical about these rumors. However, in 1995, after the work was stopped, a powerful explosion occurred at the drilling rig. Nobody understood what could explode there, even the head of the entire project, a prominent geologist David Guberman.
Today, excursions are led to an abandoned drilling rig and they tell tourists a fascinating story about how scientists drilled a hole into the underworld of the dead. As moaning ghosts roam the installation, and in the evening demons crawl out to the surface and strive to sneak into the abyss of a gaping extreme seeker.
underground moon
In fact, the whole story with the “well to hell” was invented by Finnish journalists by April 1st. Their comic article was reprinted by American newspapers, and the duck flew to the masses. Long-term drilling of the Kola superdeep proceeded without any mysticism. But what happened there in reality was more interesting than any legends.
To begin with, ultra-deep drilling by definition was doomed to numerous accidents. Under the yoke of gigantic pressure (up to 1000 atmospheres) and high temperatures, the drills could not withstand, the well was clogged, the pipes that strengthened the vent were broken. Countless times the narrow well was bent so that new branches had to be drilled.
The worst accident occurred shortly after the main triumph of geologists. In 1982, they were able to overcome the mark of 12 kilometers. These results were solemnly announced in Moscow at the International Geological Congress. Geologists from all over the world were brought to the Kola Peninsula, they were shown a drilling rig and rock samples mined at a fantastic depth that mankind had never reached before.
After the celebration, drilling continued. However, the break in work proved fatal. In 1984, the most terrible accident occurred at the drilling rig. As many as five kilometers of pipes came off and hammered the well. It was impossible to continue drilling. The results of five years of work were lost overnight.
I had to resume drilling from the 7-kilometer mark. Only in 1990, geologists again managed to cross over 12 kilometers. 12,262 meters - this is the final depth of the Kola well.
But in parallel with the terrible accidents, incredible discoveries also followed. Deep drilling is an analogue of a time machine. On the Kola Peninsula, the oldest rocks, whose age exceeds 3 billion years, come to the surface. Climbing deeper and deeper, scientists have gained a clear idea of what happened on our planet during its youth.
First of all, it turned out that the traditional scheme of the geological section, compiled by scientists, does not correspond to reality. “Up to 4 kilometers, everything went according to theory, and then the doomsday began,” Huberman later said.
According to calculations, having drilled a layer of granite, it was supposed to get to even harder, basalt rocks. But there was no basalt. After the granite came loose layered rocks, which constantly crumbled and made it difficult to move inland.
But among the rocks 2.8 billion years old, fossilized microorganisms were found. This made it possible to clarify the time of the origin of life on Earth. Huge deposits of methane have been found at even greater depths. This clarified the question of the origin of hydrocarbons - oil and gas.
And at a depth of more than 9 kilometers, scientists discovered a gold-bearing olivine layer, so vividly described by Alexei Tolstoy in the Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin.
But the most fantastic discovery occurred in the late 1970s, when the Soviet lunar station brought back samples of lunar soil. Geologists were amazed to see that its composition completely coincides with the composition of the rocks they mined at a depth of 3 kilometers. How was it possible?
The fact is that one of the hypotheses of the origin of the Moon suggests that several billion years ago, the Earth collided with some kind of celestial body. As a result of the collision, a piece broke off from our planet and turned into a satellite. It is possible that this piece came off in the area of the current Kola Peninsula.
The final
So why did they close the Kola Superdeep?
Firstly, the main tasks of the scientific expedition were completed. Unique equipment for drilling at great depths was created, tested under extreme conditions and noticeably improved. The collected rock samples were studied and described in detail. The Kola well helped to better understand the structure of the earth's crust and the history of our planet.
Secondly, time itself was not conducive to such ambitious projects. In 1992, the scientific expedition was closed funding. Employees quit and went home. But even today, the grandiose building of the drilling rig and the mysterious well impress with their scale.
Sometimes it seems that the Kola Superdeep has not yet exhausted the entire supply of its wonders. The head of the famous project was also sure of this. “We have the deepest hole in the world - this is how you should use it!” exclaimed David Huberman.
An attempt to study the geological section and thickness of volcanic rocks emerging on the surface of the earth prompted scientific centers and, like them, research organizations to identify the origin of deep faults. The fact is that structural rock samples, previously extracted from the bowels of the Earth and the Moon, were then of equal interest for study. And the choice of the point of laying the mouth fell on the existing huge bowl-like trough, the origin of which is associated with the presence of a deep fault in the area of the Kola Peninsula.
It was believed that the Earth is a kind of sandwich, consisting of a crust, mantle and core. By this time, sedimentary rocks close to the surface had been sufficiently explored in the development of oil fields. Exploration for non-ferrous metals was rarely accompanied by drilling below the 2000-meter mark.
The Kola SG (superdeep), below a depth of 5000 meters, was supposed to find a section of granite and basalt layers. This did not happen. The drilling projectile pierced hard granite rocks up to the mark of 7000 meters. Further, the sinking went through relatively soft soils, which caused the collapse of the walls of the shaft and the formation of cavities. The crumbling soil jammed the tool head so much that when lifting the pipe string broke off, leading to an accident. The Kola well was supposed to confirm or refute these long-established teachings. In addition, scientists did not dare to indicate the intervals where exactly the boundaries between these three layers pass. The Kola well was intended for exploration and study of deposits of mineral resources, determination of patterns and gradual formation of fields of occurrence of raw material reserves. The basis was, first of all, the scientific validity of the theory of physical, hydrogeological and other parameters of the Earth's depths. And reliable information about the geological structure of the subsoil could only be provided by ultra-deep sinking of the shaft.
Meanwhile, the long-term preparation for the start of drilling operations included: the possibility of an increase in temperature as it deepens, an increase in the hydrostatic pressure of the formations, the unpredictability of the behavior of rocks, their stability due to the presence of rock and reservoir pressures.
From a technical point of view, all possible difficulties and obstacles that could lead to a slowdown in the deepening process due to the loss of time for tripping the projectile, a decrease in drilling speed due to a change in the category of rocks, and an increase in energy costs for downhole thrusters.
The most difficult factor was considered to be the constant increase in the weight of the casing and drill pipe as it went deeper.
Technical developments in the field of:
- increasing the carrying capacity, power and other characteristics of drilling equipment and equipment;
- thermal stability of the rock cutting tool;
- automation of management of all stages of the drilling process;
- processing of information coming from the bottomhole zone;
- warnings about emergency situations with drill pipe or casing.
The sinking of an ultra-deep shaft was supposed to reveal the correctness or fallacy of the scientific hypothesis about the deep structure of the planet.
The purpose of this very costly construction was to study:
1.
Deep structure of the Pechenga nickel deposit and the crystalline base of the Baltic Shield of the peninsula. Deciphering the contour of the polymetal deposit in Pechenga, coupled with manifestations of ore bodies.
2.
The study of the nature and forces that cause the separation of the sheet boundaries of the continental crust. Identification of reservoir zones, motives and nature of high temperature formation. Determination of the physical and chemical composition of water, gases formed in cracks, pores of rocks.
3.
Obtaining exhaustive material on the material composition of rocks and information on the intervals between the granite and basalt "gaskets" of the crust. Comprehensive study of the physical and chemical properties of the extracted core.
4.
Development of advanced technical means and new technologies for drilling ultra-deep shafts. Possibility of application of geophysical methods of research in the zone of ore manifestations.
5.
Development and creation of the latest equipment for monitoring, testing, research, control of the drilling process.
The Kola well, for the most part, met scientific goals. The task included the study of the most ancient rocks of which the planet is composed and the knowledge of the secrets of the processes occurring in them.
Geological substantiation of drilling on the Kola Peninsula
Exploration and production of deposits useful ores always predetermined by drilling deep wells. And why on the Kola Peninsula and specifically in the Murmansk region, and definitely in Pechenga. The prerequisite for this was the fact that this region was considered a real pantry of mineral resources, with the richest reserves of a wide variety of ore raw materials (nickel, magnetites, apatites, mica, titanium, copper).
However, the geological calculation, made on the basis of a core from a well, revealed the absurdity of world scientific opinion. The seven-kilometer depth turned out to be composed of volcanic and sedimentary rocks (tuffs, sandstones, dolomites, breccias). Below this interval, as expected, there should have been rocks separating the granitic and basalt structures. But, alas, the basalts never appeared.
In geological terms, the Baltic Shield of the peninsula, with partial coverage of the territories of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Karelia, has been eroded and evolved for millions of centuries. Natural outbursts, destructive processes of volcanism, phenomena of magmatism, metamorphic modifications of rocks, sedimentation are most clearly imprinted on the geological record of Pechenga. This is that part of the Baltic folded shield, where the geological history of stratal and ore manifestations has evolved over billions of years.
Especially, the northern and eastern parts of the shield surface were exposed to centuries-old corrosion. As a result, glaciers, wind, water and other natural disasters, as if they were ripping off (scraping) the upper layers of rocks.
Serious erosion served as the basis for the choice of the well site. upper layers and exposure of ancient Archean formations of the Earth. These outcrops significantly brought closer and facilitated access to the underground storerooms of nature.
Superdeep well design
Ultra-deep structures have a mandatory telescopic design. In our case, the initial diameter of the mouth was 92 cm, and the final one was 21.5.
The design guide column or the so-called conductor with a diameter of 720 mm provided for penetration to a depth of 39 linear meters. The first technical string (stationary casing), with a diameter of 324 mm and a length of 2000 meters; removable casing 245 mm, with a footage of 8770 meters. Further drilling was planned to be carried out with an open hole to the design mark. Crystalline rocks made it possible to count on the long-term stability of the uncased part of the walls. The second removable column, marked with magnetic marks, would allow continuous core sampling along the entire length of the wellbore. Radioactive markers on the downhole pipe were tuned to record the temperature of the drilling environment.
Technical equipment of a drilling rig for drilling an ultra-deep well
Drilling from scratch was carried out by the Uralmash-4E installation, that is, serial equipment used for drilling deep oil and gas wells. Up to 2000 meters, the shaft was drilled with steel drill pipes, with a turbodrill at the end. This turbine, 46 meters long, with a chisel at the end, was set in rotation under the action of a clay solution, which was pumped into the pipe at a pressure of 40 atmospheres.
Further, the sinking was carried out from an interval of 7264 meters by the domestic installation "Uralmash-15000", from an innovative point of view, a more powerful structure, with a carrying capacity of 400 tons. The complex was equipped with many technical, technological, electronic and other advanced developments.
The Kola well was equipped with a high-tech and automated structure:
1.
Exploration, with a powerful base on which the sectional tower itself is mounted, 68 meters high. Designed to implement:
- sinking of the barrel, operations of descent - lifting of the projectile and other auxiliary actions;
- retention of the leading and the entire pipe string, both on weight and during drilling;
- placement of sections (stands) of drill pipes, including collars, traveling system.
In the inner space of the tower, there were also means of the joint venture (descent - ascent), tools. It also housed the means of security and possible emergency evacuation of the rider (assistant driller).
2. Power and technological equipment, power and pump units.
3. Circulation and blowout control system, cementing equipment.
4. Automation, control, process control system.
5. Electrical supply, means of mechanization.
6. A complex of measuring equipment, laboratory equipment and much more.
In 2008, the Kola super-deep well was completely abandoned, all valuable equipment was dismantled and removed (most of it was sold for scrap).
Until 2012, the main tower of the drilling rig was dismantled.
Now only the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences is operating, which to this day is studying core extracted from an ultra-deep well.
The core itself was taken out to the city of Yaroslavl, where it is now stored.
Documentary video about the Kola Superdeep Well
New ultra-deep well records
The Kola superdeep well was considered the deepest well in the world until 2008.
In 2008, the Maersk Oil BD-04A oil well, which is 12,290 meters long, was drilled at an acute angle in the Al Shaheen oil basin.
In January 2011, this record was also broken, and it was broken by an oil well drilled in the Northern Dome (Odoptu-Sea - an oil and gas field in Russia), this well was also drilled at an acute angle to the earth's surface, the length was 12,345 meters.
In June 2013, the Z-42 well of the Chayvinskoye field again broke the depth record with a length of 12,700 meters.
The Kola superdeep well is the deepest borehole in the world. 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 exploration, SG-3 was drilled exclusively for the study of the lithosphere in the place where the Mohorovichic boundary comes close to the Earth's surface.
The Kola superdeep well was laid in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lenin, in 1970.
The strata of sedimentary rocks by that time were 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. For mining, such rocks are rarely drilled deeper than 1-2 km. It was assumed that already at a depth of 5 km the granite layer will be replaced by basalt.
On June 6, 1979, the well broke the record of 9,583 meters previously held by the Bertha Rogers well (an oil well in Oklahoma). AT best years 16 research laboratories worked at the Kola superdeep well, they were personally supervised by the Minister of Geology of the USSR.
What happens in the depths is not known for certain. Temperature environment, noise and other parameters are transmitted upward with a minute delay. However, drillers say that even such contact with the dungeon can be seriously frightening. The sounds coming from below are indeed like screams and howls. To this we can add a long list of accidents that haunted the Kola superdeep when it reached a depth of 10 kilometers.
Twice the drill was taken out melted, although the temperatures from which it can melt are comparable to the temperature of the surface of the Sun. Once the cable seemed to be pulled from below - and cut off. Subsequently, when drilling in the same place, no remnants of the cable were found. What caused these and many other accidents is still a mystery. However, they were not at all the reason for stopping the drilling of the bowels of the Baltic Shield.
Core extraction to the surface.
Extracted core.
Although it was expected that a pronounced boundary between granites and basalts would be found, only granites were found in the core throughout the depth. However, due to high pressure, pressed granites greatly changed their physical and acoustic properties.
As a rule, the lifted core crumbled from active gas release into sludge, as it could not withstand a sharp change in pressure. It was possible to take out a solid piece of core only with a very slow rise of the drill string, when the “excessive” gas, while still in a state of high pressure, had time to exit the rock.
The density of cracks at great depths, contrary to expectations, increased. At depth, water was also present, filling the cracks.
Tricone chisel.
Eruptive breccia of basalts from a depth of 2977.8 m
“We have the deepest hole in the world - this is how you should use it!” - bitterly exclaims the permanent director of the research and production center "Kola Superdeep" David Huberman. In the first 30 years of the existence 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 stands out within scientific programs UNESCO, 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 layered cake. “Up to 4 kilometers, everything went according to theory, and then the doomsday began,” says Huberman. Theorists have promised that the temperature of the Baltic Shield will remain relatively low to a depth of at least 15 kilometers. Accordingly, it will be possible to dig a well up to almost 20 kilometers, just up to the mantle.
But already at 5 kilometers, the ambient temperature exceeded 70 degrees Celsius, at seven - over 120 degrees, and at a depth of 12 it was roasting more than 220 degrees - 100 degrees higher than predicted. The Kola drillers questioned the theory of the layered structure of the earth's crust - at least in the range up to 12,262 meters.
Another surprise: life on planet Earth arose, it turns out, 1.5 billion years earlier than expected. At depths where it was believed that there was no organic matter, 14 types of fossilized microorganisms were found - the age of the deep layers exceeded 2.8 billion years. At even greater depths, where there are no longer sedimentary rocks, methane appeared in huge concentrations. This completely and utterly destroyed the theory of the biological origin of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas.
There were also almost fantastic sensations. When, in the late 70s, the Soviet automatic space station brought 124 grams of lunar soil to Earth, the researchers of the Kola Science Center found that it was like two drops of water similar 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 exactly where. By the way, the Americans, who brought half a ton of soil from the moon, did nothing sensible with it. Placed in sealed containers and left for research to future generations.
In the history of the Kola Superdeep, it was not without mysticism. Officially, as already mentioned, the well stopped due to lack of funds. Coincidence or not - but it was in that 1995 that a powerful explosion of an unknown nature was heard in the depths of the mine.
"When me about this mysterious history began to ask questions at UNESCO, I did not know what to answer. On the one hand, it's bullshit. On the other hand, I, as an honest scientist, could not say that I know what exactly happened here. A very strange noise was recorded, then there was an explosion ... A few days later, nothing of the kind was found at the same depth, ”recalls Academician David Huberman.
Quite unexpectedly for everyone, the predictions of Alexei Tolstoy from the novel "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" were confirmed. At a depth of more than 9.5 kilometers, they discovered a real storehouse of all kinds of minerals, in particular gold. A real olivine layer, brilliantly predicted by the writer. Gold in it is 78 grams per ton. By the way, industrial production is possible at a concentration of 34 grams per ton. Perhaps in the near future humanity will be able to take advantage of this wealth.
This is what the Kola Superdeep looks like now, in a deplorable state.
The famous abandoned well is located in the Murmansk region in the Pechenga ore region, which is known for copper-nickel deposits. The nearest settlement is the city of Zapolyarny, which is located 10 km from SG-3.
Kola Superdeep - photo from space
To this day, the Kola well is the deepest in the world. Its depth is a record 12,262 m, the diameter at the surface is 92 cm, and at the maximum depth it is 21.5 cm. research activity.
Of course choosing this hard to reach place with a harsh climate is not accidental. Previously, a special geological expedition was organized, which indicated exactly this point for the construction of the entire drilling structure and subsequent drilling of the well. The entire territory of the peninsula has many settlements with very strange names: New Titan, Nickel, Mica, Apatity, Magnetity, etc. But in fact, there is nothing strange in this, because the peninsula is just a huge warehouse of minerals. An important conclusion of the expedition was the fact that over the course of millions of years, the destructive effects of water, wind and ice, the surface of the Baltic Shield seemed to be more "bare" to the oldest terrestrial formations, which are usually hidden in other areas, due to a milder climate and less erosion. . Those. it was in this place that the drillers had an advantage of 5-8 km in comparison with a cut of the earth's crust on the continent. Therefore, if a well is drilled here with a depth of 15 km, then this is comparable to 20-23 km on the continent.
The surface layers of the earth's crust by that time were very well studied in the drilling of oil wells and oil production. And for the extraction of minerals, wells of about 2000-3000 m were enough. But the SG-3 had a completely different and very difficult task - to reach a depth of 15,000 m. It was not without reason that it was compared with the preparation and flight into space in terms of technical equipment. And as it turned out, the similarities are not only in this. Well, more on that later. It was not easy to get a job at the well at that time, only the best engineers and workers were selected there. Each of them received an apartment and a very decent salary, about eight times more than specialists in the central part of the union.
D. Guberman and academician Timofeev discuss drilling prospects
Since the 20th century, it has been accepted in science that the Earth consists of a crust, a mantle and a core. And the boundaries of all layers were established theoretically, i.e. it was assumed that the layer of granites has a depth of 3 km, and the layer of basalts begins from a depth of 3 km. Scientists expected to find the mantle at a depth of 15-18 km. But just the same, SG-3 destroyed all these ideas and gave different results, on which scientists are working to this day.
Drilling started on May 24, 1970. By the way, it is worth noting that the main condition of the government was to use only its own tools and equipment. Therefore, the drilling equipment was of the Soviet production of the Uralmash enterprise. The first stage of drilling was carried out by a typical drilling rig, the maximum depth limit of which was 5,000 m, but on SG-3 it was possible to break through with its help to a depth of 7,000 m. Which was a very good result. The drilling process itself up to the first point at 7,000 m took place without any emergency situations, the drill easily coped with homogeneous granites and all this work took 4 years.
To continue deep drilling, it was necessary to rebuild the tower for another more powerful installation and complete its installation. All this refurbishment work took about a year. For the next stage of drilling, Uralmash-15000 was specially developed, which had cardinal differences in the device. Firstly, the lifting and immersion of the drill with the column was automated, and secondly, thanks to new design not the whole column rotated, but only the instrument itself. Its rotation was carried out by supplying a specially designed solution. The crown itself has a special design, due to which the workers periodically removed rock samples in the form of cylinders, they are called core. The crushed rock in the process of drilling rises to the surface along with a special solution. Then the solution is cleaned and run in a new way. The entire string assembly with the bit and drilling fluid has a mass of about 200 tons. The pipes from which the string of the required length is assembled are made of aluminum alloys. Drilling at great depths is very difficult technological process, and even more so it was the conquest of new depths, so in the process a lot of problems arose, which were promptly and professionally solved by the best specialists at the station. It takes a very long time to lower and raise the drill string a large number of time, about 18 hours, and the drilling process itself takes 4 hours. Therefore, work at the well was round-the-clock in three shifts.
The next stage of drilling from a depth of 7,000 meters was complicated due to loose uneven rocks, the tool constantly deviated towards softer rocks and the process slowed down significantly, but more unpleasant situations arose due to damage to the drill and breakage of the entire drill string. So, due to accidents and the loss of tools, it was necessary to cement this area and start drilling from the previous stages. By June 6, 1979, the record of 9583 meters, which belonged to oil well Bertha Rogers.
By 1983, the new drilling depth record was 12,066 meters. Work on the well had to be temporarily suspended due to preparations for the International Geological Congress, which was scheduled for 1984 in Moscow.
After a break on September 27, 1984, drilling work was resumed. But at the first stage, an accident occurred - a break in the column with a drill. The specialists lost 5 km of the string pipes. All attempts to get equipment out of the well ended in failure. Therefore, we had to start drilling from 7000 m. And in 6 years by 1990, the new well reached a record high of 12,262 m. All attempts to continue drilling ended in failure, so the project was frozen and after a while completely stopped due to lack of funding and the political situation in the country. But this depth remains a record!
Kola superdeep today
In the end, in 2008, everything was finally abandoned, the well was mothballed, some of the equipment was dismantled, the rest is destroyed from time to time and at the hands of marauders. According to some reports, it will take about 100 million rubles to restore all the equipment and continue research work, but most likely this is already unrealistic.
Below is a photo of the current state of the object
To receive additional information watch the short film
Back in 1990, in the southern part of Germany, a group of scientists decided to look into the bowels of our planet at the junction of two tectonic plates that collided more than 300 million years ago when the continent was formed. The final goal of the scientists was to drill one of the deepest wells in the world up to 10 km.
Initially, it was assumed that the well would become a kind of "telescope", which would provide an opportunity to learn more about the bowels of our planet and try to learn about the Earth's core. The drilling process took place as part of the Continental Deep Drilling program and lasted until October 1994, when the program had to be curtailed due to financial problems.
The well was named Kontinentales Tiefbohrprogramm der Bundesrepublik, abbreviated as KTB, and by the time the program was closed, it had been drilled for more than 9 km, which did not add enthusiasm to the scientists. The drilling process itself was not going to be easy. For 4 years, scientists, engineers and workers had to face a whole bunch of difficult situations and rather complex tasks. So, for example, the drill had to pass through rocks heated to a temperature of about 300 degrees Celsius, but even under such conditions, the drillers still coped by cooling the well with liquid hydrogen.
However, despite the fact that the program was curtailed, scientific experiments were not stopped and were carried out until the end of 1995, and it should be noted that they were not carried out in vain. During this time, it was possible to discover new, rather unexpected facts about the structure of our planet, new temperature distribution maps were compiled and data on the distribution of seismic pressure were obtained, which made it possible to create models of the layered structure of the upper part of the Earth's surface.
However, the scientists saved the most interesting for last. The Dutch scientist Lott Given, who, together with acoustic engineers and scientists from the Research Center for Geophysical Research (Germany), did what many dreamed of - almost in the truest sense of the word, he "heard the heartbeat" of the Earth. To do this, he and his team needed to make acoustic measurements, with which the research team recreated the sounds that we could hear at a depth of 9 kilometers. However, now you can hear these sounds too.
Despite the fact that KTB is currently considered the deepest well in the world, there are several such wells, which, however, have already been sealed. And among them, a well stands out, which during its existence has managed to acquire legends, this is the Kola ultra-deep well-well, better known as "Road to Hell". Unlike other competitors of KTB, the Kola well reached 12.2 km in depth and was considered the deepest well in the world.
Its drilling began in 1970 in the Murmansk region ( Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation), 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. During drilling, the well experienced several accidents, as a result of which the workers had to concrete the well and start drilling from a much shallower depth and at a different angle. It is interesting that it is precisely with a series of accidents and failures pursuing the group that the reason for the emergence of the legend that the well was drilled to the very, that neither is real Hell is associated.
As the text of the legend says, after passing the milestone of 12 km, scientists, using microphones, managed to hear the sounds of screams. However, we decided to continue drilling and during the passage of the next mark (14 km), we suddenly stumbled upon voids. After the scientists lowered the microphones, they heard the cries and groans of men and women. And after some time, an accident occurred, after which it was decided to stop drilling work
And, despite the fact that the accident really happened, the scientists did not hear any screams of people, and all the talk about demons is nothing more than fiction, said David Mironovich Guberman, one of the authors of the project, under whose leadership the drilling of the well took place.
After another accident in 1990, upon reaching a depth of 12,262 meters, drilling was completed, and in 2008, the project was abandoned, and the equipment was dismantled. Two years later, in 2010, the well was mothballed.
It should be noted that such projects as drilling wells as KTV and Kola are for geologists at the moment the only way and the possibility of exploring the bowels of the planet.
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