Today, humankind’s scientific research has reached the boundaries of the solar system: we have landed spacecraft on planets, their satellites, asteroids, comets, sent missions to the Kuiper belt and crossed the heliopause boundary. With the help of telescopes, we see events that took place 13 billion years ago - when the Universe was only a few hundred million years old. Against this background, it is interesting to evaluate how well we know our Earth. The best way get to know her internal structure- drill a well: the deeper, the better. The deepest well on Earth is the Kola Superdeep Well, or SG-3. In 1990, its depth reached 12 kilometers 262 meters. If you compare this figure with the radius of our planet, it turns out that this is only 0.2 percent of the way to the center of the Earth. But even this was enough to change ideas about the structure of the earth’s crust.

If you imagine a well as a shaft through which you can descend by elevator into the very depths of the earth, or at least a couple of kilometers, then this is not at all the case. The diameter of the drilling tool with which engineers created the well was only 21.4 centimeters. The upper two-kilometer section of the well is a little wider - it was expanded to 39.4 centimeters, but still there is no way for a person to get there. To imagine the proportions of the well, the best analogy would be a 57-meter sewing needle with a diameter of 1 millimeter, slightly thicker at one end.

Well diagram

But this representation will also be simplified. During drilling, several accidents occurred at the well - part of the drill string ended up underground without the ability to remove it. Therefore, the well was started anew several times, from marks of seven and nine kilometers. There are four large branches and about a dozen small ones. The main branches have different maximum depths: two of them cross the 12-kilometer mark, two more do not reach it by only 200-400 meters. Note that the depth of the Mariana Trench is one kilometer less - 10,994 meters relative to sea level.

Horizontal (left) and vertical projections of SG-3 trajectories

Yu.N. Yakovlev et al. / Bulletin of Kola scientific center RAS, 2014

Moreover, it would be a mistake to perceive the well as a plumb line. Due to the fact that rocks have different mechanical properties at different depths, the drill deviated towards less dense areas during the work. Therefore, on a large scale, the profile of the Kola Superdeep looks like a slightly curved wire with several branches.

Approaching the well today, we will see only the upper part - a metal hatch, screwed to the mouth with twelve massive bolts. The inscription on it was made with an error, the correct depth is 12,262 meters.

How was a super-deep well drilled?

To begin with, it should be noted that SG-3 was originally conceived specifically for scientific purposes. The researchers chose for drilling a place where ancient rocks - up to three billion years old - came to the surface of the earth. One of the arguments during exploration was that young sedimentary rocks were well studied during oil production, and no one had ever drilled deep into ancient layers. In addition, there were large copper-nickel deposits, the exploration of which would be a useful addition to the scientific mission of the well.

Drilling began in 1970. The first part of the well was drilled with a serial Uralmash-4E rig - it was usually used for drilling oil wells. Modification of the installation made it possible to reach a depth of 7 kilometers 263 meters. It took four years. Then the installation was changed to Uralmash-15000, named after the planned depth of the well - 15 kilometers. The new drilling rig was designed specifically for the Kola superdeep: drilling on such great depths ah required serious refinement of technology and materials. For example, the weight of the drill string alone at a depth of 15 kilometers reached 200 tons. The installation itself could lift loads of up to 400 tons.

The drill string consists of pipes connected to each other. With its help, engineers lower the drilling tool to the bottom of the well, and it also ensures its operation. At the end of the column, special 46-meter turbodrills were installed, driven by the flow of water from the surface. They made it possible to rotate the rock crushing tool separately from the entire column.

The bits with which the drill string bit into the granite evoke futuristic parts from a robot - several rotating spiked disks connected to a turbine on top. One such bit was enough for only four hours of work - this approximately corresponds to a passage of 7-10 meters, after which the entire drill string must be lifted, disassembled and then lowered again. The constant descents and ascents themselves took up to 8 hours.

Even the pipes for the column in the Kola Superdeep Pipe had to be used in unusual ways. At depth, temperature and pressure gradually increase, and, as engineers say, at temperatures above 150-160 degrees, the steel of serial pipes softens and is less able to withstand multi-ton loads - because of this, the likelihood of dangerous deformations and column breakage increases. Therefore, the developers chose lighter and heat-resistant aluminum alloys. Each of the pipes had a length of about 33 meters and a diameter of about 20 centimeters - slightly narrower than the well itself.

However, even specially developed materials could not withstand drilling conditions. After the first seven-kilometer section, further drilling to the 12,000-meter mark took almost ten years and more than 50 kilometers of pipes. Engineers were faced with the fact that below seven kilometers the rocks became less dense and fractured - viscous for the drill. In addition, the wellbore itself distorted its shape and became elliptical. As a result, the column broke several times, and, unable to lift it back, the engineers were forced to concrete the branch of the well and drill the shaft again, losing years of work.

One of these major accidents forced drillers in 1984 to concrete a branch of the well that reached a depth of 12,066 meters. Drilling had to start again from the 7-kilometer mark. This was preceded by a pause in work with the well - at that moment the existence of SG-3 was declassified, and the international geological congress Geoexpo was held in Moscow, whose delegates visited the site.

According to eyewitnesses of the accident, after work resumed, the column drilled a well another nine meters down. After four hours of drilling, the workers prepared to lift the column back, but it “didn’t work.” The drillers decided that the pipe was “stuck” somewhere to the walls of the well, and increased the lifting power. The load has decreased sharply. Gradually dismantling the column into 33-meter candles, the workers reached the next section, ending with an uneven lower edge: the turbodrill and another five kilometers of pipes remained in the well; they could not be lifted.

The drillers managed to reach the 12-kilometer mark again only in 1990, at which time the diving record was set - 12,262 meters. Then it happened new accident, and since 1994, work on the well has been stopped.

Superdeep Scientific Mission

Picture of seismic tests at SG-3

“Kola Superdeep” Ministry of Geology of the USSR, Nedra Publishing House, 1984

The well was studied using a whole range of geological and geophysical methods, ranging from core collection (a column of rocks corresponding to given depths) to radiation and seismological measurements. For example, the core was taken using core receivers with special drills - they look like pipes with jagged edges. In the center of these pipes there are 6-7 centimeter holes where the rock falls.

But even with this seemingly simple (except for the need to lift this core from many kilometers deep) difficulties arose. Because of the drilling fluid, the same one that set the drill in motion, the core became saturated with liquid and changed its properties. In addition, conditions in the depths and on the surface of the earth are very different - the samples cracked due to pressure changes.

At different depths, the core yield varied greatly. If at five kilometers from a 100-meter segment one could count on 30 centimeters of core, then at depths of more than nine kilometers, instead of a rock column, geologists received a set of washers made of dense rock.

Microphotograph of rocks recovered from a depth of 8028 meters

“Kola Superdeep” Ministry of Geology of the USSR, Nedra Publishing House, 1984

Studies of material recovered from the well have led to several important conclusions. Firstly, the structure of the earth's crust cannot be simplified to a composition of several layers. This was previously indicated by seismological data - geophysicists saw waves that seemed to be reflected from a smooth boundary. Studies at SG-3 have shown that such visibility can also occur with a complex distribution of rocks.

This assumption affected the design of the well - scientists expected that at a depth of seven kilometers the shaft would enter basalt rocks, but they did not meet even at the 12-kilometer mark. But instead of basalt, geologists discovered rocks that had big amount cracks and low density, which could not be expected at all from a depth of many kilometers. Moreover, traces of underground water were found in the cracks - it was even suggested that they were formed by a direct reaction of oxygen and hydrogen in the thickness of the Earth.

Among the scientific results there were also applied ones - for example, at shallow depths, geologists found a horizon of copper-nickel ores suitable for mining. And at a depth of 9.5 kilometers, a layer of geochemical gold anomaly was discovered - micrometer-sized grains of native gold were present in the rock. Concentrations reached up to a gram per ton of rock. However, it is unlikely that mining from such depths will ever be profitable. But the very existence and properties of the gold-bearing layer made it possible to clarify the models of mineral evolution - petrogenesis.

Separately, we should talk about studies of temperature gradients and radiation. For this kind of experiments, downhole instruments are used, lowered on wire ropes. The big problem was to ensure their synchronization with ground-based equipment, as well as to ensure operation at great depths. For example, difficulties arose with the fact that the cables, with a length of 12 kilometers, stretched by about 20 meters, which could greatly reduce the accuracy of the data. To avoid this, geophysicists had to create new methods for marking distances.

Most commercial instruments were not designed to operate in the harsh conditions of the lower levels of the well. Therefore, for research at great depths, scientists used equipment developed specifically for the Kola Superdeep.

The most important result of geothermal research is much higher temperature gradients than expected. Near the surface, the rate of temperature increase was 11 degrees per kilometer, to a depth of two kilometers - 14 degrees per kilometer. In the interval from 2.2 to 7.5 kilometers, the temperature increased at a rate approaching 24 degrees per kilometer, although existing models predicted a value one and a half times lower. As a result, already at a depth of five kilometers, the instruments recorded a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius, and by 12 kilometers this value reached 220 degrees Celsius.

The Kola superdeep well turned out to be unlike other wells - for example, when analyzing the heat release of rocks of the Ukrainian crystalline shield and Sierra Nevada batholiths, geologists showed that heat release decreases with depth. In SG-3, on the contrary, it grew. Moreover, measurements have shown that the main source of heat, providing 45-55 percent of the heat flow, is the decay of radioactive elements.

Despite the fact that the depth of the well seems colossal, it does not reach even a third of the thickness of the earth’s crust in the Baltic Shield. Geologists estimate that the base of the earth's crust in this area runs approximately 40 kilometers underground. Therefore, even if SG-3 reached the planned 15-kilometer cutoff, we still would not have reached the mantle.

This is the ambitious task that American scientists set for themselves when developing the Mohol project. Geologists planned to reach the border of Mohorovicic - an underground region where there is a sharp change in the speed of propagation of sound waves. It is believed to be associated with the boundary between the crust and the mantle. It is worth noting that the drillers chose the ocean floor near the island of Guadalupe as the location for the well - the distance to the border was only a few kilometers. However, the depth of the ocean itself reached 3.5 kilometers here, which significantly complicated drilling operations. The first tests in the 1960s allowed geologists to drill wells only to 183 meters.

Recently it became known about plans to resurrect the deep ocean drilling project with the help of the research drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution. Geologists chose a point in the Indian Ocean, not far from Africa, as a new target. The depth of the Mohorovicic boundary there is only about 2.5 kilometers. In December 2015 - January 2016, geologists managed to drill a well 789 meters deep - the fifth largest underwater well in the world. But this value is only half of what was required at the first stage. However, the team plans to return and finish what they started.

***

0.2 percent of the path to the center of the Earth is not that impressive compared to the scale of space travel. However, it should be taken into account that the border of the Solar system does not pass along the orbit of Neptune (or even the Kuiper belt). The Sun's gravity prevails over stellar gravity up to distances of two light years from the star. So if you carefully calculate everything, it turns out that Voyager 2 flew only a tenth of a percent of the path to the outskirts of our system.

Therefore, we should not be upset by how poorly we know the “insides” of our own planet. Geologists have their own telescopes - seismic research - and their own ambitious plans to conquer the subsoil. And if astronomers have already managed to touch a solid part celestial bodies V solar system, then for geologists the most interesting things are still ahead.

Vladimir Korolev

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 literally looking into the bowels of the earth involved drilling 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 scientists’ hypothesis, it was in that place that deposits were supposed to be found natural gas non-biological origin. 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)

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. On this 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 performance in the field of safety, labor protection and environment».

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 :)

Many scientific and industrial works involve drilling underground wells. The total number of such objects in Russia alone is hardly calculable. But legendary Kola superdeep has remained unsurpassed since the 1990s, extending more than 12 kilometers deep into the Earth! It was drilled not for economic gain, but out of purely scientific interest - to find out what processes are occurring inside the planet.

Kola superdeep well. First stage drilling rig (depth 7600 m), 1974

50 candidates per position

The most amazing well in the world is located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. Its depth is 12,262 meters, the diameter of the upper part is 92 centimeters, the diameter of the lower part is 21.5 centimeters.

The well was laid in 1970 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin. The choice of location was not accidental - it is here, on the territory of the Baltic Shield, that the oldest rocks, which are three billion years old, come to the surface.

WITH late XIX century, the theory has been known that our planet consists of a crust, mantle and core. But where exactly one layer ends and the next begins, scientists could only guess. According to the most common version, granites go down up to three kilometers, then basalts, and at a depth of 15-18 kilometers the mantle begins. All this had to be tested in practice.

Underground exploration in the 1960s resembled a space race, with leading countries trying to get ahead of each other. It was suggested that at great depths there are rich deposits of minerals, including gold.

The Americans were the first to drill ultra-deep wells. In the early 1960s, their scientists discovered that the Earth's crust was much thinner under the oceans. Therefore, the area near the island of Maui (one of the Hawaiian Islands), where the earth’s mantle is located at a depth of approximately five kilometers (plus a 4-kilometer layer of water), was chosen as the most promising place for work. But both attempts by US researchers ended in failure.

The Soviet Union needed to respond with dignity. Our researchers proposed creating a well on the continent - despite the fact that it took longer to drill, the result promised to be successful.

The project became one of the largest in the USSR. There were 16 research laboratories working at the well. Getting a job here was no less difficult than getting into the cosmonaut corps. Ordinary employees received triple salary and an apartment in Moscow or Leningrad. Not surprisingly, there was no staff turnover at all, and at least 50 candidates applied for each position.

Space sensation

Drilling to a depth of 7263 meters was carried out using a conventional serial installation, which at that time was used in oil or gas production. This stage took four years. Then there was a year-long break for the construction of a new tower and installation of a more powerful Uralmash-15000 installation, created in Sverdlovsk and called “Severyanka”. Its work used the turbine principle - when not the entire column rotates, but only the drilling head.

With every meter passed, the excavation became more difficult. Previously it was believed that the temperature of the rock, even at a depth of 15 kilometers, would not exceed 150 °C. But it turned out that at a depth of eight kilometers it reached 169 °C, and at a depth of 12 kilometers it reached 220 °C!

The equipment quickly broke down. But the work continued without stopping. The task of being the first in the world to reach the 12-kilometer mark was politically important. It was solved in 1983 - just in time for the start of the International Geological Congress in Moscow.

Congress delegates were shown soil samples taken from a record depth of 12 kilometers, and a trip to the well was organized for them. Photos and articles about the Kola Superdeep Pit circulated in all the world's leading newspapers and magazines, and postage stamps were issued in its honor in several countries.

But the main thing is that a real sensation was prepared especially for the congress. It turned out that rock samples taken at a 3-kilometer depth of the Kola well are completely identical to lunar soil (it was first delivered to Earth by the Soviet automatic space station Luna-16 in 1970).

Scientists have long assumed that the Moon was once part of the Earth and was torn away from it as a result of a cosmic catastrophe. Now it was possible to say that the breakaway part of our planet, billions of years ago, came into contact with the area of ​​​​the current Kola Peninsula.

The ultra-deep well became a real triumph of Soviet science. Researchers, designers, even ordinary workers were honored and awarded for almost a whole year.

Kola superdeep well, 2007

Gold in the deep

At this time, work on the Kola superdeep mine was suspended. They were resumed only in September 1984. And the very first launch led to a major accident. The employees seemed to have forgotten that changes were constantly taking place inside the underground passage. The well does not forgive stopping work - and forces you to start all over again.

As a result, the drill string broke, leaving five kilometers of pipes deep. They tried to get them, but after a few months it became clear that this would not be possible.

Drilling work began again from the 7-kilometer mark. They approached a depth of 12 kilometers for the second time only six years later. In 1990, the maximum was reached - 12,262 meters.

And then the operation of the well was affected by both failures on a local scale and events taking place in the country. The capabilities of the existing technology were exhausted, and government funding decreased sharply. After several serious accidents, drilling was stopped in 1992.

The scientific significance of the Kola Superdeep is difficult to overestimate. First of all, work on it confirmed the guess about rich deposits of minerals at great depths. Of course, precious metals are in pure form were not found there. But at the nine-kilometer mark, seams with a gold content of 78 grams per ton were discovered (active industrial mining is carried out when this content is 34 grams per ton).

In addition, the analysis of ancient deep rocks made it possible to clarify the age of the Earth - it turned out that it is one and a half billion years older than was commonly thought.

It was believed that at super depths there is no and cannot be organic life, but in soil samples raised to the surface, which were three billion years old, 14 previously unknown species of fossilized microorganisms were discovered.

Shortly before its closure, in 1989, the Kola Superdeep Pipe again became the center of international attention. The director of the well, academician David Guberman, suddenly began to receive calls and letters from all over the world. Scientists, journalists, and simply inquisitive citizens were interested in the question: is it true that an ultra-deep well has become a “well to hell”?

It turned out that representatives of the Finnish press talked with some employees of the Kola Superdeep. And they admitted: when the drill passed the 12-kilometer mark, strange noises began to be heard from the depths of the well. The workers lowered a heat-resistant microphone instead of the drill head - and with its help they recorded sounds reminiscent of human screams. One of the employees put forward the version that this the cries of sinners in hell.

How true are such stories? Technically, placing a microphone instead of a drill is difficult, but possible. True, the work to lower it may take several weeks. And it would hardly have been possible to carry it out at a sensitive facility instead of drilling. But, on the other hand, many well employees actually heard strange sounds that regularly came from the depths. And no one knew for sure what it could be.

At the instigation of Finnish journalists, the world press published a number of articles claiming that the Kola superdeep is “the road to hell.” Mystical meaning began to be attributed to the fact that the USSR collapsed when the drillers were excavating the “unlucky” thirteen thousand meters.

In 1995, when the station was already mothballed, an incomprehensible explosion occurred in the depths of the mine - if only for the reason that there was nothing there to explode. Foreign newspapers reported that through a passage made by people, a demon flew from the bowels of the Earth to the surface (the publications were full of headlines like “Satan escaped from hell”).

Well director David Guberman honestly admitted in his interview: he does not believe in hell and demons, but an incomprehensible explosion actually took place, as did strange noises reminiscent of voices. Moreover, an examination carried out after the explosion showed that all the equipment was in perfect order.

Kola superdeep well, 2012

The well itself (welded), August 2012

Museum for 100 million

For a long time, the well was considered mothballed; about 20 employees worked on it (in the 1980s their number exceeded 500). In 2008, the facility was completely closed and some of the equipment was dismantled. The above-ground part of the well is a building the size of a 12-story building, now it is abandoned and is gradually collapsing. Sometimes tourists come here, attracted by legends about voices from hell.

According to employees of the Geological Institute of the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which previously owned the well, its restoration would cost 100 million rubles.

But we are no longer talking about scientific work at depth: on the basis of this facility, one can only open an institute or other enterprise for training offshore drilling specialists. Or create a museum - after all, the Kola well continues to be the deepest in the world.

Anastasia BABANOVSKAYA, magazine "Secrets of the 20th Century" No. 5 2017

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 bowels of the Earth many times. The Chinese were among the first. In the 13th century, they dug a well 1200 meters deep.

In 1930, this record was broken by Europeans: they drilled 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 most high mountain on Earth - Everest. It goes almost 9 kilometers into the sky. And the most deep depression- Mariana. 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 long time not used, 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 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: in the tabloid newspapers of that time one could also find interesting stories. 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.”.

Perhaps we will end the story on such a mysterious note. Think for yourself, decide for yourself whether this is really the road to hell.

It is no easier to penetrate into the secrets that are under our feet than to find out all the secrets of the Universe above our heads. And maybe even more difficult, because in order to look into the depths of the Earth, a very deep well is needed.

The purposes of drilling are different (oil production, for example), but ultra-deep (more than 6 km) wells are primarily needed by scientists who want to know what interesting things there are inside our planet. Where these “windows” to the center of the Earth are located and what the deepest drilled well is called, we will tell you in this article. First just one clarification.

Drilling can be done either vertically downwards or at an angle to the surface of the earth. In the second case, the length can be very large, but the depth, if assessed from the mouth (the beginning of the well on the surface) to the deepest point in the subsurface, is less than that of those that run perpendicularly.

An example is one of the wells of the Chayvinskoye field, the length of which reached 12,700 m, but in depth it is significantly inferior to the deepest wells.

This well, 7520 m deep, is located on the territory of modern Western Ukraine. However, work on it was carried out back in the USSR in 1975 - 1982.

The purpose of creating this one of the deepest wells in the USSR was the extraction of minerals (oil and gas), but the study of the bowels of the earth was also an important task.

9 Yen-Yakhinskaya well

Not far from the city of Novy Urengoy in the Yamalo-Nenets District. The purpose of drilling the Earth was to determine the composition of the earth's crust at the drilling site and determine the profitability of developing large depths for mining.

As is usually the case with ultra-deep wells, the subsurface presented the researchers with many “surprises.” For example, at a depth of about 4 km the temperature reached +125 (above the calculated one), and after another 3 km the temperature was already +210 degrees. Nevertheless, the scientists completed their research, and in 2006 the well was abandoned.

8 Saatli in Azerbaijan

In the USSR, one of the deepest wells in the world, Saatli, was drilled on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It was planned to bring its depth to 11 km and conduct various studies related to both the structure of the earth’s crust and the development of oil at different depths.

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However, it was not possible to drill such a deep well, as happens very, very often. During operation, machines often fail due to extremely high temperatures and pressures; the well is bent because the hardness of different rocks is not uniform; Often a minor breakdown entails such problems that their solution requires more money than creating a new one.

So in this case, despite the fact that the materials obtained as a result of drilling were very valuable, work had to be stopped at around 8324 m.

7 Zisterdorf - the deepest in Austria

Another deep well was drilled in Austria, near the town of Zisterdorf. There were gas and oil fields nearby, and geologists hoped that an ultra-deep well would make it possible to obtain super-profits in the field of mining.

Indeed, natural gas was discovered at a very significant depth - to the despair of specialists, it was impossible to extract it. Further drilling ended in an accident; the walls of the well collapsed.
There was no point in restoring it; they decided to drill another nearby, but nothing interesting for industrialists could be found in it.

6 Universities in the USA

One of the deepest wells on Earth is University in the USA. Its depth is 8686 m. The materials obtained as a result of drilling are of significant interest, as they provide new material about the structure of the planet on which we live.

Surprisingly, as a result, it turned out that it was not the scientists who were right, but the science fiction writers: in the depths there are layers of minerals, and life exists at great depths - however, we're talking about about bacteria!

In the 90s, Germany began drilling the ultra-deep Hauptborung well. It was planned to bring its depth to 12 km, but, as is usually the case with ultra-deep mines, the plans were not crowned with success. Already at just over 7 meters, problems with the machines began: drilling vertically down became impossible, and the shaft began to deviate more and more to the side. Every meter was difficult, and the temperature rose extremely.

Finally, when the heat reached 270 degrees, and endless accidents and failures exhausted everyone, it was decided to suspend work. This occurred at a depth of 9.1 km, making the Hauptborung well one of the deepest.

The scientific materials obtained from the drilling have become the basis for thousands of studies, and the mine itself is currently used for tourism purposes.

4 Baden Unit

In the United States, Lone Star attempted to drill an ultra-deep well in 1970. The location near the city of Anadarko in Oklahoma was not chosen by chance: here wild nature and high scientific potential create a convenient opportunity for both drilling a well and studying it.

The work was carried out for more than a year, and during this time they drilled to a depth of 9159 m, which allows it to be included among the deepest mines in the world.

And finally, we present the three deepest wells in the world. In third place is Bertha Rogers - the world's first ultra-deep well, which, however, did not remain the deepest for long. Only a short time later, the deepest well in the USSR, the Kola well, appeared.

Bertha Rogers was drilled by GHK, a company that develops mineral resources, primarily natural gas. The goal of the work was to search for gas at great depths. Work began in 1970, when very little was known about the bowels of the earth.

The company assigned the site in Ouachita County big hopes, because Oklahoma has a lot of mineral resources, and at that time scientists thought that there were entire layers of oil and gas in the earth. However, 500 days of work and huge funds invested in the project turned out to be useless: the drill melted in a layer of liquid sulfur, and gas or oil could not be detected.

In addition, no scientific research was carried out during drilling, since the well was only of commercial importance.

2 KTB-Oberpfalz

In second place in our ranking is the German Oberpfalz well, which reached a depth of almost 10 km.

This mine holds the record for the deepest vertical well, since without deviations to the side it goes to a depth of 7500 m! This is an unprecedented figure, because mines at great depths inevitably bend, but the unique equipment used by scientists from Germany made it possible to move the drill vertically downwards for a very long time.

The difference in diameter is not that great either. Ultra-deep wells start on the surface of the earth with a hole with a fairly large diameter (at Oberpfalz - 71 cm), and then gradually narrow. At the bottom, the German well has a diameter of only about 16 cm.

The reason why work had to be stopped is the same as in all other cases - equipment failure due to high temperatures.

1 The Kola well is the deepest in the world

We owe the stupid legend to a “duck” spread in the Western press, where, with reference to the mythical “world-famous scientist” Azzakov, they talked about a “creature” that escaped from a mine, the temperature in which reached 1000 degrees, about the groans of millions of people who signed up for microphone down and so on.

At first glance, it is clear that the story is sewn with white thread (and, by the way, it was published on April Fool’s Day): the temperature in the mine was no higher than 220 degrees, however, at this temperature, as well as at 1000 degrees, no microphone can work ; the creatures did not escape, and the named scientist does not exist.

The Kola well is the deepest in the world. Its depth reaches 12262 m, which significantly exceeds the depth of other mines. But not the length! Now we can name at least three wells - Qatar, Sakhalin-1 and one of the wells of the Chayvinskoye field (Z-42) - which are longer, but not deeper.
Kola gave scientists colossal material, which has not yet been fully processed and comprehended.