After the end of World War II, two superpowers appeared in the world, the Soviet Union and the United States.
In 1946, with Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, the prelude to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was officially opened, which was not only an invisible war between the two superpowers, but also a struggle between the two camps of the world.
These two countries have competed many times in terms of economy and military, and there are also many strange comparisons.
In December 1969, the United States successfully landed on the moon, taking a big step for humanity, and not to be left behind, the Soviet Union began a crazy idea to try to dig through the earth.
On May 24, 1970, the Soviet Union launched the Kola Ultra-Deep Drilling Science Drilling Project on the Kola Peninsula near Norway, which brought together a large number of researchers and thousands of high-end instruments. The original intention of launching this scientific research project was only to prove that the Soviet Union was stronger than the United States, and the entire research program was carried out under the direct leadership of the former Soviet Geology Minister.
At that time, all the researchers involved in the drilling work were able to get an apartment in Moscow, and the monthly salary during the work period could reach the annual salary of a university professor for one year. The benefits are pretty good.
This scientific research project, after more than 20 years, the deepest drill hole is as high as 12262 meters, and this record has not been broken. In 1983, the borehole had reached 12,000 meters, while the Soviet Union planned 15,000 meters at that time, but due to insufficient funding and limited technology at that time, only 262 meters were drilled in the next decade.
In 1994, drilling for the Kola ultra-deep well was discontinued.
Why did the Soviet Union abandon this scientific research project in the end?
At the end of the day, it's still poor.
The rigidity of the Stalinist model in the Soviet Union was no longer suitable for the Post-World War II Soviet Union, when heavy industry was extremely strong, but light industry was almost non-existent, so the Soviet Union was also called a lame giant. Although subsequent leaders also made some economic reforms, by the 1980s, the Soviet Union's economic growth model was unsustainable and deteriorated, and by 1990, the Soviet Union's gross national product was only about 40% of that of the United States. In 1913, the gross national product of the Russian tsar was about 39 percent of that of the United States.
That is to say, after more than 70 years of socialist construction, the economic gap between the Soviet Union and the United States has returned to the era of the Russian tsars.
This shows that the Soviet Union was economically unsustainable at that time.
Second, the technology is limited. From 1983 to 1994, although there were financial constraints, only 262 meters were drilled in ten years, which shows the difficulty. During this period, the Soviet Union encountered a series of technical difficulties, one of which was the problem of overheating deep in the earth's crust, and finally manufactured dozens of special drill bits that could work normally at temperatures of more than 600 degrees Fahrenheit.
It can be seen that the technical difficulty at that time was not small.
Although the drilling work was terminated, the research did not stop until 2006, when the project funds were exhausted, the Kola ultra-deep drill hole was abandoned, and by 2008, the Kora ultra-deep drill hole was tightly covered by rusty metal caps.
Did the Kola ultra-deep drilling scientific drilling project, which cost money, manpower and time, be rewarded?
Kola ultra-deep drilling is the third largest scientific research achievement of the Soviet Union (the other two are the Soviet space station and the deep-sea exploration ship), and it is the world's first deep laboratory, which is of great significance. Moreover, when drilling to 9500 meters, a formation of gold and diamonds was found, and the cores removed were analyzed to show that the gold content was as high as 80 grams /ton. Moreover, during the drilling, a large amount of hydrogen deposits have been found, and even the mud can "boil" with these hydrogen deposits.
Cora ultra-deep drilling, although it is said that the Soviet Union and the United States cold war wrestling under the Cold War products, but this scientific research results have also been countless scientific researchers hard work for more than twenty years step by step accumulation, in any case, these scientific researchers, are worthy of our tribute.