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All of the information stated in this article is based on reliable sources of information and is detailed at the end of the article
In the last century, the Soviet Union had a sensational plan to "dig through the earth" that attracted the world's attention, and I believe many people have heard that the Soviet Union spent a lot of energy and financial resources, but in the end it only dug to a depth of 12,262 meters and then suddenly stopped, what is the reason?
The Soviet Union's "Dig Through the Earth" program, officially called "Kola ultra-deep drilling", because it was officially carried out by the Soviet Union on the Kola Peninsula, so the project was named "Kola".
Located at the northwestern tip of Russia, bordering the Barents Sea and the White Sea, the Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the Arctic Circle of Russia.
Today, we can still see a huge gray tower in the middle of the Siberian wilderness, which was built by the Soviet Union during the project.
In May 1970, in the Bezchenga region of Zapolyarny, Murmansk region, the Soviet Union's Kola ultra-deep drilling began in earnest.
Playing a key and even significant role in this plan is the Kola ultra-deep well, one of the most iconic scientific research projects of the 20th century, and the depth and scientific significance of Kola drilling is destined to become the focus of the world's attention.
Exploration of the underground will be more difficult than the exploration of the "heavens", although it seems that the underground is just the earth we usually live in?
However, this is not the case, the earth's rock formations are very hard, and the environment is high temperature and pressure, and Kola drilling will also be difficult.
In order to solve this problem, scientists have adopted various methods for several years, using hard and high-temperature resistant drill bits for drilling, and using more advanced alloy materials to make the drill rod more resistant and not easy to break.
Obviously, the efforts of scientists were not in vain, and today we all know that the Kola ultra-deep drilling successfully dug to a depth of 12,262 meters, which is also the deepest drilling in the world.
But you must know that the goal set by the Soviet Union at the beginning was to dig 15,000 meters underground, and with the importance that the Soviet Union attached to this project, it was absolutely impossible to give up easily, so why, with the last 2,000 meters away, the Soviet Union interrupted the plan?
First of all, we should understand that such a great project that has shocked the world requires extremely strong technical support, and in the last century, the Soviet Union's scientific research strength and technological level in the world were absolutely the top in the world, and it was an opponent that the United States regarded as a fierce rival.
Moreover, the Soviet Union devoted a lot of effort to the Kola project, and 16 laboratories were set up alone, and all the scientists involved in this project were treated very highly.
The Kola program was completely stopped in 1994, but as early as 1983, the carat ultra-deep drilling had been drilled to a depth of 12,000 meters, and it is hard to imagine that in ten years, it was only more than 200 meters deep!
It is impossible for us to say how bad the technological level of the Soviet Union will be, but it is still limited to the technological development of the times, and mankind as a whole has still not developed to a more mature level of underground excavation technology, the further underground, the higher the temperature, and one step closer, and even the drill bit may be melted directly, even the Soviet Union, a technological power, is difficult to solve this problem.
Secondly, the economic problems faced by the Soviet Union were another important reason for the failure of the plan, and as mentioned earlier, for a decade, the Soviet Kola plan could be said to have almost "made no progress".
Under the premise of no results, the Soviet Union still has to mobilize a lot of financial and material resources to invest in it, and a long period of no return on investment will inevitably drag down the entire project.
Of course, there is another important historical reason, the drastic changes in Eastern Europe in the nineties, the huge Soviet Union did not escape the fate of disintegration, one can imagine how much economic blow the disintegration of the country will bring to it, political turmoil, coupled with the serious fall in oil prices, a major source of income for the Soviet Union was frustrated, and the funds for this project were not replenished in time and were quickly exhausted.
Of course, these are the objective reasons for the failure of the Kola plan that we have explored. There is another, more curious and interesting reason for the termination of the Kola program - did the Soviet Union find something underground on the way to the center of the earth?
There is no authoritative explanation for this issue, but there has been a rumor circulating for so many years, which is called the "Gate of Hell", and some witnesses of scientific research projects claim that when the well was dug to 12,000 meters, there was an unusual sound from the ground.
At that time, the workers did hear strange sounds during construction, at first everyone thought it was the roar of the friction between the machinery and the rock layer, and they didn't pay much attention to it, but the sound did not stop but became more terrifying, everyone was frightened, looking at the bottom of the well from the ground, looking at the depths of the depth, like an abyss, unconsciously pulling the ignorant down.
When everyone wanted to find out, they brought a special tape recorder and put it underneath, and they heard a stranger sound even more clearly, like the painful cries of countless souls enduring torture in purgatory.
As soon as this incident was exposed, it gradually fermented, and later there were more exaggerated claims, saying that when digging more than 12,000 meters, a demon-like creature was seen flying by, and that the original recording of the "Voice of the Demon" at that time could even be heard on the Internet...... Therefore, the Soviet side immediately banned the drilling wells and set the surrounding area as a no-enclave area, which also became the "gate of hell" in people's mouths.
Although this rumor is not very credible, it is more likely that the lack of existing scientific knowledge is difficult to answer this phenomenon, so the supernatural phenomenon is used to interpret what people do not understand. However, we can also see from it that human beings have a natural fear of the unknown.
However, after knowing that the feasibility of the "digging through the earth" plan is extremely low and the operability is extremely difficult, some countries are still eager to try. For example, Germany also implemented the Continental Scientific Drilling Program (KTB) in 1996, but it is difficult to surpass the Soviet Union's 12,262 meters.
Why did the Soviet Union insist on doing such a low-return, high-cost project? There must have been an incentive to do it, and in fact, the Soviet Union had received many strategic returns from this project.
According to the Soviet Union, the ultra-deep drilling of Kola discovered a formation containing gold and diamonds when it was drilled to 9,500 meters, and after scientific testing, it was found that the rock layer contained as much as 80 grams per tonne of gold.
You know, the gold content of the average rock formation reaches 4 grams per ton, which is very high mining value, and here it is 20 times that of the usual! The economic value is immeasurable.
Although the final defeat is still lamentable, the spirit of exploration embodied by the Soviet Union in this is enough to leave a strong mark on human history.
The earth is the home we live on, but we know very little about the earth itself, and countless powerful countries have tried to carry out the earth drilling program in the end but failed, so from an objective point of view, can the earth be dug through?
The earth's crust is a hard crust made of rocks, which is the first obstacle that prevents us from digging through the earth.
The earth's crustal rocks mainly include basalt, granite, etc., these rocks are formed after a long period of geological changes, which contain a variety of minerals and crystal structures, and these rocks form a hard crustal layer under the action of geomechanics, becoming a solid foundation on the earth's surface.
The hardness of the earth's crust is also inseparable from the principles of geomechanics in the earth's interior, the earth's crust is supported by the mantle and core, and the earth's internal thermal convection, plate movement and other geological activities have led to various geological structures and violent geological activities in the earth's crust, forming mountains, plains, basins and other landforms.
In addition, the earth's crust is also affected by external factors such as weathering and erosion, but because of its own hard characteristics, the earth's crust can exist stably on the earth's surface for a long time.
In addition, the extremely high temperature of the ground is also a major challenge of excavation, although the depth of the earth's crust is different under the surface of the land and sea, but whether it is land or sea, there is a very hard mantle under the crust, there is a layer called "conversion zone" between the crust and the mantle, the high temperature and high pressure environment of the conversion area is a challenge that human beings cannot directly overcome, at least, it is a problem that the current level of science and technology cannot overcome.
The sheer volume of the Earth's interior is also one of the main obstacles to digging through the Earth, which is about 12,742 km in diameter and large enough for us to survive on the ground. If you want to dig through the earth, you need to overcome not only the obstacles of the earth's crust and mantle, but also the pressure of internal volume and the demand for energy.
The current level of technology and resources of mankind cannot solve the problems caused by such a huge scale of engineering, so the Soviet Union's initial ambition to dig 70 kilometers must be delusional.
It is difficult to say how objectively true the speculation and discussion about why the Soviet Union terminated the Kola program, but in this attitude, we can see that there is an instinctive fear and curiosity in human exploration of the unknown.
In just a few decades, human beings have made great achievements in exploring outer space, so I also believe that in the future, human beings will still unswervingly explore underground, to excavate and understand the mysterious and beautiful land we live in, and at the same time, to explore the future of mankind more resolutely.
Resources:
Baidu Encyclopedia - "Earth Telescope Project"
Baidu Encyclopedia - "Kola Ultra-deep Drilling"
Learning Xi Power - "How Far Are We From The Dream of Drilling Through the Earth's "Moho Surface"?
Learning Xi Power - Can the Earth Be Pierced
Learn Xi Power - "Daily Popular Science|Dig deep into the earth to need thermal energy, is it reliable?"
Global Network - "The Soviet Union planned to "dig through the earth", dug to 12,262 meters but suddenly evacuated, what did it find?"