Planet Earth is full of wonders and mysteries . We know the immensity of the deserts, the infinite chain of mountain ranges or the indomitable flow of rivers. But there are many more things that we do not know. Those in which scientists, researchers and curious people look with interest, but that they do not manage to completely dominate.
For example. Have you ever wondered if man could be able to reach the center of the Earth? It wasn’t just a Jules Verne dream . Access to the bowels of our planet has always been one of the purposes of man, continually determined to challenge the limits of science and nature. Well, apparently, we can have an experience close to it if we look into the deepest hole on Earth. Today in Top10World we tell you about the fascinating Kola well.
Get to know the fascinating and mysterious Kola Well
When we get ready to navigate in the destinations what to see in Russia , we find a fascinating diversity. Large cities coexist nearby with deep lakes, amazing mountain ranges and a fog that takes the human eye to its extremes. This immense territory, full of little explored corners, is home to the deepest hole on Earth. Specifically, we find it in the Kola Peninsula, in the depths of the Arctic Circle.
If we start to imagine the landscapes that surround the Kola well, we will probably come to fantasize about fairy tale scenarios. But nothing is further from reality. In the middle of that natural environment in which one of the largest holes in the world is located , we also find the ruins of an abandoned Soviet scientific research center. It is a half-fallen building, which by itself is already amazing.
But if we advance inside it we will see what is really surprising. In the middle of the semi-ruined construction we come across a heavy and rusty metal lid embedded in the concrete floor. It is sealed with a ring of thick, equally rusty metal bolts. According to some, this is the deepest hole on Earth and the very entrance to hell: the fearsome and fascinating Well of Kola.
How was the deepest hole on Earth made?
The Kola well was, like many other great works, the product of the ambition for power and domination of human beings. In the eternal struggle that Russia has established for world leadership, it set out to build the deepest hole on Earth. It is not a new matter. It is enough to remember the space race in which, in the midst of the Cold War, the United States and Russia disputed the conquest of space, with the Americans winning.
Well, the Kola well followed the same line. It was a scientific project started in the 70s, which received the name of SG-3. The objective pursued by the Russians was to go deeper into the earth’s crust as much as possible in a very specific area of the Baltic, in the Murmansk region, where the so-called Mohorovich discontinuity offers closer proximity to this part of the earth.
Drilling to make the deepest hole in the Earth began in 1972, when the USSR still held all its power. The scientists moved to the old Kola Peninsula, using the latest prospecting technology. Uralmash 4E and Uralmash 15000 drills were brought, very powerful machines that were improved year after year. Already in 1983 they had reached 10,000 meters and in 1989, they reached an incredible 12,262 meters. The excavation of the Kola well represented quite an engineering feat, not only for the time, but even today it continues to amaze the world.
Why was the excavation of the Kola well stopped?
The excavation of the deepest hole on Earth could have continued in its progress, but the environmental conditions ended up preventing the project from continuing to develop. Having reached more than 12 thousand meters of depth, the work began to become more and more complicated. Going down in the earth’s crust, the temperature reached a powerful 180º, and although they were satisfied to have far exceeded the company GNPP Nebra that had managed to reach 8,578, they longed to go a little further. Although they didn’t. They could not.
The reason why this Soviet project ended up being frustrated almost at the same time as the Berlin Wall fell, has two versions. The official, and the unofficial. The official one is consistent and is accepted by the majority: arriving at these depths of the planet, the masses of mud flow continuously in the company of hydrogen . The job is more than impossible. There is no human method that allows progress in these conditions. But the unofficial version of why work on the Kola Well stopped is even more interesting, fostering creative freedom in the popular imagination.
The entrance to hell theory
There are many who decided to deviate from the perfectly logical official version, which explains why the deepest hole on Earth stopped being excavated. This group of people chose another explanation, which has been passed down from generation to generation, as a legend. And what is the other explanation for why the idea was abandoned for reaching the bowels of the planet? It is said that the men who worked there heard screams.
The project manager, Dr. Azzacov reported that it was unanimously decided to leave the works in view of the concern experienced by all the men and women of the team. As they drilled, strange cries rose from the hole, voices torn as if from the very heart of the planet. The workers, seeing how the temperature rose as they descended in meters, began to believe that this was nothing more than hell , and the screams, the desperate cries of the damned and suffering souls.
The truth is that it is not known for sure what could have happened in the excavation of the Kola well. The project ended up being abandoned before its end. Perhaps political events also determined the lack of budget to continue, it is not known. At the moment no one has decided to continue prospecting and reach a depth of 15,000 meters in search of the heart of our planet…or hell itself.
What is certain is that the huge cover and its screws are in the same place, exposed to the gaze of researchers, historians and scientists. Geologists who have explored the area of the deepest hole in the Earth defend that they could not find any entrance to the underworld, but that, instead, they did find rock samples of about two billion years old, in addition to a greater knowledge of the composition of the Baltic plate , the deepest zone of the crust in this region of the globe. Amazing!
And you, did you know about the existence of the Kola well? Would you dare to poke your nose into the amazing deepest hole on Earth? Do you think it could be, as the legend says, the entrance to Hell? Leave us your opinions in a comment. We will be looking forward to reading you! And in the meantime, we leave you with this great article in which we tell you about Loki’s castle , an incredible and mysterious place on our planet.
