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The Deepest Hole Made by Mankind and Its Silent Fall Into Oblivion
The cold war race to the middle of the Earth on the Kola Peninsula in the Soviet Union
69°23'46"N 30°36'32"E.
The coordinates direct to an abandoned complex left to decay, in the middle of nowhere on the Russian Kola peninsula close to the border of Norway. No road leads today to this site. The main object of interest is a nondescript and rusty cover plate of about half a meter diameter with 12 colossal screws sealed.
The race to the Earth’s interior begins
In 1957, Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched the Soviet Union and the U.S space race. The whole world focused on this battle to conquer space.
At the same time, less known and out of focus, the race to the Earth’s interior began. The goal was drilling through the Earth’s crust to the Earth’s mantle. Nobody knew what had to be expected. At its end, the world’s deepest manmade hole was drilled into a depth of 12’262 meters (40’230 feet).
That’s deeper than the deepest point in the Ocean, the Mariana Trench, with 10’984 meters (36,037 feet) and 1.43 times the height of Mount Everest.
But let’s first give some context.
The U.S. started first and set the pace based on the idea born in a shock of the successful launch of Sputnik1 by the U.S.S.R: drilling the deepest hole on Earth. Indeed, in 1958 a grant was given to planning drilling to the Earth’s mantle.
The Earth consists of several layers. The Earth’s crust is the most outer part and between five to 10 kilometers thick (three to six miles) in oceanic regions and between 30 and 50 kilometers (20 to 30 miles) in continental areas. Beneath, the Earth’s mantle begins.
As the crust is thinner in the Ocean, it was decided that deep-ocean drilling is more feasible compared to a similar project on the land. So, in 1961 the U.S. started phase 1 of the so-called Mohole project.
Successfully several holes were drilled below the seafloor in 3'600 meters (11’811 feet) depth, whereas the deepest hole was 183 meters (600 feet). The test drilling showed that deep-ocean…
