A well to hell: why the drilling of the deepest well was stopped. The deepest well in the world

Penetrating into those secrets that are under our feet is no easier than learning all the secrets of the Universe above our heads. And perhaps even more difficult, because in order to look into the depths of the Earth, a very deep well is needed.

The goals 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 is interesting inside our planet. Where are such "windows" to the center of the Earth and what is the name of the deepest drilled well, we will tell you in this article. First, just one explanation.

Drilling can be done both vertically downwards and at an angle to the earth's surface. In the second case, the extent can be very large, but the depth, if measured from the mouth (the beginning of the well on the surface) to the deepest point in the bowels, is less than those that run perpendicular.

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

This well with a depth of 7520 m 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 En-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 to determine the profitability of developing large depths for mining.

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

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.

Interested in

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 curved, since the hardness of different rocks is not uniform; often a minor breakdown entails such problems that their solution requires more funds than the creation of a new one.

So in this case, despite the fact that the materials obtained as a result of drilling were very valuable, the 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 the ultra-deep well would make super-profits in the field of mining.

Indeed, natural gas was discovered at a very considerable depth - to the despair of specialists, it was impossible to extract it. Further drilling ended in an accident, the walls of the well collapsed.
It did not make sense to restore, they decided to drill another nearby, but nothing interesting for the industrialists could be found in it.

6 Universities in the USA

One of the deepest wells on Earth is the University in the USA. Its depth is 8686 m. The materials obtained as a result of drilling are of considerable 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 scientists who were right, but science fiction writers: there are layers of minerals in the bowels, and life exists at great depths - however, we are talking about bacteria!

In the 1990s, drilling of the ultra-deep well Hauptborung began in Germany. It was planned to bring its depth to 12 km, but, as is usually the case with ultra-deep mines, the plans were not given success. Already at around 7 meters, problems began with the machines: drilling vertically down became impossible, the mine began to deviate more and more to the side. Each meter was given with difficulty, and the temperature grew extremely.

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

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

4 Baden Unit

In the US, 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, wildlife 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 makes it possible to include it 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. After only a short time, the deepest well in the USSR, the Kola, appeared.

Bert Rogers was drilled by GHK, a mining company, mainly natural gas. The aim of the work was to search for gas at great depths. Work began in 1970, when very little was known about the earth's interior.

The company had high hopes for a place in Washita County, because there are many minerals in Oklahoma, and at that time scientists thought that there were whole layers of oil and gas in the thickness of 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 found.

In addition, scientific research was not carried out during the drilling, since the well was only of commercial importance.

2 KTB-Oberpfalz

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

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

Not so big and the difference in diameter. Ultra-deep wells begin on the surface of the earth with a hole of a rather 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 the work had to be stopped is the same as in all other cases - equipment failure due to high temperatures.

1 Kola well - the deepest in the world

We owe a stupid legend to the “duck” launched in the Western press, where, with reference to the mythical “scientist of world renown” Azzakov, it was told 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 it was published, by the way, on April Fool's Day): the temperature in the mine was no higher than 220 degrees, however, with it, as well as at 1000 degrees, no microphone can work ; creatures did not break out, 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 length! At least three wells can now be named - Qatar, Sakhalin-1 and one of the wells of the Chayvo field (Z-42) - which are longer, but not deeper.
Kolskaya gave scientists colossal material, which has not yet been fully processed and comprehended.

In 1970, just in time for Lenin's 100th birthday, Soviet scientists launched one of the most ambitious projects of our time. On the Kola Peninsula, ten kilometers from the village of Zapolyarny, drilling of a well began, which as a result turned out to be the deepest in the world and entered the Guinness Book of Records.

The grandiose scientific project has been going on for more than twenty years. He brought a lot of interesting discoveries, went down in the history of science, and in the end was overgrown with so many legends, rumors and gossip that would be enough for more than one horror movie.

USSR. Kola Peninsula. October 1, 1980. Leading well drillers reaching a record depth of 10,500 meters

entrance to hell

During its heyday, the drilling rig on the Kola Peninsula was a cyclopean structure 20-story high. Up to three thousand people worked here per shift. The team was led by leading geologists of the country. The drilling rig was built in the tundra ten kilometers from the village of Zapolyarny, and in the polar night it shone with lights like a spaceship.

When all this splendor suddenly closed and the lights went out, rumors immediately spread. By all measures, the drilling was remarkably successful. No one in the world has yet managed to reach such a depth - Soviet geologists lowered the drill more than 12 kilometers.

The sudden end of a successful project looked as ridiculous as the fact that the Americans closed the program of flights to the moon. Aliens were blamed for the collapse of the lunar project. In the problems of the Kola Superdeep - devils and demons.

A popular legend says that from great depths, the drill was repeatedly taken out melted. There were no physical reasons for this - the temperature underground did not exceed 200 degrees Celsius, and the drill was designed for a thousand degrees. Then the audio sensors allegedly began to pick up some moans, screams and sighs. Dispatchers who monitored the instrument readings complained of feelings of panic fear and anxiety.

According to legend, it turned out that geologists had drilled to hell. The groans of sinners, extremely high temperatures, the atmosphere of horror at the drilling rig - all this explained why all work on the Kola Superdeep was suddenly curtailed.

Many were skeptical about these rumors. However, in 1995, after the work was stopped, a powerful explosion occurred at the drilling rig. Nobody understood what could explode there, even the head of the entire project, a prominent geologist David Guberman.

Today, excursions are led to an abandoned drilling rig and they tell tourists a fascinating story about how scientists drilled a hole into the underworld of the dead. As moaning ghosts roam the installation, and in the evening demons crawl out to the surface and strive to sneak into the abyss of a gaping extreme seeker.

underground moon

In fact, the whole story with the “well to hell” was invented by Finnish journalists by April 1st. Their comic article was reprinted by American newspapers, and the duck flew to the masses. Long-term drilling of the Kola superdeep proceeded without any mysticism. But what happened there in reality was more interesting than any legends.

To begin with, ultra-deep drilling by definition was doomed to numerous accidents. Under the yoke of gigantic pressure (up to 1000 atmospheres) and high temperatures, the drills could not withstand, the well was clogged, the pipes that strengthened the vent were broken. Countless times the narrow well was bent so that new branches had to be drilled.

The worst accident occurred shortly after the main triumph of geologists. In 1982, they were able to overcome the mark of 12 kilometers. These results were solemnly announced in Moscow at the International Geological Congress. Geologists from all over the world were brought to the Kola Peninsula, they were shown a drilling rig and rock samples mined at a fantastic depth that mankind had never reached before.

After the celebration, drilling continued. However, the break in work proved fatal. In 1984, the most terrible accident occurred at the drilling rig. As many as five kilometers of pipes came off and hammered the well. It was impossible to continue drilling. The results of five years of work were lost overnight.

I had to resume drilling from the 7-kilometer mark. Only in 1990, geologists again managed to cross over 12 kilometers. 12,262 meters - this is the final depth of the Kola well.

But in parallel with the terrible accidents, incredible discoveries also followed. Deep drilling is an analogue of a time machine. On the Kola Peninsula, the oldest rocks, whose age exceeds 3 billion years, come to the surface. Climbing deeper and deeper, scientists have gained a clear idea of ​​​​what happened on our planet during its youth.

First of all, it turned out that the traditional scheme of the geological section, compiled by scientists, does not correspond to reality. “Up to 4 kilometers, everything went according to theory, and then the doomsday began,” Huberman later said.

According to calculations, having drilled a layer of granite, it was supposed to get to even harder, basalt rocks. But there was no basalt. After the granite came loose layered rocks, which constantly crumbled and made it difficult to move inland.

But among the rocks 2.8 billion years old, fossilized microorganisms were found. This made it possible to clarify the time of the origin of life on Earth. Huge deposits of methane have been found at even greater depths. This clarified the question of the origin of hydrocarbons - oil and gas.

And at a depth of more than 9 kilometers, scientists discovered a gold-bearing olivine layer, so vividly described by Alexei Tolstoy in the Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin.

But the most fantastic discovery occurred in the late 1970s, when the Soviet lunar station brought back samples of lunar soil. Geologists were amazed to see that its composition completely coincides with the composition of the rocks they mined at a depth of 3 kilometers. How was it possible?

The fact is that one of the hypotheses of the origin of the Moon suggests that several billion years ago the Earth collided with some kind of celestial body. As a result of the collision, a piece broke off from our planet and turned into a satellite. It is possible that this piece came off in the area of ​​the current Kola Peninsula.

The final

So why did they close the Kola Superdeep?

Firstly, the main tasks of the scientific expedition were completed. Unique equipment for drilling at great depths was created, tested under extreme conditions and noticeably improved. The collected rock samples were studied and described in detail. The Kola well helped to better understand the structure of the earth's crust and the history of our planet.

Secondly, time itself was not conducive to such ambitious projects. In 1992, the scientific expedition was closed funding. Employees quit and went home. But even today, the grandiose building of the drilling rig and the mysterious well impress with their scale.

Sometimes it seems that the Kola Superdeep has not yet exhausted the entire supply of its wonders. The head of the famous project was also sure of this. “We have the deepest hole in the world - this is how you should use it!” exclaimed David Huberman.

At a depth of 410-660 kilometers below the surface of the Earth, the ocean of the Archean period. Such discoveries would not have been possible without the ultra-deep drilling methods developed and used in the Soviet Union. One of the artifacts of those times is the Kola super-deep well (SG-3), which, even 24 years after the cessation of drilling, remains the deepest in the world. Why it was drilled and what discoveries it helped to make, says Lenta.ru.

The pioneers of ultra-deep drilling were the Americans. True, in the vastness of the ocean: in a pilot project, they involved the ship Glomar Challenger, designed just for this purpose. In the meantime, the corresponding theoretical base was being actively developed in the Soviet Union.

In May 1970, in the north of the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers from the city of Zapolyarny, drilling began on the Kola superdeep well. As expected, this was timed to coincide with the centenary of the birth of Lenin. Unlike other ultra-deep wells, SG-3 was drilled exclusively for scientific purposes and even organized a special exploration expedition.

The drilling site was unique: it is on the Baltic Shield in the Kola Peninsula region that ancient rocks come to the surface. Many of them are three billion years old (our planet itself is 4.5 billion years old). In addition, here the Pechenga-Imandra-Varzug rift trough is a cup-like structure pressed into ancient rocks, the origin of which is explained by a deep fault.

It took scientists four years to drill a well to a depth of 7263 meters. So far, nothing unusual has been done: the same installation was used as in the extraction of oil and gas. Then the well stood idle for a whole year: the installation was modified for turbine drilling. After the upgrade, it was possible to drill about 60 meters per month.

A depth of seven kilometers brought surprises: the alternation of hard and not very dense rocks. Accidents have become more frequent, and many caverns have appeared in the wellbore. Drilling continued until 1983, when the depth of SG-3 reached 12 kilometers. After that, the scientists gathered a large conference and talked about their successes.

However, due to careless handling of the drill, a five-kilometer section remained in the mine. For several months they tried to get it, but did not succeed. It was decided to start drilling again from a depth of seven kilometers. Due to the complexity of the operation, not only the main shaft was drilled, but also four additional ones. It took six years to restore the lost meters: in 1990, the well reached a depth of 12,262 meters, becoming the deepest in the world.

Two years later, drilling was stopped, subsequently the well was mothballed, but in fact it was abandoned.

Nevertheless, many discoveries were made at the Kola superdeep well. Engineers have created a whole system of ultra-deep drilling. The difficulty was not only in depth, but also in high temperatures (up to 200 degrees Celsius) due to the intensity of the work of the drills.

Scientists not only moved deep into the Earth, but also raised rock samples and cores for analysis. By the way, it was they who studied the lunar soil and found out that its composition almost completely corresponds to the rocks extracted from the Kola well from a depth of about three kilometers.

At a depth of more than nine kilometers, they found deposits of minerals, including gold: in the olivine layer it is as much as 78 grams per ton. And this is not so little - gold mining is considered possible at 34 grams per ton. A pleasant surprise for scientists, as well as for the nearby plant, was the discovery of a new ore horizon of copper-nickel ores.

Among other things, the researchers learned that granites do not pass into a super-strong basalt layer: in fact, Archean gneisses, which are traditionally classified as fractured rocks, were located behind it. This made a kind of revolution in geological and geophysical science and completely changed the traditional ideas about the bowels of the Earth.

Another pleasant surprise is the discovery at a depth of 9-12 kilometers of highly porous fractured rocks saturated with highly mineralized waters. According to the assumption of scientists, it is they who are responsible for the formation of ores, but before it was believed that this occurs only at much shallower depths.

Among other things, it turned out that the temperature of the bowels is slightly higher than expected: at a depth of six kilometers, a temperature gradient of 20 degrees Celsius per kilometer was obtained instead of 16 expected. The radiogenic origin of the heat flux was established, which also did not agree with previous hypotheses.

In the deep layers more than 2.8 billion years old, scientists have found 14 types of petrified microorganisms. This made it possible to shift the time of the origin of life on the planet by one and a half billion years ago. The researchers also found that there are no sedimentary rocks at the depths and there is methane, forever burying the theory of the biological origin of hydrocarbons.

Do you know that people have been unraveling the mysteries of the planet for centuries? They tried to find answers under their feet. TravelAsk will talk about the largest wells in the world.

What history says

They tried to descend to the bowels of the Earth many times. The first were the Chinese. In the 13th century they dug a well 1200 meters deep.

In 1930, this record was broken by the Europeans: they drilled the earth's surface to a depth of three kilometers.

Time passed, and this figure kept growing. So, in the late 1950s, wells already reached 7 kilometers.

The deepest well in the world

In fact, most wells are made during mining. To date, the record is held by 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 field.

Its depth is 12,700 meters. Just imagine, the highest mountain on Earth is Everest. He goes into the sky for almost 9 kilometers. And the deepest trench is the Mariana Trench. It is about 11 kilometers. That is, well Z-42 has surpassed all indicators of Mother Nature.

Well in the Murmansk region

But we want to tell you more about one particular 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 the study of 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 super-deep well was laid in 1970 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. The main goal was to study volcanic rocks, which are rarely drilled in mining. More than 15 research laboratories worked here.

The activity was curtailed in 1990, as there were many accidents 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 has not been used for a long time, is 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 give 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

That is what the Kola well is called. Moreover, there are still many rumors about her related to the other world. So, there are stories that at a depth of 12 kilometers, the equipment of scientists recorded screams and groans emanating from the bowels of the Earth.

American television even officially announced this legend: in 1989, the Trinity Broadcasting Network told this story to its viewers. Well, then more: you could still find interesting stories in the tabloid newspapers of that time. For example, that scientists heard screams and groans, but did not stop the study. And every kilometer was imprinted with misfortune on the country. So, when the drillers reached the mark of 13 kilometers, the USSR collapsed. And at a depth of 14.5 kilometers, they generally found voids. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, the researchers lowered a microphone capable of operating at extremely high temperatures and other sensors into it. The temperature inside reached 1,100 degrees - well, a real hellish flame. And they heard human cries.

In fact, acoustic well survey methods do not record the actual sound and not the microphone. They record on seismic receivers a wave pattern of reflected elastic oscillations excited by an 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 mark of 13 kilometers.

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 say. 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 like this was found at the same depth..

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

In one of the scientific broadcasts, a simple example was given that made it possible to realize how huge our planet is. Imagine a big balloon. This is the whole planet. And the thinnest walls are a zone for which there is life. And people have actually mastered only one layer of atoms surrounding this wall.

But humanity is constantly striving to expand its knowledge about the planet and the processes taking place on it. We launch spaceships and satellites, stand submarines, but the most difficult thing is to find out what is under our feet, inside the earth.

Wells bring relative understanding. With their help, you can find out the composition of rocks, study changes in physical conditions, and also conduct mineral exploration. And most of all information, of course, will bring the deepest well in the world. The only question is where exactly it is. This is what we will try to figure out today.

OR-11

Not surprisingly, the longest well was made as recently as 2011. This result was achieved thanks to new, more advanced technologies, durable and reliable materials, and precise calculation methods.

Surely you will be pleased to know that it is located in Russia and was drilled as part of the Sakhalin-1 project. All work required only 60 days, which far exceeds the results of previous surveys.

The total length of this record well is 12 kilometers 345 meters, which remains an unsurpassed record so far. Another achievement is the maximum length of the horizontal shaft, which is 11 kilometers 475 meters. So far, no one has been able to surpass this result. But that's for now.

BD-04A

This oil well in Qatar is known for its record-breaking depth at the time. Its total length is 12 kilometers 289 meters, of which 10,902 meters is a horizontal shaft. By the way, it was built in 2008, and for three whole years it held the record.

But this deep well is known not only for its impressive size, but also for a very sad fact. It was built next to the oil shelf for exploration, and in 2010 there was a serious accident on it.

This is what the well looks like now

Drilled back in the time of the USSR, the Kola super-deep well in 2008 lost the title of leader. But still, it remains one of the most famous objects of this type and continues to hold the prize-winning third place.

Drilling preparation work began in 1970. It was planned that this well would become the deepest on Earth, reaching a mark of 15 kilometers. However, it has not been possible to achieve such a result. In 1992, work was suspended when the depth reached an impressive value of 12 kilometers 262 meters. Further research had to be stopped due to lack of funding and state support.

With its help, it was possible to obtain a lot of interesting scientific data, to better understand the structure of the earth's crust. This is just not surprising, because the project was originally completely scientific, not related to geological exploration or the study of mineral deposits.

By the way, the popular legend about the “well to hell” is connected with the Kola superdeep well. They say that having reached the mark of 11 kilometers, scientists heard terrifying screams. And soon after that, the drill broke. According to legend, this testifies to the existence of a hell under the earth, in which sinners are tormented. It was their cries that were heard by scientists.

True, the legend does not stand up to scrutiny. If only because not a single acoustic equipment could work at pressure and temperature at these levels. But, on the other hand, it is quite interesting to argue that the deepest borehole can reach, if not hell, then some other legendary and mythical places.

So far, they just help scientists better understand how our planet lives. And although travel to the center of the earth is still very far away, people are clearly striving for this.