{"id":3921532,"date":"2025-08-19T19:13:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/scientists-dug-12-km-into-our-planet-what-they-found-left-me-speechless\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T19:13:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:13:40","slug":"scientists-dug-12-km-into-our-planet-what-they-found-left-me-speechless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/scientists-dug-12-km-into-our-planet-what-they-found-left-me-speechless\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists dug 12 km into our planet\u2014what they found left me speechless"},"content":{"rendered":"
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YouTube Video Here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zz6v6OfoQvs?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1<\/a><\/p>\n

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Their main goal was set at 15,000 meters, however, drilling was halted when they reached\u00a012,262 meters. The\u00a0Kola Superdeep Borehole\u2014aka\u00a0Door to Hell\u2014reached rocks of the Archaean\u00a0age (greater than 2.5 billion years old) at the bottom. It is the deepest artificial point on our planet, and what scientists found at the bottom is beyond fascinating.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"what
The borehole itself (welded shut), August 2012. Rakot13.\u00a0Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We know more about distant alien worlds and moons than we know about the planet we live on. There are many parts of our planet which still remain unexplored, despite the fact that we have spacecrafts\u2014like the voyager\u2014which have already left our solar system.<\/p>\n

Just as we still don\u2019t know everything about the surface of our planet, to date we have explored less than\u00a0five percent<\/strong>\u00a0of the ocean. Much remains to be learned from exploring the mysteries of the deep. Only about\u00a05%<\/strong>\u00a0of the world\u2019s seafloor has been mapped in some detail<\/a>. Since the ocean occupies roughly\u00a070%<\/strong>\u00a0of the Earth\u2019s surface, this leaves approximately 65% of the Earth (excluding dry land) unexplored. Interestingly, it is believed that around<\/a> 50-80% of all life on our planet can be found under the ocean surface and the oceans contain\u00a099%<\/strong>\u00a0of the living space on the planet. Curiously less than 10% of that space has been explored by humans. 85% of the area and 90% of the volume constitute the dark, cold environment we call the deep sea.<\/p>\n

So what are we waiting for? Isn\u2019t it time to start exploring our planet before we wonder off to Mars, or return to the moon?<\/p>\n

Some efforts to explore what\u2019s beneath us have been made in the past. Referred to by many as the \u2018Door to Hell\u2019, at 12,262 meters the Kola Superdeep Borehole is the deepest artificial point on our planet. <\/strong><\/p>\n

What experts found when they drilled over 12 kilometers took them completely by surprise. :O<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1989\u00a0drilling experts reached 12,262 meters (40,230\u00a0ft), successfully creating the deepest artificial point on our planet.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the\u00a0Kola Superdeep Borehole<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>descends further\u00a0than the\u00a0deepest point of the ocean<\/a>, which lies at\u00a0nearly 6.8 miles (11 kilometers). The borehole is only 23\u00a0cm in diameter.<\/p>\n

While experts only managed to drill 12,263 meters, their main goal was set at 15,000 meters. However, because of higher-than-expected temperatures at this depth and location, 180\u00a0\u00b0C (356\u00a0\u00b0F) instead of expected 100\u00a0\u00b0C (212\u00a0\u00b0F), drilling deeper was deemed unfeasible and the drilling was stopped in 1992.<\/p>\n

In terms of depth, it is the deepest borehole in the world. For two decades it remained as our planet\u2019s longest borehole, in terms of\u00a0measured depth\u00a0along the well bore, until\u00a0it was surpassed in 2008 by the 12,289-metre-long (40,318\u00a0ft)\u00a0Al Shaheen oil well\u00a0in Qatar, and in 2011 by 12,345-metre-long (40,502\u00a0ft)\u00a0Sakhalin-I\u00a0Odoptu OP-11 Well, offshore the Russian island\u00a0Sakhalin.<\/p>\n

The Kola Superdeep Borehole<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>is said to have drilled through a third of the way through the\u00a0Baltic\u00a0continental crust, which experts believe is around 35 kilometers deep. Furthermore, the drill reached rocks of the Archaean\u00a0age (greater than 2.5 billion years old) at the bottom.<\/p>\n

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So what did experts find?<\/h2>\n

While experts gathered a great amount of data during the project, they made some staggering discoveries. Cracks of the rock many kilometers below the surface were found to be saturated with water.<\/p>\n

However, the most important and unexpected discovery was the detection of biological activity in rocks more than two billion years old.<\/p>\n

As noted by Atlas Obscura<\/a>, the clearest evidence of life came in the form of microscopic fossils: the preserved remains of twenty-four species of single-cell marine plants, otherwise known as plankton.<\/p>\n

Microscopic fossils of single-celled organisms 7 kilometers beneath the surface.<\/p>\n

At approximately the same depth, scientists found traces of water.<\/p>\n

Umm\u2026 Our planet has Gas \"\ud83d\ude1b\" Surprisingly, nitrogen, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, and even carbon dioxide (originating from microbes) were discovered all along the borehole.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t basalt down there\u2014which is one of the greatest surprises. \u00a0Scientists believed that at 9,000 meters the granite would give way to basalt. However, to their surprise, it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The temperature was shockingly high. At the bottom of the hole, their instruments measured a staggering 180\u00b0C, one of the main reasons why drilling was discontinued.<\/p>\n

But perhaps what\u2019s even more impressive is the fact that scientists estimate that the\u00a0distance to the center of our planet is nearly 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers)<\/a>. Turns out, 6,500 kilometers isn\u2019t anywhere close and what scientists managed to drill trough barely scratches the surface.<\/p>\n

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Featured image? It\u2019s hard to show the importance and size of the\u00a0Kola Superdeep Borehole. Seen in the featured image is the\u00a0Mirny Diamond Mine in Siberia.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

YouTube Video Here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zz6v6OfoQvs?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1<\/p>\n

Their main goal was set at 15,000 meters, however, drilling was halted when they reached 12,262 meters. The Kola Superdeep Borehole\u2014aka Door to Hell\u2014reached rocks of the Archaean age (greater than 2.5 billion years old) at the bottom. It is the deepest artificial point on our planet, and what scientists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3921532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-code","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3921532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3921532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3921532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3921532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}