Kola superdeep well. Journey to the center of the Earth. Kola superdeep

Vladimir Khomutko

Reading time: 4 minutes

A A

Where is the deepest oil well?

Man has long dreamed of not only flying into space, but also penetrating deep into his native planet. For a long time, this dream remained unrealizable, since existing technologies did not allow us to go any significantly deeper into the earth’s crust.

In the thirteenth century, the depth of the wells that the Chinese dug reached a fantastic 1,200 meters for that time, and starting in the thirties of the last century, with the advent of drilling rigs, people in Europe began to drill three-kilometer-long pits. However, all this, so to speak, was only shallow scratches on the earth's surface.

The idea to drill through the upper shell of the earth into a global project took shape in the 60s of the twentieth century. Previously, all assumptions about the structure of the earth's mantle were based on data from seismic activity and other indirect factors. However, the only way to look into the bowels of the Earth in the literal sense of the word was to drill deep wells.

Hundreds of wells drilled for these purposes, both on land and in the ocean, have provided numerous data that help answer a lot of questions about the structure of our planet. However, now ultra-deep workings pursue not only scientific, but also purely practical goals. Next, we look at the deepest wells ever drilled in the world.

This well, 8,553 meters deep, was drilled in 1977 in the area where the Vienna oil and gas province is located. Small oil deposits were discovered in it, and the idea arose to look deeper. At a depth of 7,544 meters, experts found unrecoverable gas reserves, after which the well suddenly collapsed. The OMV company decided to drill a second one, but despite its great depth, the miners were unable to find any minerals.

Austrian well Zistersdorf

Federal Republic of Germany – Hauptbohrung

German specialists were inspired to organize this deep mining operation by the famous Kola ultra-deep well. In those days, many countries in Europe and the world began to develop their own deep drilling projects. Among them, the Hauptborung project stood out, which was implemented over four years - from 1990 to 1994 in Germany. Despite its relatively small depth (compared to the wells described below) - 9,101 meters, this project has received widespread world fame thanks to open access to the obtained geological and drilling data.

United States of America – Baden Unit

The well, 9,159 meters deep, was drilled by the American company Lone Star in the vicinity of the town of Anadarko (USA). Development began in 1970 and continued for 545 days. The cost of its construction was six million dollars, and in terms of materials, 150 diamond bits and 1,700 tons of cement were used.

USA – Bertha Rogers

This mine was also created in the state of Oklahoma in the area of ​​the Anadarko oil and gas province in Oklahoma. Work began in 1974 and lasted 502 days. The drilling was also carried out by the same company as in the previous example. Having passed 9,583 meters, the miners came across a deposit of molten sulfur and were forced to stop work.

This well in the Guinness Book of Records is called “the deepest intrusion into the Earth’s crust made by man.” In May 1970, in the vicinity of the lake with the hair-raising name Vilgiskoddeoaivinjärvi, the construction of this grandiose mine began. Initially we wanted to walk 15 kilometers, but because it was too high temperatures stopped at 12,262 meters. Currently, the Kola Superdeep Pipeline is mothballed.

Qatar – BD-04A

Drilled in an oil field called Al-Shaheen for the purpose of geological exploration.

The total depth was 12,289 meters, and the 12-kilometer mark was passed in just 36 days! It was seven years ago.

Russian Federation – OP-11

Since 2003, a whole series of ultra-deep drilling works began as part of the Sakhalin-1 project.

In 2011, Exxon Neftegas drilled the deepest oil well in the world - 12,245 meters - in just 60 days.

It happened at a field called Odoptu.

However, the records didn't end there.

O-14 is a production well in the world that has no analogues in terms of the total length of the trunk - 13,500 meters, as well as the longest horizontal well - 12,033 meters.

It was developed by Russian company NK Rosneft, part of the consortium of the Sakhalin-1 project. This well was developed in a field called Chayvo. The state-of-the-art Orlan drilling platform was used to drill it.

We also note the depth along the shaft of the well constructed in 2013 as part of the same project under number Z-43, the value of which reached 12,450 meters. In the same year, this record was broken at the Chayvinskoye field - the length of the Z-42 shaft reached 12,700 meters, and the length of the horizontal section - 11,739 meters.

In 2014, the excavation of the Z-40 well (offshore Chayvo field) was completed, which until O-14 was the longest well in the world - 13,000 meters, and also had the longest horizontal section - 12,130 m.

In other words, to date, 8 of the 10 longest wells in the world are located in the fields of the Sakhalin-1 project.

Kola superdeep well

The field, called Chayvo, is one of three being developed by the consortium on Sakhalin. It is located in the northeast of the coast of Sakhalin Island. The depth of the seabed in this area varies from 14 to 30 m. The field was put into operation back in 2005.

In general, the international shelf project Sakhalin-1 unites the interests of several large global corporations. It includes three fields located on the offshore shelf Odoptu, Chayvo and Arkutun-Dagi. According to experts, the total available hydrocarbon reserves here are about 236 million tons of oil and almost 487 billion cubic meters natural gas. The Chaivo field was put into operation (as we said above) in 2005, the Odoptu field in 2010, and at the very beginning of 2015 the development of the Arkutun-Dagi field began.

Over the entire existence of the project, it was possible to produce about 70 million tons of oil and 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Currently, the project has encountered some difficulties associated with fluctuations in oil prices, but members of the consortium have confirmed their interest in further work.

Despite the fact that we are in the 21st century, the internal structure of our planet has been studied very little. We know quite well what is going on in deep space, but at the same time, the degree of penetration into the secrets of the Earth can be compared to a light pinprick into the surface of the rind of a watermelon.
In the mid-1950s, when drillers learned to make wells more than 7 km deep, humanity came closer to achieving a very ambitious task - to go through the earth's crust and see what lies beneath it. Our compatriots came closest to this goal when they drilled the Kola superdeep well.
The Earth's solid shell is surprisingly thin relative to its size - the thickness of the crust varies between 20-65 km on land and 3-8 km under the ocean, occupying less than 1% of the planet's volume. Behind it is a vast layer - the mantle - which accounts for the bulk of the Earth's volume. Even lower is the dense core, consisting primarily of iron, but also nickel, lead, uranium and other metals. Between the crust and the mantle there is a boundary zone, named after the Yugoslav scientist who discovered it, the Mohorovic surface (border), or Moho for short. In this zone, the speed of propagation of seismic waves increases sharply. There are a number of hypotheses designed to explain this phenomenon, but in general it remains unsolved.

The most important goal of the most serious deep drilling projects launched in the second half of the 20th century was precisely this mysterious layer. Researchers were never able to reach it, but data on the structure earth's crust, obtained during the drilling of ultra-deep wells, turned out to be so unexpected that the Mohorovic boundary seemed to fade into the background. First it was necessary to explain the mysteries discovered in higher layers.
The Americans were the first to begin deep drilling of the earth's crust for scientific purposes. In the 1960s they launched science project“Mohole”, which provided for the creation of underwater with the help of special drilling ships. Over the next thirty years, more than 800 wells appeared in the seas and oceans, many of which are located at depths of more than 4 km. The longest well was able to go only 800 m into the seabed, and yet the data obtained were of enormous importance for geology. In particular, they served as significant confirmation of the so-called. tectonic theory, according to which the continents are based on solid lithospheric plates, slowly floating, immersed in a liquid mantle.

Of course, the USSR could not lag behind its overseas competitor, so in the mid-1960s, we launched numerous projects to study the earth’s crust. Soviet scientists took a slightly different path, deciding to drill wells not in the sea, but on land. The most famous and successful project of this kind is the Kola superdeep well - the deepest “hole in the ground” ever made by man. The well is located at the northern tip of the Kola Peninsula. This place was not chosen by chance - over hundreds of millions of years, natural erosion destroyed the surface of the Kola crystalline shield, stripping off the upper layers of the rock. As a result, ancient Archean layers appeared on the surface, corresponding to depths of 5-10 km for the average section of the continental-type earth's crust. The 15-kilometer design depth of the well allowed scientists to hope to reach the mysterious Mohorovic surface.
Drilling of the Kola well began in 1970, and it ended more than 20 years later - in 1994. At first, the drillers worked using completely traditional methods: a column of light-alloy pipes was lowered into the well, at the end of which a cylindrical metal drill with diamond teeth and sensors was attached. The column was rotated by an engine located on the surface. As the depth of the well increased, new sections were added to the pipes. Periodically, the entire column had to be lifted to the surface to remove the cut rock core and replace the dull crown. Unfortunately, this proven technology becomes ineffective when the well depth exceeds a certain mark: the friction of the pipes against the walls of the well becomes too great for this entire huge shaft to be rotated. To overcome this difficulty, engineers developed a design in which only the drill head rotated. Turbines were installed at the end of the column, through which drilling fluid was passed - a special liquid that acts as a lubricant and circulates through the pipes. These turbines made the drill rotate.

The samples brought to the surface during the drilling process made a real revolution in geology. Existing ideas about the structure of the earth's crust turned out to be far from reality. The first surprise was the absence of a transition from granite to basalt, which scientists expected to see at a depth of about 6 km. Seismological studies indicate that in this area the speed of propagation of acoustic waves changes sharply, which has been interpreted as the beginning of a basaltic foundation of the earth's crust. However, even after the transition zone, granites and gneisses continued to rise to the surface. From this point on, it became clear that the prevailing model of a two-layer earth's crust was incorrect. Now the presence of a seismic transition is explained by a change in the properties of the rock under conditions of increased pressure and temperature.
An even more surprising discovery was the fact that rocks located at depths of more than 9 km turned out to be extremely porous. Before this, it was believed that as depth and pressure increase, they, on the contrary, should become increasingly dense. Miniature cracks filled water solution, whose origin for a long time remained completely unclear. Later, a theory was put forward according to which the discovered water is formed from hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which are “squeezed out” from the surrounding rock under the influence of colossal pressures.
Another surprise: life on planet Earth turns out to have arisen 1.5 billion years earlier than expected. At a depth of 6.7 km, where it was believed that there was no organic matter, 14 species of fossilized microorganisms were discovered. They were found in extremely uncharacteristic carbon-nitrogen deposits (instead of the usual limestone or silica) that were over 2.8 billion years old. At even greater depths, where there are no longer sediments, methane appeared in huge concentrations. This completely and utterly destroyed the theory. biological origin hydrocarbons such as oil and gas.
Scientists were also extremely surprised by the speed with which the temperature increased as the well deepened. At the 7 km mark it reached 120 °C, and at a depth of 12 km it was already 230 °C, which was a third higher than the planned value: the temperature gradient of the crust was almost 20 degrees per 1 km, instead of the expected 16. It was also found that half of the heat flow is of radiogenic origin. The high temperature negatively affected the operation of the bit, so the drilling fluid began to be cooled before pumping it into the well. This measure turned out to be quite effective, however, after passing the 12 km mark, it was no longer able to provide sufficient heat removal. In addition, the compressed and heated rock acquired some properties of a liquid, as a result of which the well began to float the next time the drill string was removed. Further progress turned out to be impossible without new technological solutions and significant financial costs, so in 1994 drilling was suspended. By that time, the well had deepened to 12,262 m.

The deepest wells in the world March 18th, 2015

The dream of penetrating into the depths of our planet, along with plans to send a person into space, seemed absolutely impossible for many centuries. In the 13th century, the Chinese were already digging wells up to 1,200 meters deep, and with the advent of drilling rigs in the 1930s, Europeans managed to penetrate to a depth of three kilometers, but these were only scratches on the body of the planet.

As a global project, the idea to drill into the upper shell of the Earth appeared in the 1960s. Hypotheses about the structure of the mantle were based on indirect data, such as seismic activity. And the only way to literally look into the bowels of the earth was to drill ultra-deep wells. Hundreds of wells on the surface and in the depths of the ocean have provided answers to some of the scientists' questions, but the days when they were used to test a variety of hypotheses are long gone.

Let's remember the list of the deepest wells on earth...

Siljan Ring (Sweden, 6800 m)

At the end of the 80s in Sweden, a well of the same name was drilled in the Siljan Ring crater. According to the scientists’ hypothesis, it was in that place that natural gas deposits of non-biological origin were expected to be found. The drilling result disappointed both investors and scientists. Hydrocarbons in industrial scale were not found.

Zistersdorf UT2A (Austria, 8553 m)

In 1977, the Zistersdorf UT1A well was drilled in the Vienna oil and gas basin, where several small oil fields were hidden. When unrecoverable gas reserves were discovered at a depth of 7,544 m, the first well suddenly collapsed, forcing OMV to drill a second. However, this time the miners did not find deep hydrocarbon resources.

Hauptbohrung (Germany, 9101 m)

The famous Kola well made an indelible impression on the European public. Many countries have begun to prepare their ultra-deep well projects, but the Hauptborung well, developed from 1990 to 1994 in Germany, is especially noteworthy. Reaching only 9 km, it has become one of the most famous ultra-deep wells thanks to the openness of drilling and scientific data.

Baden Unit (USA, 9159 m)

A well drilled by Lone Star near the city of Anadarko. Its development began in 1970 and lasted for 545 days. In total, this well required 1,700 tons of cement and 150 diamond bits. And its total cost cost the company $6 million.

Bertha Rogers (USA, 9583 m)

Another ultra-deep well created in the Anadarko oil and gas basin in Oklahoma in 1974. The entire drilling process took Lone Star workers 502 days. Work had to be stopped when miners stumbled upon a molten sulfur deposit at a depth of 9.5 kilometers.

Kola superdeep (USSR, 12,262 m)

Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as "the deepest human invasion of the earth's crust." When drilling began in May 1970 near the lake with the unpronounceable name Vilgiskoddeoaivinjärvi, it was assumed that the well would reach a depth of 15 kilometers. But due to high temperatures (up to 230°C), the work had to be curtailed. On this moment The Kola well is mothballed.

I already told you about the history of this well -

BD-04A (Qatar, 12,289 m)

7 years ago, exploration well BD-04A was drilled in the Al-Shaheen oil field in Qatar. It is noteworthy that the Maersk drilling platform was able to reach 12 kilometers in a record 36 days!

OP-11 (Russia, 12,345 m)

January 2011 was marked by a message from Exxon Neftegas that drilling of the longest extended reach well was close to completion. OR-11, located at the Odoptu field, also set a record for the length of a horizontal wellbore - 11,475 meters. The miners were able to complete the work in just 60 days.

The total length of the OP-11 well at the Odoptu field was 12,345 meters (7.67 miles), thereby setting a new world record for drilling extended reach wells (ERR). OR-11 also ranked first in the world in terms of the horizontal distance between the bottom and the drilling point - 11,475 meters (7.13 miles). ENL completed the record-breaking well in just 60 days using ExxonMobil's high-speed drilling and integrated drilling quality control technologies, achieving the highest drilling performance in every foot of the OR-11 well.

“The Sakhalin-1 project continues to contribute to Russia's leadership in the global oil and gas industry,” said James Taylor, ENL President. — To date, 6 of the 10 longest EDS wells, including the OP-11 well, have been drilled as part of the Sakhalin-1 project using drilling technologies from ExxonMobil Corporation. The specially designed Yastreb drilling rig was used throughout the project, setting numerous industry records for hole length, drilling speed and directional drilling performance. New record We have also delivered, while maintaining excellent performance in the field of safety, health and environment».

The Odoptu field, one of three fields of the Sakhalin-1 project, is located on the shelf, at a distance of 5-7 miles (8-11 km) from the north-eastern coast of Sakhalin Island. BOV technology makes it possible to successfully drill wells from the shore under the seabed to reach offshore oil and gas deposits, without violating the principles of safety and environmental protection, in one of the most difficult subarctic regions of the world to develop.

P.S. And here's what they write in the comments: tim_o_fay: let's separate the flies from the cutlets :) Long well ≠ deep. The same BD-04A, of its 12,289 m, has 10,902 m of horizontal trunk. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x150185 Accordingly, the vertical there is a kilometer or so in total. What does it mean? This means low (comparatively) pressure and temperature at the bottom, soft rocks (with a good penetration rate), etc. and so on. OP-11 from the same opera. I won’t say that drilling horizontals is easy (I’ve been doing this for eight years), but it’s still much easier than drilling super-deep ones. Bertha Rogers, SG-3 (Kola), Baden Unit and others with great true vertical depth (literal translation from English True Vertical Depth, TVD) - this is truly something transcendental. In 1985, former graduates from all over the Union came to the fiftieth anniversary of SOGRT with stories and gifts for the technical school museum. Then I was honored to touch a piece of granite gneiss from a depth of more than 11.5 km :)

In 1970, right on Lenin’s 100th birthday, Soviet scientists began 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 most interesting discoveries, went down in the history of science, and in the end it acquired so many legends, rumors and gossip that it would be enough for more than one horror film.

THE USSR. Kola Peninsula. October 1, 1980. Advanced well drillers that reached a record depth of 10,500 meters

Entrance to hell

During its heyday, the drilling site on the Kola Peninsula was a cyclopean structure the height of a 20-story building. Up to three thousand people worked here per shift. The team was led by the country's leading geologists. 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 began to spread. By any measure, the drilling was extraordinarily successful. No one in the world has ever managed to reach such a depth - Soviet geologists lowered the drill more than 12 kilometers.

Sudden end successful project It looked as absurd as the fact that the Americans had closed the program of flights to the Moon. Aliens were blamed for the collapse of the lunar project. There are devils and demons in the problems of the Kola Superdeep.

A popular legend says that the drill was repeatedly pulled out from great depths 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 monitoring instrument readings complained of feelings of panic 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 work had stopped, a powerful explosion occurred at the drilling rig. No one understood what could explode there, not even the leader of the entire project, the prominent geologist David Guberman.

Today they take excursions to the abandoned drilling rig and tell tourists a fascinating story about how scientists drilled a hole in underground kingdom dead. It’s as if moaning ghosts roam around the installation, and in the evening demons crawl to the surface and strive to whisk the unwary extreme sportsman into the abyss.

Underground Moon

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

To begin with, ultra-deep drilling was doomed to numerous accidents. Under the yoke of enormous pressure (up to 1000 atmospheres) and high temperatures, the drills could not withstand, the well became clogged, and the pipes used to strengthen the vent broke. Countless times the narrow well was bent so that more and more branches had to be drilled.

The worst accident occurred shortly after the main triumph of geologists. In 1982, they were able to overcome the 12 kilometer mark. 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 fantastic depths that humanity had never reached before.

After the celebration, drilling continued. However, the break in work turned out to be fatal. In 1984, the worst drilling accident occurred. As many as five kilometers of pipes came loose and clogged the well. It was impossible to continue drilling. Five years of work were lost overnight.

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

But parallel to the terrible accidents, there were also incredible discoveries. Deep drilling is like a time machine. On the Kola Peninsula, the oldest rocks approach the surface, their age exceeding 3 billion years. By going deeper, scientists have gained a clear understanding of what happened on our planet during its youth.

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

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

But among 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. At even greater depths, huge deposits of methane were found. This clarified the issue of the emergence of hydrocarbons - oil and gas.

And at a depth of over 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 coincided with the composition of the rocks they mined at a depth of 3 kilometers. How was this possible?

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

The final

So why did they close the Kola superdeep pipeline?

Firstly, the main objectives of the scientific expedition were completed. Unique equipment for drilling at great depths was created, tested under extreme conditions and significantly improved. The collected rock samples were examined 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, funding for the scientific expedition was cut off. The employees quit and went home. But even today the grandiose building of the drilling rig and the mysterious well are impressive in 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 - so we must use it!” - exclaimed David Huberman.

One of the most ambitious projects of the Soviet era was the Kola superdeep well with a depth of 12,262 meters. This record remains unsurpassed to this day.

Year of issue: 2012

A country: Russia (TV "Center")

Genre: Documentary

Duration: 00:25:21

Director: Vladimir Batrakov

Description: The authors of the report will talk about the history and goals of this bold scientific experiment, talk with its direct participants, and explain the results obtained in a popular form. Viewers will be able to see the current state of the rig.

Drilling began in 1970, and until the mid-80s the work was completely classified.

In 1992, drilling was stopped due to lack of funding - the well was never completed to the planned depth of 15 kilometers. But even at the existing depth, unique scientific data were obtained.

In addition, it is with the Kola superdeep well that the legend is connected about the sounds of eerie human screams allegedly recorded at great depths, which caused the most incredible assumptions in the press...

Additional Information:

Digging to Beelzebub: In the 1970s, a team of Soviet researchers carried out drilling operations on the Kola Peninsula, resulting in the deepest well in the world. The large-scale project was conceived for research purposes, but unexpectedly led to almost hysteria around the world. According to rumors, Soviet scientists have stumbled upon the “road to hell,” writes SPIEGEL ONLINE.

“A chilling picture: in the middle of the depopulated expanses of the Kola Peninsula, 150 km north of Murmansk, an abandoned drilling rig rises. Barracks for employees and rooms with laboratories are crowded around. A thick layer of dust has covered every last trace of a person’s presence, apparently leaving these places in a hurry,” - the author continues.

On May 24, 1970, when the USSR and the USA were racing to explore space, a project to drill an ultra-deep well at the location of the geological Baltic Shield was launched in the Soviet Union on the border with Finland and Norway. Over the course of several decades, the Kola superdeep well “swallowed” millions, allowing scientists to make several rather serious scientific discoveries. However, the most high-profile discovery at a depth of over 10 km turned the research project into an event with deeply religious overtones, in which guesswork, truth and lies were mixed together, giving rise to sensational reports in all the world's media.

Soon after the start of drilling, the Kola Superdeep became a Soviet model project; within a few years, SG-3 broke the record of 9583 m, previously held by the Burt-Rogers well in Oklahoma. But Soviet leadership this was not enough - scientists had to reach a depth of 15 km.

"On the way to the bowels of the earth, scientists made unexpected discoveries: So, they were able to predict earthquakes based on unusual sounds from a well. At a depth of 3 thousand meters in the layers of the lithosphere, a substance was discovered that was almost identical to material from the surface of the Moon. After 6 thousand meters gold was discovered. However, scientists were increasingly concerned by the fact that the deeper they penetrated, the higher the temperatures became, complicating the progress of the work,” the article says. Unlike preliminary calculations, the temperature was not 100 degrees Celsius, but 180.

Around the same time, rumors spread that at a depth of 14 km the drill was suddenly moving from side to side - a sign that it had fallen into a giant cavity. Temperatures in the passage zone went over a thousand degrees, and after a heat-resistant microphone was lowered into the mine to record the sound of the movement of lithospheric plates, the drillers heard chilling sounds. At first they mistook them for the sounds of malfunctioning equipment, but then, after the equipment was adjusted, their worst suspicions were confirmed. The sounds were reminiscent of the screams and groans of thousands of martyrs, the article says.

“Where exactly this legend takes its origins is still unknown,” the author continues. It was first broadcast in English in 1989 on the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which took the story from a Finnish newspaper report. The Kola superdeep well began to be called “the road to hell.” The stories of frightened drillers were published in Finnish and Swedish newspapers - they claimed that “the Russians released a demon from hell.”

Drilling work was stopped - they were explained by insufficient funding. According to instructions from above, the drilling rig should have been toppled - but there was not enough money for this either.

27.04.2011

Kola superdeep well(SG-3) - recognized as the deepest borehole in the world. The mine is located on the territory of the geological Baltic Shield in Murmansk region, 10 km west of the city of Zapolyarny. Its total depth is 12,262 meters.

Its main difference from other ultra-deep wells that were drilled for gas, oil or geological exploration, the Kola ultra-deep well was built exclusively for scientific research lithosphere in the place where the Mohorovicic boundary comes closest to the Earth's surface.

SG-3 record well

The first stage of drilling the SG-3 well, the Kola superdeep well, has been completed. It was started in May 1970 and by the beginning of 1975 it had gone 7,263 meters into the depths.

Is this a lot? Or does drilling to such depth no longer surprise anyone? In Ukraine, the Shevchenkovskaya-1 well was drilled to a depth of more than 7,500 meters.

Ten wells in different places Soviet Union exceeded 6 thousand meters. The deepest well in the world was drilled in the USA - 9583 meters. In such an environment, the Kola Superdeep seems ordinary, one of many superdeep.

• Firstly, because this well is so far the deepest in the world drilled in Precambrian crystalline rocks.
• Secondly, the Kola superdeep well is a new word in drilling technology. For the first time in world practice, a significant part of the well was drilled with an “open hole”, that is, without casing pipes.

Every meter of the well along its entire length was carefully studied, every column of extracted rock was examined.

The thickness of the earth's crust varies. Under the ocean it thins out to 5 kilometers in some places.

On continents in areas of ancient folding it is 20-30, and under mountain ranges up to 75 kilometers. The earth's crust is called the skin of the planet.

Sometimes, in order to more figuratively show the deep structure of the Earth, a comparison with an egg is made. In this case, the bark plays the role of a shell.

Despite this seemingly insignificant thickness, the “shell” of the Earth has so far remained inaccessible to direct research.

Basic information about it was obtained indirectly—by geophysical methods. For example, based on reflected seismic waves, it has been established that the earth’s crust has a layered structure.

The continental crust consists of sedimentary, granite and basalt layers; the oceanic crust does not have a granite layer.

Below the earth's crust, seismic observations identified the mantle (if we continue the comparison with an egg - the white), and in the center of the Earth the core - the yolk.

To study the depths of the earth, gravimetric, magnetometric, nuclear, and geothermal methods are also used. They make it possible to determine the density of rocks at great depths, establish gravity anomalies, characterize magnetic field, temperature and dozens of other parameters.

Yet many basic geological questions remain unanswered. Only direct penetration into the subsoil will finally help remove these question marks of geology.

Kola superdeep

The Kola superdeep is located on the Baltic crystalline shield. This is the oldest formation of the earth’s crust, which in the Scandinavian and Kola Peninsulas, Karelia, the Baltic Sea and part of the Leningrad region comes close to the earth’s surface.

It can be assumed that the basalt layer here lies at a depth of just over 7 kilometers. The shield is composed of ancient, highly altered rocks: Archean gneisses, crystalline schists, intrusive rocks up to 3.5 billion years old or more.

Scientists will have access to deep substance, will be able to study it in detail, conduct observations along the entire borehole, build a real, and not an assumed, continental-type section of the earth's crust, and determine the composition and physical state of the substance.

About half the way to the projected 15-kilometer mark has been completed. And even this seemingly modest intermediate result turned out to be very interesting in a number of important indicators.

For the first time in world science and practice, a well penetrated and studied in detail the thickness of not young sedimentary deposits, but ancient crystalline rocks; for the first time, it was possible to collect a lot of new information about these rocks and the geological and physical conditions of their occurrence.

By promptly creating and applying various technical innovations, continuously improving drilling technology and adapting it to specific geological conditions, Soviet scientists and drillers, using domestic equipment and tools, paved more than seven kilometers of passage in the hardest rocks of the earth.

The path to the bowels of the Earth has, in a certain sense, become a road technical progress in drilling: what has proven itself well when drilling wells in other areas is tested and improved, new technical means and technology are created and tested.

The Kola Superdeep has become an experimental site testing new equipment and technology for drilling operations. The role of the general designer and scientific director of this unique test site has been entrusted to our All-Union Order of the Red Banner of Labor Scientific Research Institute of Drilling Equipment (VNIIBT) of the Ministry of Oil Industry.

Well to hell

The drilling of the Kola superdeep well served as a source of rumors associated with the emergence of the legend of the “road to hell”.

The primary source of information (1989) was the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which, in turn, took the story from a report by a Finnish newspaper. Allegedly, while drilling a well at a depth of 12 thousand meters, the scientists’ microphones recorded screams and moans.

The Kola superdeep well immediately received the name “the road to hell” - and every new kilometer drilled brought misfortune to the country. At a depth of 13,000 meters, the USSR collapsed, at a depth of 14,500 meters, scientists stumbled upon voids.

The researchers lowered the microphone into the shaft and heard strange, terrifying sounds and even human screams. The sensors showed a temperature of 1100 °C. Scientists decided that they had discovered hell.

In fact, acoustic methods for studying wells record not the sound itself and not on a microphone, but the wave pattern of reflected elastic vibrations to geophones.

The drilling stop depth was 12,262 meters and the temperature recorded at this depth was only 220 °C, which in no way corresponds to the main “facts” of the legend.

Kola Superdeep: the last fireworks

Sounds of the underground - secrets of the deepest well (TC "Vesti")

Kola superdeep hellish deception

Exists creepy story about how Soviet drillers drilled the earth so deep that they reached all the way to hell. They lowered a microphone into the well and recorded the cries of the sinners. Recently, interest in such a supernatural achievement of science has flared up with new strength- the recording itself appeared. The sounds really resemble the roar of a crowd, singing, and some squeaking screams can be heard.

The story features a certain “Dmitry Azzakov”, to whom everyone refers. But numerous attempts to find this man led nowhere. Our further investigation showed that the surname itself appeared in print back in 1989. We found it in the Finnish newspaper Ammenusastia (a Christian monthly in the Levasjoki region). It is possible that this is the original source. There, Dr. “Azzakov,” a Soviet geologist, stated the following: “As a communist, I do not believe in heaven and the Bible, but as a scientist, I am now forced to believe in hell. Needless to say, we were shocked to make this discovery. But we know what we heard and what we saw. And we are absolutely sure that we drilled through the gates of hell.”

It followed from the newspaper that the drama allegedly broke out in the USSR when geologists conducting research in Western Siberia, reached a depth of 14.4 km. Suddenly, the drill bit began to spin wildly, revealing that there was a void or cave below. When the scientists raised the drill, a fanged, clawed creature with huge evil eyes appeared from the well, squealing like a wild animal, and disappeared. Frightened, most of the workers and engineers ran away, and the rest had to undergo no less a test.

“We lowered a microphone into the well, designed to record the movement of lithospheric plates,” Azzakov further said. - But instead we heard a loud human voice, which sounded pain. At first we thought that the sound was coming from the drilling equipment, but when we checked it carefully, our worst suspicions were confirmed. The screams and screams did not come from one person. These were the screams and moans of millions of people. Fortunately, we recorded the terrifying sounds on tape.”

And by June 1990, they had drilled here to 12,260 meters. Now the work has been stopped, but then geologists did not hear about any hell.

In the end, it turned out that both stories were launched by the Norwegian Age Rendalin, who liked to call himself “special adviser to the Norwegian Minister of Justice.” When they became interested in him, it turned out that he was just a school teacher with an overdeveloped imagination.

He admitted that he made it all up to test how seriously the Christian press verified its publications. The audio recording, of course, was made by someone else today in order to somehow stir up interest in the old fake.