The Kola Superdeep Borehole, The Deepest Hole In The World

Looking at the current state of the Kola Superdeep Borehole in the Pechengsky District in Russia, you wouldn't think that it houses the deepest hole in the world. Abandoned in 2008 after the drilling and research equipment were scrapped, the research site now lies in ruins. The borehole itself (pictured below) was welded shut.

The borehole was a scientific research project by the Russians with the aim of drilling as deep as possible into the Earth's crust. Drilling started in 1970 and ended in 1990 when the researchers deemed it no longer feasible to continue drilling because of the high temperature. When drilling stopped, the hole has reached 12,262 meters.

The folks over at SciShow has created a short presentation that provides an overview of the project, details on how it was conducted, and what the researchers found thousands of meters under the Earth's crust.

Photo: Rakot13/Wikimedia Commons