Why was the USSR therem stop digging through the earth? The secret will be revealed after the year.
In 1970, the Soviet Union launched an unprecedented project with the goal of digging through the earth. After more than ten years, they finally discovered a gold layer at 12,262 meters underground.
However, at this moment, the work came to an abrupt halt, and the deep well was sealed with an iron cap. The pit, known as the "Kola ultra-deep well", became one of the most famous scientific achievements of the Soviet Union, but its abrupt interruption caused speculation.
Some say that the USSR stopped the work because it dug the "gates of hell", which were full of terrible things. So, what exactly is the truth?
Why did the Soviet Union challenge the limits of digging through the earth? What are their goals? Let's review that historical background. After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States rose rapidly to become the world's two major superpowers.
It is often said that one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. Both the USSR and the United States aspired to be world leaders. Thus, beginning in 1947, the two sides entered the Cold War period. Although the two sides did not like each other, they did not engage in direct conflict, but confronted each other from multiple aspects such as military, political and scientific research, in order to show their strength and force their opponents to admit defeat.
The United States possessed the atomic bomb, and the Soviet Union immediately developed its own nuclear **; The United States has established a military alliance with NATO, and the Soviet Union has also established a military alliance with the Warsaw Pact.
Subsequently, the two sides launched a competition in the field of scientific research to see who would achieve the goal of landing on the moon first. The Soviet Union was the first to launch the first artificial satellite, while the United States achieved the first human landing on the moon, and Armstrong successfully landed on the moon in 1969.
After being slightly inferior in the "sky" race, the Soviets, who did not admit defeat, thought of the "underground", and since they are inferior to you in the sky race, then I will save face in the underground race and see who goes deeper underground.
Thus, the Soviet Union's "super-drilling" program was launched, determined to detect the Mohorovich discontinuum (the boundary between the earth's crust and mantle) before the United States.
In May 1970, this massive project began on the Kola Peninsula with the participation of hundreds of scientists and staff. They firmly believe that this time they will be able to defeat the United States and win back the face they lost in the space race.
In order to motivate employees, the Soviet Union provided generous benefits, each employee was assigned an apartment in Moscow, and their monthly salary was comparable to the annual salary of a university professor at that time.
Under the effect of material incentives, the scientists and staff were full of energy, and the preliminary work was very smooth without encountering too many difficulties.
When they went 9,500 meters underground, they made an unexpected discovery. The drill bit came across a staggering gold layer, and workers immediately took samples and handed them over to scientists.
Scientists were shocked by the gold content of this gold layer, which was as high as 80 grams per tonne. Everyone was excited, thinking that they were about to develop. It is important to know that the gold content of the ore layer is usually 4 grams per tonne and it is already worth mining, but now the gold content of this ore layer is 20 times that of the ordinary ore layer.
So everyone was excited. However, they did not end up mining the gold mine. On the one hand, this seam is so deep that it would take nearly a decade to dig just one hole, and it could take hundreds of years for full mining.
On the other hand, their current task is to dig the earth's crust, after all, this well carries the mission of "winning glory for the country", and in the face of national honor, gold must also give way.
The Soviet Union had successfully drilled to a depth of 12,000 meters in 1983, but since then it has encountered great difficulties and the pace of drilling has gradually slowed down. The main problem is the drill bit, and as the depth increases, so does the temperature in the ground, increasing by 3 degrees Celsius every 100 meters.
By the time the drill reached 12,000 meters, the temperature in the ground had already reached several levels, which caused great loss to the drill bit. Often, before the drill has even started, the drill bit is scrapped due to high temperatures.
It is very troublesome to replace the drill bit, because the drill bit is more than 10,000 meters underground, and it takes several days or even half a month to pull the drill bit up. Frequent changes in drill bits greatly delayed the progress of drilling.
Drill pipe deformation and replacement problems.
The Soviets stopped their deep drilling at some point, leaving the outside world full of speculation about what they had discovered. The most frequently mentioned is the "Gates of Hell".
It is said that when they went 12,262 meters underground, some mysterious sounds came from the cave, which aroused the interest of scientists and workers. To make sense of the sounds, scientists used steel ropes to place a sophisticated radio at the bottom of the cave to detect them.
When the radio was picked up and turned on, everyone was horrified by the sound inside. The sound they heard was like the screams of humans, and it was terrifying.
There is speculation that they have found the "Gates of Hell", and these sounds are a warning from the creatures of hell to humans that if they continue to dig, something even more terrifying may be unleashed.
Therefore, the staff immediately left the scene and did not even have time to take some of the equipment with them. After that, the well, which was 12,262 meters deep, was covered with a heavy iron cap, as if it was going to seal something.
To commemorate this deep drill, someone wrote the depth of the drill on the lid, but accidentally wrote it down to 12,226 meters.
So, how real is the "Gates of Hell" event? Despite the widespread circulation, the Soviet authorities never responded publicly, suggesting that the "Gates of Hell" incident may have been fictional and lacked substantive basis.
Looking back at the historical background, the real reason for the cessation of drilling in the USSR may have been a shortage of funds. At that time, the Soviet Union had collapsed, its strength was greatly reduced, and there was not enough financial support to continue digging deeper.
Moreover, with the end of the "cold war", it was no longer necessary for the USSR to continue this program. In addition, the technical factor cannot be ignored. From 1983 to 1993, they dug only 262 meters downward, and with the technology of the time, it was almost impossible to solve the problem of high temperatures and drill pipes, so technical constraints and lack of funds led the Soviet Union to abandon this program.
The Soviet Union decided to dig through the earth, but even if there were sufficient funds at the time, or if the United States and the Soviet Union joined forces to dig down, it would not have been possible. There are three reasons for this: first, there is a high temperature of 6,000 degrees in the interior of the earth, which the drill bit cannot withstand; Secondly, the earth is like an onion with many layers, from the outside to the inside are the crust, mantle, and core.
Therefore, digging through the earth is an impossible task.
As the depth increases, so does the Earth's temperature. The Earth's crust is the outermost layer of the Earth, with an average thickness of 17,000 meters, and the most abundant chemical element is oxygen, which accounts for 48 percent of the total weight6%。
The Tibetan Plateau has the thickest crust, reaching a thickness of more than 70 kilometers, while the Mariana Trench has the thinnest crust. Next is the mantle, about 2,900 km thick, composed mainly of tight rock-forming material.
The Earth's mantle is the largest and most massive layer of the Earth, and the temperature at its junction with the Earth's core is about 3,500 degrees Celsius. Finally, there is the earth's core, which has a radius of 3,480 kilometers, and the temperature of its core is as high as 6,000 degrees Celsius.
The Earth's core, the core of the Earth, has a radius of up to 6,400 kilometers and is filled with hot magma and tremendous pressure. Digging through the earth requires tools that can withstand temperatures of 6,000 degrees, but this is not possible with current technology.
In addition, the thickness of the earth is also a problem, even if the Soviets dug for almost two decades, reaching only 12,262 meters of the earth's crust. At this rate, even if we one day have the tools to dig through the earth, it will take tens of thousands of years to complete.
Therefore, it is extremely difficult to dig through the earth.
If the earth is dug through, the consequences are unimaginable. Digging through the earth may seem like a remarkable technological feat, but it is actually a major threat to human life. A magma eruption in the Earth's core will have a series of terrible consequences:1The hot magma inside the Earth's core will erupt like a pressure cooker as it pierces through the earth's crust, and this hot magma will cause a lot of loss of life to plants and animals.
It's going to be a creepy picture. 2.Digging through the earth may disrupt the natural balance of the earth, lead to major changes in the earth's ecological environment, and may even trigger a total collapse of the earth's environment.
Therefore, we must be cautious about digging through the earth to ensure the safety of humanity and the harmony of the planet.
1.In addition to magmatic eruptions, the risk of the Earth deviating from its trajectory cannot be ignored. Once the Earth is dug through, the internal air pressure is unbalanced, which may lead to a deviation in the trajectory and may even collide with other celestial bodies.
2.The stability of the Earth's magnetic field may be threatened by the excavation of the Earth's core. The movement of the Earth's core affects the Earth's magnetic field, and if the Earth's core is dug through and the internal pressure is released, the state of the Earth's core may change, which in turn will cause the Earth's magnetic field to change.
This will have a serious impact on precision instruments, animal sense of direction, and even human life.
While digging through the earth could have a range of catastrophic consequences, the current state of technology limits our ability to achieve this goal, and you can rest assured for the time being.