China is drilling a 10,000-meter-deep hole in the Earth's crust
China has begun drilling a hole 10,000 meters deep into the Earth's crust. The project is aimed at gathering data on the Earth's internal structure. Chinese President Xi Jinping has described deep geoscience as one of four strategic frontiers to be explored.
Scientists in China have begun drilling a 10,000-meter-deep hole in the Earth's crust. The drilling project, led by the country's largest oil producer China National Petroleum Corp. will be among the deepest ever. The project began Tuesday in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, according to China's state news agency Xinhua.
The drilling will penetrate more than 10 layers of the earth's crust, reaching the Cretaceous system of cks dating back 145 million years.ro
Weighing more than 2,000 tons, the equipment has been developed to withstand underground temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius and atmospheric pressure 1300 times higher. In addition to the extreme conditions below the surface, the harsh ground environment of the region, home to China's hottest, driest desert, adds to the challenge.
"The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be likened to a large truck traveling on two thin steel cables," Sun Jinsheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said, Insider reported.
THE WORLD'S UNKNOWNS CAN BE EXPLORED
Wang Chunsheng, a technical expert involved in the study, said that with the hole they will drill, they will try to explore unknown regions of the Earth and expand the limits of human knowledge.
The project is expected to last 457 days and will provide data on the Earth's internal structure while using deep underground drilling technologies.
Sinopec, the Chinese state-owned oil refiner, said in a statement that the goal is to drill "Mount Everest from underground". Everest in the Himalayas is the world's highest peak at 8,850 meters.
In a speech to the country's top scientists in 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping identified deep geosciences as one of the four strategic frontiers to be explored. The project is said to help identify mineral and energy resources and assess the risks of environmental disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
On the other hand, the 10,000-meter hole that China will drill will not be the deepest man-made hole. The deepest hole is the Kola Super Deep Borehole in Russia, which reached 12,262 meters in 1989 after 20 years of drilling.
Source: Insider, The Guardian
