In the 50-70s of the last century, the world was changing at an incredible speed. Things have appeared, without which it is difficult to imagine today's world: the Internet, a computer, cellular communications, the conquest of space and the depths of the sea appeared. Man was rapidly expanding the spheres of his presence in the Universe, but he still had rather rough ideas about the structure of his "home" - the planet Earth. Although even then the idea of ​​ultra-deep drilling was not new: back in 1958, the Americans launched the Mohole project. Its name is derived from two words:

Moho- a surface named after Andriy Mohorovichich, a Croatian geophysicist and seismologist, who in 1909 identified the lower boundary of the earth's crust, on which an abrupt increase in the speed of seismic waves occurs;
hole- well, hole, orifice. Based on the assumption that the thickness of the earth's crust under the oceans is much less than on land, 5 wells were drilled near the island of Guadelupe with a depth of about 180 meters (with an ocean depth of up to 3.5 km). In five years, the researchers drilled five wells, collected many samples from the basalt layer, but did not reach the mantle. As a result, the project was declared a failure and the work was curtailed.

In 1970, just in time for Lenin's 100th birthday, Soviet scientists launched 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 of interesting discoveries, went down in the history of science, and in the end was overgrown with so many legends, rumors and gossip that would be enough for more than one horror movie.

entrance to hell

During its heyday, the drilling rig on the Kola Peninsula was a cyclopean structure 20-story high. Up to three thousand people worked here per shift. The team was led by leading geologists of the country. 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 spread. By all measures, the drilling was remarkably successful. No one in the world has yet managed to reach such a depth - Soviet geologists lowered the drill more than 12 kilometers.

The sudden end of a successful project looked as ridiculous as the fact that the Americans closed the program of flights to the moon. Aliens were blamed for the collapse of the lunar project. In the problems of the Kola Superdeep - devils and demons.


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A popular legend says that from great depths, the drill was repeatedly taken out 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 who monitored the instrument readings complained of feelings of panic fear 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 the work was stopped, a powerful explosion occurred at the drilling rig. Nobody understood what could explode there, even the head of the entire project, a prominent geologist David Guberman.

Today, excursions are led to an abandoned drilling rig and they tell tourists a fascinating story about how scientists drilled a hole into the underworld of the dead. As moaning ghosts roam the installation, and in the evening demons crawl out to the surface and strive to sneak into the abyss of a gaping extreme seeker.


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underground moon

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

To begin with, ultra-deep drilling by definition was doomed to numerous accidents. Under the yoke of gigantic pressure (up to 1000 atmospheres) and high temperatures, the drills could not withstand, the well was clogged, the pipes that strengthened the vent were broken. Countless times the narrow well was bent so that new branches had to be drilled.

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


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After the celebration, drilling continued. However, the break in work proved fatal. In 1984, the most terrible accident occurred at the drilling rig. As many as five kilometers of pipes came off and hammered the well. It was impossible to continue drilling. The results of five years of work were lost overnight.

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

But in parallel with the terrible accidents, incredible discoveries also followed. Deep drilling is an analogue of a time machine. On the Kola Peninsula, the oldest rocks, whose age exceeds 3 billion years, come to the surface. Climbing deeper and deeper, scientists have gained a clear idea of ​​​​what happened on our planet during its youth.

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

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


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But among the 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. Huge deposits of methane have been found at even greater depths. This clarified the question of the origin of hydrocarbons - oil and gas.

And at a depth of more than 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 coincides with the composition of the rocks they mined at a depth of 3 kilometers. How was it possible?

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


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The final

So why did they close the Kola Superdeep?

Firstly, the main tasks of the scientific expedition were completed. Unique equipment for drilling at great depths was created, tested under extreme conditions and noticeably improved. The collected rock samples were studied 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, the scientific expedition was closed funding. Employees quit and went home. But even today, the grandiose building of the drilling rig and the mysterious well impress with 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 - this is how you should use it!” exclaimed David Huberman.

In the USSR, they loved the scale, but more, and this applied to literally everything. So one well was dug in the Union, which today bears the title of the deepest on earth. It is noteworthy that the well was not drilled for oil production or geological exploration, but purely for scientific research.

Tips used to drill a well.

The Kola super-deep well, or SG-3, is the deepest man-made well in the earth. It is located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers from the city of Zapolyarny, in a western direction. The depth of the hole is 12,262 meters. Its diameter at the top is 92 centimeters. At the bottom - 21.5 centimeters. An important feature of the SG-3 is that, unlike any other wells for oil production or geological work, this one was drilled exclusively for scientific purposes.

The well was laid in 1970, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. The chosen location is remarkable in that the well was drilled in outcropping volcanic rocks more than 3 billion years old. By the way, the age of the Earth is about 4.5 billion years. When mining, wells are rarely drilled deeper than two thousand meters.

The work went on for days on end.

Drilling began on May 24, 1970. Up to the mark of 7,000 meters, drilling proceeded easily and calmly, but after the head hit the less dense rocks, problems began. The process has slowed down considerably. Only on June 6, 1979 a new record was set - 9583 meters. It was previously installed in the US by oil producers. The mark of 12,066 meters was passed in 1983. The result was achieved by the International Geological Congress, which was held in Moscow. Subsequently, two accidents occurred at the complex.

Now the complex looks like this.

In 1997, several legends were circulated in the media at once that the Kola super-deep well was the real road to hell. One of these legends said that when the team lowered the microphone to a depth of several thousand meters, human screams, groans and screams were heard there.

Of course, there was nothing of the sort. If only because special equipment is used to record sound in a well at such a depth - but it did not record anything either. There were indeed several accidents at the complex, including an underground explosion during drilling, but geologists definitely did not disturb any underground “demons”.

The well itself is mothballed.

It is really important that 16 research laboratories worked at SG-3. During the Soviet Union, domestic geologists were able to make many valuable discoveries and better understand how our planet works. The work at the site allowed to significantly improve the drilling technology. The scientists were also able to understand the local geological processes, received comprehensive data on the thermal regime of the bowels, underground gases and deep waters.

Unfortunately, today the Kola super-deep well is closed. The building of the complex has been deteriorating since the last laboratory was closed here in 2008, and all equipment was dismantled. The reason is simple - lack of funding. In 2010, the well was already mothballed. Now it is slowly but surely destroyed under the influence of natural processes.

In 2008, the deepest well in the world was finally abandoned, and all lifting mechanisms and structures were dismantled.

A couple of years later, the director of the Kola Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences issued a statement that the well was gradually self-destructing. Since that time, there is no official information about her anymore.

Well depth to date

As of today, the Kola well is one of the largest drilling projects in the world. Its official depth reaches 12,262 m.

Sounds of Hell from the Kola Well

Like any grandiose project created by human hands, the Kola well is shrouded in legends and myths.

The Kola well was drilled intermittently from 1970 to 1991

This can be seen both in the Mariana Trench (), which we talked about at the beginning of the article, and in.

They say that at the moment when the workers of the deepest well crossed the line of 12,000 m, they began to hear terrible sounds.

Initially, they did not pay any attention, but over time the situation changed dramatically. With the onset of complete silence, sounds of a different nature were heard from the well.

As a result, the scientists decided to record everything that happened at the bottom of the well on film using heat-resistant microphones.

While listening to the recordings, it was possible to hear human cries and screams.

A couple of hours after studying the film, scientists found traces of a strong explosion, the cause of which they could not explain.

Drilling of the Kola super-deep well was suspended for some time.

When the work resumed, everyone still expected to hear people's wailing, but this time everything was quiet.

Suspecting something was wrong, the management began proceedings regarding the origin of strange sounds. However, the frightened workers did not want to comment on the current situation and in every possible way avoided any questions.

A few years later, when the project was officially put on hold, scientists suggested that the sounds were due to movement.

Some time later, this explanation was rejected as untenable. No other explanation was offered.

Secrets and mysteries of the Kola well

In 1989, the Kola well began to be called the "road to hell", because of the sounds coming from it. There is an opinion that with each next drilled kilometer, on the way to the 13th, one or another cataclysm happened. As a result, the Soviet Union collapsed.

However, the relationship between the drilling of the Kola super-deep well and the collapse of a superpower may be of interest only to those who believe that and others are supernatural "places of power."

There is an opinion that the workers managed to reach a depth of 14.5 km, and it was then that the equipment recorded some underground rooms. The temperature in these rooms exceeded 1000°C.

They also clearly audible and even recorded human cries. However, this whole story is not supported by facts.

Dimensions of the deepest well

The depth of the world's deepest well on the Kola Peninsula is officially registered at around 12,262 m.

The diameter of the upper part is 92 cm, the diameter of the lower part is 21.5 cm.

The maximum temperature did not exceed 220°C. Inexplicable in this whole story are only sounds of unknown origin.

Benefits of drilling the Kola well

  • Thanks to this project, new drilling methods were achieved, as well as improved equipment.
  • Geologists have been able to discover new locations of valuable minerals.
  • It was possible to debunk many different theories, for example, conjectures regarding the basalt layer of our planet.

Worldwide ultra-deep wells

As of today, there are approximately 25 ultra-deep wells, most of which are located in the republics of the former USSR.

Others also have a number of ultra-deep wells. We present the most famous among them.

  • . Silyan Ring - 6800 m.
  • . Tasym South-East - 7050 m.
  • . Bighorn - 7583 m.
  • . Zisterdorf - 8553 m.
  • USA. University - 8686 m.
  • Germany. KTB-Oberpfalz - 9101 m.
  • USA. Beidat Unit - 9159 m.
  • USA. Bertha Rogers - 9583 m.

World records for ultra-deep wells in the world

  1. In 2008, the oil well Maersk () with a depth of 12,290 m became the new depth record holder.
  2. In 2011, during a project called "Sakhalin-1" (), it was possible to drill a well up to a mark of 12,345 m.
  3. In 2013, the well of the Chayvinskoye field (Russia) set a new record of 12,700 m. However, it was not drilled vertically down, but at an angle to the surface.

Photo of the Kola well

Looking at the photo of the Kola well, it is hard to imagine that once life was in full swing here, and many people worked for the good of a great country.

Now there is nothing here but garbage and remnants of its former greatness. Reinforced concrete walls and empty, abandoned rooms with randomly scattered things act depressingly. Silence reigns all around.


Drilling rig of the first stage (depth 7600 m), 1974
Electrical substation building
Photo 2012
The wellhead with a metal plug. Someone scratched the wrong depth. August 2012


It is hard to imagine that under this plug there is the deepest “hole” in the earth, extending more than 12 km deep.
Soviet workers on shift change, late 1970s

The stories associated with the Kola well have not subsided so far. At present, scientists have not given a final answer about the origin of mystical sounds.

In this regard, there are more and more new theories trying to explain this phenomenon. Perhaps in the near future, scientists will be able to find out the nature of the "hellish sounds".

Now you know why the Kola well is interesting. If you liked this article, please share it with your friends. If you like it at all - subscribe to the site IinterestingFakty.org in any convenient way. It's always interesting with us!

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Dig to Beelzebub: In the 1970s, a team of Soviet explorers drilled on the Kola Peninsula, resulting in the deepest borehole in the world. A large-scale project was conceived with research goals, but unexpectedly led to almost hysteria around the world. According to rumors, Soviet scientists stumbled on the "road to hell", writes SPIEGEL ONLINE.

“A chilling picture: in the middle of the deserted expanses of the Kola Peninsula, 150 km north of Murmansk, an abandoned drilling rig rises. Barracks for employees, rooms with laboratories crowd around. the author continues.

On May 24, 1970, when the USSR and the USA raced to explore space, a project was launched in the Soviet Union on the border with Finland and Norway to drill an ultra-deep well at the site of the geological Baltic Shield. For several decades, the Kola superdeep well has "swallowed" millions, allowing scientists to make some rather serious scientific discoveries. However, the most high-profile find at a depth of more than 10 km turned the research project into an event with a deeply religious background, in which conjecture, truth and lies mixed together, creating sensational reports in all the world's media.

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

“On the way to the bowels of the earth, scientists made unexpected discoveries: for example, they managed to predict earthquakes based on unusual sounds from a well. At a depth of 3 thousand meters, a substance was found in the layers of the lithosphere, almost identical to material from the surface of the Moon. After 6 thousand meters it was gold was discovered. However, scientists became increasingly concerned that the deeper they penetrated, the higher the temperatures became, which made it difficult to 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 unexpectedly moved from side to side - a sign that it had landed in a giant cavity. Temperatures in the passage zone went off scale 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 soul-chilling sounds. At first they mistook them for the sounds of malfunctioning machinery, but then, after the equipment was adjusted, their worst suspicions were confirmed. The sounds were reminiscent of the cries and groans of thousands of martyrs, the article says.

"Where exactly this legend originates from is still unknown," the author continues. For the first time in English, it was voiced in 1989 on the air of the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which took the story from a Finnish newspaper report. The Kola super-deep well began to be called the "road to hell." The stories of the frightened drillers were published by Finnish and Swedish newspapers - they claimed that "the Russians let the demon out of hell." Drilling work was stopped - they were explained by insufficient funding. On instructions from above, the drilling rig was to be dumped - but there was not enough money for that either.