5 ms·
> Did they make any special geological discoveries? [From the Wikipedia article:] To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well
by bcraven 8y ago
> Did they make any special geological discoveries?
[From the Wikipedia article:] To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well is that no transition from granite to basalt was found at the depth of about 7 km (4.3 mi), where the velocity of seismic waves has a discontinuity. Instead the change in the seismic wave velocity is caused by a metamorphic transition in the granite rock. In addition, the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water, which was surprising. This water, unlike surface water, must have come from deep-crust minerals and had been unable to reach the surface because of a layer of impermeable rock.
Another unexpected discovery was a large quantity of hydrogen gas. The mud that flowed out of the hole was described as "boiling" with hydrogen.
> Did they find any precious metals, etc.?
These concentrate in veins, so the single borehole would not be the best way to find out. They were probably recorded in mud logs somewhere.
> is it possible to measure the depth of the hole using a laser
Holes like this are very rarely totally straight as the geology likes to manipulate the drill string as it descends. Whilst this won't be a true deviated well (due to the research goals) I'd be very surprised if there's a vertical hole.
- amelius 8y ago> I'd be very surprised if there's a vertical hole. Ok, is the reported depth the true depth, or the length along the hole?
- dirktheman 8y agoOn this page, about 1/3 down the way (it's in Russian) is a nice schematic of the hole that shows it's not vertical at all: https://realt.onliner.by/2015/11/19/kola https://realt.onliner.by/2015/11/19/kola The depth is the true depth, apparently.
- zielmicha 8y agoGoogle Translate (to English) works really well on this article.
- stareatgoats 8y ago> the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water This is what makes me think that drilling to great depths and utilizing the energy there for sustainable power generation should be possible. It's just a matter of developing the right drilling technology. How hard can it be?
- Piskvorrr 8y agoAh, indeed, the dreaded question "How hard can it be?" and its rarely-spoken assumption "that looks simple from my armchair". Well...most of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked, and things that look simple are chock-full of those pesky details that are handwaved away in the birds-eye view. "Just use the right technology," and you have flying cars, strong AI, self-driving vehicles, space elevators and whatnot. How hard can it be?
- stareatgoats 8y agoGlad you caught the irony in that comment ;-)
- Piskvorrr 8y agoSomebody should make a reliable sentiment analyser. How hard could that be? ;)
- amelius 8y agoHow many Watts would a single such hole generate? And how sustainable would it be?
- salty_biscuits 8y agoGeothermal isn't really sustainable (in the long, long term). The heat is built up due to some special geology, think an insulating blanket. Once you use this heat to make electricity you lower the temperature of the rock and it takes a very, very long time to warm up again.