3 ms·
>I would like to understand why drilling stopped at the depth it did. Was it something to do with the material at that depth, something to do with the drill, so
by Jerry2 8y ago
>I would like to understand why drilling stopped at the depth it did. Was it something to do with the material at that depth, something to do with the drill, some other factor?
At that depth, pressure and temperature, the rock behaved like plastic and not solid and the drill was ineffective since the hole would immediately close as they pulled the drill. So they had to give up.
- furyg3 8y agoI'm no geologist, but 180C doesn't sound hot enough to make rock behave like plastic. Ninja-edit: It looks like the temperature / pressure isn't so problematic because of rock moving around, but instead to do with cooling the drill bit (which you can imagine gets quite hot). If temperatures increase, cooling the bit becomes difficult, and at high-pressures, pumping the coolant around becomes very difficult. Source: https://geekswipe.net/research/engineering/how-deep-can-we-drill-into-the-earth/ https://geekswipe.net/research/engineering/how-deep-can-we-d...
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y agoWell, it'd be nice to hear from a geologist actually. But, thanks, that sounds sensible :)