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Kola Superdeep Borehole
- Uhhrrr 12y agoReminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's usage of Moholes for ore mining and energy production in his Mars trilogy: http://kimstanleyrobinson.info/w/index.php5?title=Mohole http://kimstanleyrobinson.info/w/index.php5?title=Mohole
- b_emery 12y agoMuch more at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole
- Theodores 12y agoIf it is that hot down at the bottom - ~200 degrees C depending on where the bottom is, is there no way to economically generate power with some type of steam turbine dropped down the hole? If you could get the steam turbine to power the drill then you could make it all the way to 'China' by teatime...
- dignati 12y agoThat would be a heat pump: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump
- darkmighty 12y agoNot a heat pump, simply a heat engine (if you're taking the work) or heat source (if you're using the heat). "Pumping" implies going against the gradient.
- unspecified 12y agoDoing it at all, economically or otherwise, is something that is being worked on this very year: http://iddp.is/ http://iddp.is/ Summary article here: http://theconversation.com/drilling-surprise-opens-door-to-volcano-powered-electricity-22515 http://theconversation.com/drilling-surprise-opens-door-to-v...
- ars 12y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power > If you could get the steam turbine to power the drill then you could make it all the way to 'China' by teatime... You can't because to generate power you need both a hot side and a cold side, and this drill would only have a hot side.
- curiousDog 12y agoIsn't that what Geo-thermal energy is :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy ? Hot springs are the same thing, only the conductor is water.
- ChuckMcM 12y agoI believe the last time something like that was contemplated the analysis was that the energy you could extract would make for very very slow going (not surprisingly it requires a lot of energy to bore through rock and remove the excess). Assuming a return pipe to the surface the deeper it is the higher the boiler pressure you can support since you can use the cold water return column to pressurize the feed. Of course at some point your at the limit of your boiler as well.
- jhallenworld 12y agoI can't help but remember a certain Art Bell episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvnxeX2SQso http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvnxeX2SQso Art Bell was awesome..
- cek 12y agoWatching Cosmos last week had me thinking about how deep we'd drilled to date. I meant to go look it up but didn't. Thanks for posting. It saddens me/blows me away we've only gone 7.5 miles (into the 22 mile crust). It also reminds me how fragile our biosphere is and how little we really understand it.
- naturalethic 12y agoAny picture of the Earth should have a giant fucking question mark right in the middle of it. That scientists and publishers egotistically declare their theories as truth actually drives any sense of wonder out of children contemplating a life of discovery. It's sick and irresponsible.
- larubbio 12y agoxkcd had a comment showing relative depth of the oceans and lakes. The kola borehole was also on there. https://xkcd.com/1040/ https://xkcd.com/1040/
- deadfall 12y agoAmazing how far oil is underground. Edit: What things could we find 15-20 miles down?
- sobkas 12y agoI know there were an other XKCD about kola borahola: https://xkcd.com/1330/ https://xkcd.com/1330/
- yitchelle 12y agoCan someone explain the David Bowie and Freddie Mecury reference?
- manachar 12y agoThe two of them did a song called Under Pressure.
- tokenadult 12y agoThe article kindly submitted here mentions http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kola-superdeep-borehole http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kola-superdeep-borehole as a source of more information.
- dang 12y agoThanks. Changed from http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/05/08/kola_superdeep_borehole_is_the_world_s_deepest_hole.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/05/08/kola_sup... Submitters: please don't submit content that's lifted from some other source; submit the other source instead.
- nitrogen 12y agoThe Slate article has at least one photo not present on Atlas Obscura (at least, I couldn't find it).
- coryrc 12y agoThe Atlas Obscura blog on Slate is by an employee (the head writer) of Atlas Obscura, so it isn't lifted. Either link is fine IMNSHO.
- dang 12y agoYou're right, that's not as bad. But it's still better, IMO, to link to the original site.
- gere 12y agoPersonally, I liked more the Slate version from an editorial point of view. Since there was no lifting involved and the Slate version is stuffed with links to the original version, I made a choice. Ironically the Atlas Obscura Facebook page links[0] to the Slate version. [0] https://www.facebook.com/atlasobscura/posts/10152446617637728 https://www.facebook.com/atlasobscura/posts/1015244661763772...
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- mhb 12y agoWhy does it have a metal cap?
- scott_karana 12y agoFalling in wouldn't be very pleasant, I suppose. :-)
- iLoch 12y agoThat's a long fall, 3/4 of a minute if I'm not mistaken.
- deadfall 12y ago120 miles per hour is terminal velocity of a falling human being. 120/60 = 2 miles per minute Skydive fall from 15K feet is over a minute free fall.
- nitrogen 12y agoRepeatedly bouncing off the edges would probably slow the fall, and make it significantly more painful. That is, if the hole were wide enough to fit you.
- dublinben 12y agoIt's less than a foot wide. You'd probably be more likely to trip over the rim.
- StavrosK 12y agoThere was a reddit comment where someone wrote, in poignant and graphic detail, about the slow death you would find if you fell in the hole. Someone else replied, pointing out that the hole can barely fit your leg. The juxtaposition was pretty funny.
- b_emery 12y agoI guess they couldn't back-fill it? Which makes you wonder, what did they do with all the drill cuttings?
- wyager 12y agoHow has no one removed the cap by now? I would be extremely tempted to throw stuff down the hole.
- userbinator 12y agoI think it was welded shut precisely because they didn't want people doing that.
- shiftpgdn 12y agoFYI: Exxon recently surpassed the depth of this hole while drilling in the Chayvo oil fields. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin-I http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin-I
- unspecified 12y agoExxon's borehole is longer, but not deeper: Kola is 12.6km deep, and Sakhalin-I is 12.3km.
- austinz 12y agoSo how is the drilling actually conducted? Is there basically a miles-long, rapidly-spinning, articulated shaft with a drill bit at the bottom and a motor at the surface? What sorts of weird and wonderful engineering challenges do you run into with that sort of setup, especially as your giant drill grows larger than 10 miles in length?
- imgur 12y agoGenerally, the shaft would rotate with a drill bit at the bottom. But, it seems in the case of Superdeep Borehole, they developed a new mechanism to rotate only the drill bit at the bottom of the shaft[1]. They pumped pressurized "drilling fluid"[2][3] down the shaft to spin the drill bit. [1]http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Kola_Superdeep_Bor... [2]http://www.supertightstuff.com/03/18/featured/kola-superdeep-borehole/ http://www.supertightstuff.com/03/18/featured/kola-superdeep... [3]http://www.damninteresting.com/the-deepest-hole/ http://www.damninteresting.com/the-deepest-hole/
- akerl_ 12y agoA video about this, for folks who would rather watch/listen than read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz6v6OfoQvs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz6v6OfoQvs
- mholt 12y agoThanks. Now I'm hooked clicking through different articles on this site.