NathanAn Exciting Finding
Then there was something more noteworthy about this project. It was the fact the Soviets aimed to reach a depth of about 49,000 feet under Earth’s surface. This was officially the deepest anyone has ever gone under the earth’s crust. And, with the help of specialist equipment, the scientists began to dig a number of boreholes forking off from a single main cavity.
Some Progress
The Soviets then went ahead and did not stop there yet. Their goal was to get to the center of the earth some since they had come this far, stopping was not an option. However, as they gradually made their way down, their prospectors in America had made some progress of their own. So what exactly had they discovered and would it be of actual help to their work now?
Back In Oklahoma
There was another noteworthy project that was taking place all the way back in America. So back in 1974, the Lone Star Producing Company was drilling for oil in Washita County in western Oklahoma. There was no plan of actually penetrating through the crust of the earth and to get to the core but this drilling went to staggering depths. So what happened then?
Truly Impressive
So during this drilling process, the firm created the “Bertha Rogers hole”. So you must be wondering, what exactly does this mean? Well, for your information, this is a man-made marvel that was able to get to a depth of more than 31,400 feet, or nearly six miles, underneath the surface of the earth. This is indeed an impressive feat as no one had even gone this deep in the recorded history of humankind.
Unplanned Achievement
The hole was not meant for any scientific research work or study but it was indeed an incredible achievement. Even though Lone Star did not find what it was looking for, which was oil, the effort that they had put out held the position as the deepest hole on the planet for the next five years. This hole was not even meant to achieve a thing like this but it still ended up being the deepest manhole in the world for a short while.
Record Taken Over
So as of June 6, 1979, one of the Kola boreholes, dubbed SG-3, ended up snagging the record that the manhole in Oklahoma had held. So in the year 1983, the hole, that was mere nine inches wide, managed to travel a staggering 39,000 feet into Earth’s crust. So this officially made it the deepest hole ever to be dug into the earth’s surface.