A 10,000-meter pit was dug in China – and no one knows why

Chinese scientists have mysteriously begun digging a hole 10,000 meters (32,808 feet) deep into the Earth’s crust – and no one quite knows why. One of the participants explained that it was an attempt to explore our planet.

Although no one is sure of the motive, the fact that drilling began on Tuesday in the oil-rich Xinjiang region may point to why, as China has the world’s second-largest economy and is trying to find more sustainable alternatives for energy and mineral sources. In this type of search, mineral and energy resources may be located deep below the Earth’s surface, especially when the hole is about to reach the depth of a rock whose origins are 145 million years old.

Wang Chunsheng, a technical expert for the operation, said that drilling at a depth of over 10,000 meters is a bold attempt to explore the unknown territory of the Earth. “The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be compared to a large truck traveling on two thin steel cables,” he said.

The shaft in the ground, which is said to be extremely narrow, will penetrate more than 10 layers of rock, according to Bloomberg, which also states that the drilling is planning to reach the cretaceous system in the Earth’s crust.

“The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be compared to a large truck traveling on two thin steel cables.”

Wang Chunsheng

China’s recent endeavors

China’s President Xi Jinping said that working on deep Earth exploration can help assess environmental disasters and identify energy and mineral resources, according to the Bloomberg report.

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a Franco-Chinese business council meeting with the French president in Beijing, China April 6, 2023 (credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL VIA REUTERS)

The initiative comes in the same week that China sent its first civilian astronaut into space, and just after the completion of an offshore drilling rig designed to mine geological reserves of natural gas.

The current deepest man-made hole on Earth is the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia, which goes down 12.2 kilometers (7.5 miles) below the Earth’s surface.

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