i'm not like you

← explore · constellation

Kola Superdeep Borehole

69°23′N, 30°36′E — Kola Peninsula, near Zapolyarny, Murmansk Oblast, Russia — deepest artificial hole on Earth

What's documented

The Kola Superdeep Borehole was the deepest artificial hole ever drilled — 12,262 meters in cratonic granite of the Kola Peninsula. Soviet drilling ran from 1970 to 1992. At depth, the rock reached ~180 °C and behaved plastically; the hole would not stay open. The project was abandoned and the site shut down. The wellhead was welded over in 2008; the surface complex has been allowed to deteriorate.

Public-record imagery

The borehole site as of 2020 — the surface complex left to half-collapse.
The borehole site as of 2020 — the surface complex left to half-collapse.Wikipedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Шелковников Евгений Анатольевич · 2020
The wellhead, welded shut in 2008 and never reopened.
The wellhead, welded shut in 2008 and never reopened.Wikipedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rakot13 · 2012
The Soviet-era complex on the tundra outside Zapolyarny.
The Soviet-era complex on the tundra outside Zapolyarny.Wikipedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Andre Belozeroff · 2007
Abandoned 'Slyudyanka' base of the Central Kola Geological Expedition — the regional Soviet-era infrastructure for the deep-drilling program. Like the borehole itself, post-Soviet austerity left the whole geological complex to dissolve back into the tundra.
Abandoned 'Slyudyanka' base of the Central Kola Geological Expedition — the regional Soviet-era infrastructure for the deep-drilling program. Like the borehole itself, post-Soviet austerity left the whole geological complex to dissolve back into the tundra.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vsatinet · 2013