Ultra-deep well on the Kola Peninsula: history and secrets. The deepest well on earth - hear the heartbeat of the Earth

Rain, fog, ten degrees Celsius. It's called polar summer...

The grader going into the sky is a technological road, and we shouldn’t be here. We press to the right, to the side of the road, to let the convoy of heavy trucks coming towards us, writes Artem Achkasov

The tall bodies are loaded to the top with black gravel - sulfide copper-nickel ore. We rise higher, and now a viscous cloud has clung to our Fords, and the windshield wiper arms are flashing faster. But this did not improve visibility - in the thick white wool I could only see the taillights of the car in front. We carefully make our way between the waste heaps.

Suddenly, huge concrete buildings appear in the fog, looking like factory buildings.

Welcome to the SG-3 facility, also known as the Kola Superdeep Well. More precisely, what is left of her...

History is a merciless thing. Its pages are torn out, rewritten, changed places. What every Soviet schoolchild or student knew now has no meaning; it has no place in a memory overflowing with various entertainments. Scientific advances refer to a new smartphone application. Achievements Russian science little known. The achievements of Soviet science are ridiculed or completely forgotten. Meanwhile, in a number of areas, Soviet scientists were actually ahead of the rest. This also applied to geological research.

It is with scientific purposes in 1970, the Kola superdeep well project was launched. The location near the Nikel plant town in the Murmansk region was not chosen by chance - firstly, thanks to the already known abundance in this region valuable resources(nickel, apatite, titanium, copper and so on). Secondly, it is here that the lower boundary of the earth’s crust comes as close as possible to the surface. This means that drilling an ultra-deep well here would help not only to identify mineral reserves (in particular, to explore the deep structure of the Pechenga nickel deposit), but also to answer questions about the structure of the Earth, about which in those years scientists had a very rough understanding. Among other tasks, there was a comprehensive development of deep drilling technology in order to improve a new generation of equipment for monitoring, research, automation and control of the drilling process.

At first, drilling was carried out using the Uralmash-4E serial rig, designed for oil wells. Up to a depth of 2000 meters, the shaft was driven with steel drill pipes, which were later replaced with aluminum ones due to their lighter weight and greater strength. At the end there was a turbo drill - a turbine 46 meters long with a destructive crown at the end, driven by a clay solution, which was pumped into the pipe under a pressure of 40 atmospheres.

Upon reaching the mark of 7264 meters, the excavation was carried out by the more advanced Uralmash-15000 complex, which was the embodiment of Soviet science and technology. The system worked with big amount electronics and automation. Carbide crowns were replaced with diamond ones. In conditions of high soil density, the service life of the crowns did not exceed four hours, i.e., from six to ten meters of recess. After this, it was necessary to lift and dismantle the entire multi-ton column of 33-meter pipes, which took at least 18 hours closer to the 12-kilometer depth.

You may ask, why all this complexity? The fact is that almost every meter of excavation was accompanied by a scientific discovery. IN best years Almost two dozen worked on SG-3 scientific laboratories. The study of rock samples raised in core and the descent of special equipment into the well completely revolutionized the theoretical knowledge of scientists about the structure of the Earth. Thus, the granite belt turned out to be much thicker than scientists thought. There was no basalt at the expected depth at all - porous granite rocks took its place, which led to multiple collapses and accidents at the drilling rig. Fossilized microorganisms were discovered at great depths, which made it possible to assert that life on the planet appeared at least one and a half billion years earlier than previously thought. Scientists' claims about temperature conditions in the bowels of the planet - it turned out to be much hotter there...

Of course, drilling such a deep well was very expensive. Landslides led to accidents and trunk bending. Another accident at a depth of 12,262 meters, almost coinciding with the collapse of the USSR, it turned out to be the last superdeep in the history of the Kola. There was no one to finance this project. In the mid-nineties, the well was mothballed. Ten years later, it was finally abandoned, while remaining at that time the deepest well in the world (and the only one drilled for scientific purposes).

Of course, then the station, which once gave the world dozens of scientific discoveries every year, was completely plundered.

All buildings were destroyed, including the 70-meter tower that housed the drilling rig. At the SG-3 facility, rare visitors feel like stalkers.

The fragments of the former world crunch loudly underfoot. Broken glass, ceramics, rusty iron, broken bricks.

In front of the main building lies the skeleton of a tracked transporter.

There are gaps in the walls of the buildings. Obviously, someone took out expensive equipment this way.

Chemicals are scattered in former laboratories.

Instead of expensive electronics, electrics and automation, there are empty cabinets torn from their mountings.

Suddenly, the rumble of a diesel engine is heard in a cloud of fog. Instinctively I duck behind the collapsed ceilings. An old Mercedes minibus slowly approaches the destroyed building. The open back door slams against the rusty body. Metal hunters continue their dirty work...

It occupies the first position in the list of "Ultradeep Wells of the World". It was drilled to study the structure of deep earth rocks. Unlike other existing wells on the planet, this one was drilled solely from a scientific research point of view and was not used for the purpose of extracting useful resources.

Location of the Kola Superdeep Station

Where is the Kola superdeep well located? ABOUT located in the Murmansk region, near the city of Zapolyarny (about 10 kilometers from it). The location of the well is truly unique. It was founded in the area of ​​the Kola Peninsula. It is where the earth pushes various ancient rocks to the surface every day.

Near the well there is the Pechenga-Imandra-Varzuga rift trough, formed as a result of a fault.

Kola superdeep well: history of appearance

In honor of centenary anniversary On the occasion of the birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in the first half of 1970, the drilling of the well began.

On May 24, 1970, after the geological expedition approved the location of the well, work began. To a depth of about 7 thousand meters everything went easily and smoothly. After crossing the seven thousandth mark, the work became more difficult and constant collapses began to occur.

As a result of constant breaks of lifting mechanisms and broken drill heads, as well as regular collapses, the walls of the well were subject to the cementing process. However, due to constant problems, the work continued for several years and proceeded extremely slowly.

On June 6, 1979, the well depth reached 9,583 meters, thereby breaking the world record for oil production in the United States of America by Bertha Rogers, located in Oklahoma. At this time, about sixteen scientific laboratories were continuously working in the Kola well, and the drilling process was personally controlled by the Minister of Geology Soviet Union Kozlovsky Evgeniy Alexandrovich.

In 1983, when the depth of the Kola superdeep well reached 12,066 meters, work was temporarily frozen in connection with preparations for the 1984 International Geological Congress. Upon its completion, work was resumed.

The resumption of work fell on September 27, 1984. But during the first descent, the drill string was broken, and the well collapsed once again. Work resumed from a depth of about 7 thousand meters.

In 1990, the depth of the drill well reached a record 12,262 meters. After another column broke, an order was received to stop drilling the well and complete the work.

Current state of the Kola well

At the beginning of 2008, an ultra-deep well on the Kola Peninsula was considered abandoned, the equipment was dismantled, and a project to demolish existing buildings and laboratories had already been launched.

At the beginning of 2010, the director of the Kola Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported that the well was currently undergoing a conservation process and was being destroyed on its own. Since then the question about it has not been raised.

Well depth today

Currently, the Kola superdeep well, photos of which are presented to the reader in the article, is considered one of the largest drilling projects on the planet. Its official depth is 12,263 meters.

Sounds in the Kola well

When the drilling rigs crossed the line of 12 thousand meters, workers began to hear strange sounds coming from the depths. At first they didn't attach any importance to it. However, when all the drilling equipment froze, and deathly silence hung in the well, unusual sounds were heard, which the workers themselves called “the screams of sinners in hell.” Since the sounds of an ultra-deep well were considered quite unusual, it was decided to record them using heat-resistant microphones. When the recordings were listened to, everyone was amazed - they sounded like people screaming and screaming.

A few hours after listening to the recordings, workers found traces of a powerful explosion of previously unknown origin. Work was temporarily stopped until the circumstances were clarified. However, they were resumed within a few days. Having descended into the well again, everyone with bated breath expected to hear human screams, but there was truly deathly silence there.

When the investigation into the origin of the sounds began, questions began to be asked about who heard what. The amazed and frightened workers tried to avoid answering these questions and only brushed them off with the phrase: “I heard something strange...” Only after a large amount of time and after the project was closed, a version was put forward that sounds of unknown origin were the sound of movement tectonic plates. This version was eventually refuted.

The secrets that shroud the wells

In 1989, the Kola superdeep well, the sounds from which excite the human imagination, was called “the road to hell.” The legend originated on the air of an American television company, which took an April Fool's article in a Finnish newspaper about the Kola well as reality. The article said that every drilled kilometer on the way to the 13th brought complete misfortune to the country. As the legend goes, at a depth of 12 thousand meters, workers began to imagine human cries for help, which were recorded on ultra-sensitive microphones.

With each new kilometer on the way to the 13th, disasters occurred in the country, for example, on the above path the USSR collapsed.

It was also noted that, having drilled a well to 14.5 thousand meters, the workers came across empty “rooms”, the temperature in which reached 1100 degrees Celsius. By lowering one of the heat-resistant microphones into one of these holes, they recorded moans, grinding sounds and screams. These sounds were called the “voice of the underworld,” and the well itself began to be called nothing less than “the road to hell.”

However, soon the research group itself refuted this legend. Scientists reported that the depth of the well at that time was only 12,263 meters, and the maximum recorded temperature was 220 degrees Celsius. Only one fact remains unrefuted, thanks to which the Kola superdeep well has such a dubious reputation - sounds.

Interview with one of the workers of the Kola superdeep well

In one of the interviews dedicated to refuting the legend of the Kola well, David Mironovich Guberman said: “When they ask me about the veracity of this legend and about the existence of the demon that we found there, I answer that this is complete nonsense. But to be honest, I cannot deny the fact that we are faced with something supernatural. At first, sounds of unknown origin began to disturb us, then there was an explosion. When we looked into the well, at the same depth, a few days later, everything was absolutely normal...”

What benefits did drilling the Kola superdeep well bring?

Of course, one of the main advantages of the appearance of this well is significant progress in the field of drilling. New methods and types of drilling were developed. Drilling and scientific equipment was also personally created for the Kola superdeep well, which is still used today.

Another plus was the opening of a new location of valuable natural resources, including gold.

The main scientific goal of the project to study the deep layers of the earth has been achieved. Many existing theories (including those about the basalt layer of the earth) were refuted.

Number of ultra-deep wells in the world

In total, there are about 25 ultra-deep wells on the planet.

Most of them are located on the territory former USSR, however, about 8 are located throughout the world.

Ultra-deep wells located on the territory of the former USSR

There were a huge number of ultra-deep wells on the territory of the Soviet Union, but the following should be especially highlighted:

1. Muruntau well. The depth of the well reaches only 3 thousand meters. Located in the Republic of Uzbekistan, in the small village of Muruntau. Drilling of the well began in 1984 and has not yet been completed.
2. Krivoy Rog well. The depth reaches only 5383 meters out of 12 thousand planned. Drilling began in 1984 and ended in 1993. The location of the well is considered to be Ukraine, the vicinity of the city of Krivoy Rog.
3. Dnieper-Donetsk well. She is a fellow countrywoman of the previous one and is also located in Ukraine, near the Donetsk Republic. The depth of the well today is 5691 meters. Drilling began in 1983 and continues to this day.
4. Ural well. It has a depth of 6100 meters. Is in Sverdlovsk region, near the town of Verkhnyaya Tura. The work lasted for 20 years, from 1985 to 2005.
5. Biikzhal well. Its depth reaches 6700 meters. The well was drilled from 1962 to 1971. It is located on the Caspian lowland.
6. Aralsol well. Its depth is one hundred meters greater than Biikzhalskaya and is only 6800 meters. The year of drilling and the location of the well are completely identical to the Bizhalskaya well.
7. Timan-Pechora well. Its depth reaches 6904 meters. Located in the Komi Republic. To be more precise, in the Vuktylsky district. The work lasted about 10 years, from 1984 to 1993.
8. Tyumen well. The depth reaches 7502 meters out of 8000 planned. The well is located near the city and village of Korotchaevo. Drilling took place from 1987 to 1996.
9. Shevchenkovskaya well. It was drilled during one year in 1982 with the aim of extracting oil in Western Ukraine. The depth of the well is 7520 meters. Located in the Carpathian region.
10. Yen-Yakhinskaya well. It has a depth of about 8250 meters. The only well that exceeded the drilling plan (originally planned 6000). Located on the territory Western Siberia, near the city of Novy Urengoy. Drilling lasted from 2000 to 2006. Currently, it was the last operating ultra-deep well in Russia.
11. Saatlinskaya well. Its depth is 8324 meters. Drilling was carried out from 1977 to 1982. It is located in Azerbaijan, 10 kilometers from the city of Saatly, within the Kursk Bulge.

The world's ultra-deep wells

In other countries there are also a number of ultra-deep wells that cannot be ignored:

1. Sweden. Silyan Ring is 6800 meters deep.
2. Kazakhstan. Tasym South-East with a depth of 7050 meters.
3. USA. Bighorn is 7583 meters deep.
4. Austria. Zisterdorf depth 8553 meters.
5. USA. University is 8686 meters deep.
6. Germany. KTB-Oberpfalz with a depth of 9101 meters.
7. USA. Beydat-Unit is 9159 meters deep.
8. USA. Bertha Rogers is 9583 meters deep.

World records for ultra-deep wells in the world

In 2008, the world record of the Kola well was broken by the Maersk oil well. Its depth is 12,290 meters.

After this, several more world records for ultra-deep wells were recorded:

1. At the beginning of January 2011, the record was broken by the oil production well of the Sakhalin-1 project, the depth of which reaches 12,345 meters.
2. In June 2013, the record was broken by a well at the Chayvinskoye field, the depth of which was 12,700 meters.

However, the mysteries and secrets of the Kola superdeep well have not been revealed or explained to this day. Regarding the sounds present during its drilling, new theories arise to this day. Who knows, maybe this is really the fruit of a wild human imagination? Well, where do so many eyewitnesses come from then? Maybe soon there will be a person who will give a scientific explanation of what is happening, and perhaps the well will remain a legend that will be retold for many more centuries...

In one of the scientific programs they gave a simple example that allows you to realize how huge our planet is. Imagine big balloon. This is the entire planet. And the thinnest walls are the zone where there is life. But people have actually mastered only one layer of atoms surrounding this wall.

But humanity is constantly striving to expand its knowledge about the planet and the processes occurring on it. We are launching spaceships and satellites, submarines, but the hardest thing is to find out what is under our feet, inside the earth.

Wells bring relative understanding. With their help, you can find out the composition of rocks and study changes physical conditions, as well as conduct mineral exploration. And the deepest well in the world will, of course, bring the most information. The only question is where exactly it is. This is what we will try to figure out today.

OR-11

It is not surprising that the longest well was made quite recently, in 2011. New, more advanced technologies, durable and reliable materials, and accurate calculation methods made it possible to achieve this result.

Surely you will be pleased to know that it is located in Russia, and was drilled as part of the Sakhalin-1 project. All work required only 60 days, which far exceeds the results of previous surveys.

total length This record-breaking well is 12 kilometers 345 meters, which remains an unsurpassed record. Another achievement is the maximum length of the horizontal trunk, which is 11 kilometers 475 meters. So far no one has been able to surpass this result. But that's it for now.

BD-04A

This oil well in Qatar is famous for its record depth at that time. Its total length is 12 kilometers 289 meters, of which 10,902 meters is a horizontal trunk. By the way, it was built in 2008, and held the record for three whole years.

But this deep well is known not only for its impressive dimensions, but also for its very sad fact. It was built next to an oil shelf for geological exploration, and in 2010 it suffered a serious accident.

This is what the well looks like now

Drilled during the USSR, the Kola superdeep well lost its title of leader in 2008. But still, it remains one of the most famous objects of this type and continues to hold third place.

Preparatory work for drilling began back in 1970. It was planned that this well would become the deepest on Earth, reaching 15 kilometers. True, such a result was never achieved. In 1992, work was suspended when the depth reached an impressive 12 kilometers 262 meters. Further research had to be stopped due to lack of funding and government support.

With its help, it was possible to obtain a lot of interesting scientific data and gain a deeper understanding of the structure of the earth’s crust. This is not surprising, since the project was initially completely scientific, not related to geological exploration or the study of mineral deposits.

By the way, it is with the Kola superdeep well that the popular legend about the “well to hell.” They say that when they reached the 11-kilometer mark, scientists heard terrifying screams. And soon after that the drill broke. According to legend, this indicates the existence of hell underground, in which sinners are tormented. It was their screams that were heard by scientists.

True, the legend does not stand up to criticism. If only because no acoustic equipment could operate at pressure and temperature at these levels. But, on the other hand, it is quite interesting to speculate that the deepest borehole will be able to reach, if not hell, then some other legendary and mythical places.

For now, they just help scientists better understand how our planet lives. And although the journey to the center of the earth is still very far away, people are clearly striving for it.

Kola superdeep well WITH late XIX centuries it was believed that the Earth consists of a crust, mantle and core. At the same time, no one could really say where one layer ends and the next begins. Scientists did not even know what these layers actually consist of. Just 30 years ago, researchers were sure that the granite layer begins at a depth of 50 meters and continues up to three kilometers, and then there are basalts. The mantle was assumed to be at a depth of 15-18 kilometers.

An ultra-deep well, which began to be drilled in the USSR on the Kola Peninsula, showed that scientists were wrong...

Three billion year dive

Projects for traveling deep into the Earth appeared in the early 1960s in several countries. The Americans were the first to start drilling ultra-deep wells, and they tried to do it in places where, according to seismic studies, the earth's crust should have been thinner. These places, according to calculations, were located at the bottom of the oceans, and the most promising area was considered to be the area near the island of Maui from the Hawaiian group, where ancient rocks lie under the very ocean floor and the earth's mantle is located approximately five kilometers deep under four kilometers of water. Alas, both attempts to break through the earth’s crust in this place ended in failure at a depth of three kilometers.

The first domestic projects also involved underwater drilling - in the Caspian Sea or on Lake Baikal. But in 1963, drilling scientist Nikolai Timofeev convinced State Committee according to science and technology of the USSR is that it is necessary to create a well on the continent. Although it would take much longer to drill, he believed, the well would be much more valuable from a scientific point of view. The drilling site was chosen on the Kola Peninsula, which is located on the so-called Baltic shield, consisting of the most ancient known to mankind terrestrial rocks. The multi-kilometer section of the shield layers was supposed to show a picture of the history of the planet over the past three billion years.

Deeper and deeper and deeper...

The start of work after almost five years of preparation was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin in 1970. The project began in earnest. The well housed 16 research laboratories, each the size of an average factory; the project was personally supervised by the Minister of Geology of the USSR. Ordinary employees received triple salaries. Everyone was guaranteed an apartment in Moscow or Leningrad. It is not surprising that getting into the Kola Superdeep Station was much more difficult than joining the cosmonaut corps.

The appearance of the well could disappoint an outside observer. No elevators or spiral staircases leading into the depths of the Earth. Only a drill with a diameter of a little more than 20 centimeters went underground. In general, the Kola superdeep can be imagined as a thin needle piercing the earth's thickness. A drill with numerous sensors located at the end of this needle, after several hours of work, was raised for almost a whole day for inspection, readings and repairs, and then lowered for a day. It couldn’t be faster: the strongest composite cable (drill string) could break under its own weight.

What was happening at depth at the time of drilling was not known for certain. Temperature environment, noise and other parameters were transmitted upward with a minute delay. Nevertheless, the drillers said that even such contact with the underground was sometimes seriously frightening. The sounds coming from below were similar to screams and howls. To this we can add a long list of accidents that plagued the Kola Superdeep when it reached a depth of 10 kilometers. Twice the drill was taken out melted, although the temperatures at which it could take this form are comparable to the temperature of the surface of the Sun. One day, it was as if the cable had been pulled from below and was torn off. Subsequently, when they drilled in the same place, no remains of the cable were found. What caused these and many other accidents still remains a mystery. However, they were not the reason for stopping drilling in the Baltic Shield.

In 1983, when the depth of the well reached 12,066 meters, work was temporarily stopped: it was decided to prepare materials on ultra-deep drilling for the International Geological Congress, which was planned to be held in 1984 in Moscow. It was there that foreign scientists first learned about the very existence of the Kola Superdeep, all information about which had been classified until then. Work resumed on September 27, 1984. However, during the first descent of the drill, an accident occurred - the drill string broke off again. Drilling had to continue from a depth of 7,000 meters, creating a new trunk, and by 1990 this new branch reached 12,262 meters, which was an absolute record for ultra-deep wells, broken only in 2008. Drilling was stopped in 1992, this time, as it turned out, forever. There were no funds for further work.

Discoveries and finds

The discoveries made at the Kola superdeep mine have made a real revolution in our knowledge about the structure of the earth's crust. Theorists promised that the temperature of the Baltic Shield would remain relatively low to a depth of at least 15 kilometers. This means that a well can be drilled up to almost 20 kilometers, right up to the mantle. But already at the fifth kilometer the temperature exceeded 700°C, at the seventh - over 1200°C, and at a depth of twelve it was hotter than 2200°C.

Kola drillers questioned the theory of the layered structure of the earth's crust - at least in the interval up to 12,262 meters. It was believed that there was a surface layer (young rocks), then there should be granites, basalts, the mantle and the core. But the granites turned out to be three kilometers lower than expected. The basalts that were supposed to lie underneath were not found at all. An incredible surprise for scientists was the abundance of cracks and voids at a depth of over 10 kilometers. In these voids, the drill swung like a pendulum, which led to serious difficulties in work due to its deviation from the vertical axis. In the voids, the presence of water vapor was recorded, which moved there at high speed, as if carried by some unknown pumps. These vapors created the very sounds that thrilled the drillers.

Quite unexpectedly for everyone, the hypothesis of the writer Alexei Tolstoy about the olivine belt, expressed in the novel “The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin,” was confirmed. At a depth of over 9.5 kilometers, they discovered a real treasure trove of all kinds of minerals, in particular gold, which turned out to be 78 grams per ton. By the way, industrial production is carried out at a concentration of 34 grams per ton.

Another surprise: life on Earth, it turns out, arose one and a half billion years earlier than expected. At depths where it was believed that no organic matter could exist, 14 species of fossilized microorganisms were discovered (the age of these layers exceeded 2.8 billion years). At even greater depths, where there are no longer sedimentary rocks, methane appeared in high concentrations, which finally refuted the theory of the biological origin of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas.

It is impossible not to mention the discovery made when comparing lunar soil delivered by the Soviet space station in the late 70s from the surface of the Moon, and samples taken at the Kola well from a depth of 3 kilometers. It turned out that these samples are as similar as two drops of water. Some astronomers saw this as evidence that the Moon had once broken away from the Earth as a result of a cataclysm (possibly a collision of the planet with a large asteroid). However, according to others, this similarity only indicates that the Moon was formed from the same gas and dust cloud as the Earth, and at the initial geological stages they “developed” in the same way.

The Kola Superdeep was ahead of its time

The Kola well showed that it is possible to go 14 or even 15 kilometers deep into the Earth. However, one such well is unlikely to provide fundamentally new knowledge about the earth’s crust. This requires a whole network of wells drilled at different points on the earth's surface. But the times when ultra-deep wells were drilled for purely scientific purposes seem to be gone. This pleasure is too expensive. Modern programs ultra-deep drilling is no longer as ambitious as before, and pursues practical goals.

Mainly it is the discovery and extraction of minerals. In the United States, oil and gas production from depths of 6-7 kilometers is already becoming commonplace. In the future, Russia will also begin pumping hydrocarbons from such levels. However, even those deep wells that are being drilled now bring a lot of valuable information, which geologists strive to generalize in order to obtain a holistic picture of at least the surface layers of the earth’s crust. But what lies below will remain a mystery for a long time to come. Only scientists working in ultra-deep wells like the Kola can reveal it using the most modern scientific equipment. In the future, such wells will become for humanity a kind of telescopes into the mysterious underground world of the planet, about which we know no more than about distant galaxies.