During the Cold War, the USA and the Soviet Union began to compete over who would be the first to land on the moon. We know that the USA won this race. That's why the USSR wanted to set another record - drill the deepest hole in the world to the center of the Earth! In 1970 the Soviet researchers started this mega-project on the Russian peninsula Kola near the city of Murmansk. Of course they did not reach the centre of the earth, but the Kola borehole has held the world record for the deepest borehole since 1989 with 12,262 metres. In addition, the researchers hoped to obtain new information about the composition of the earth's crust by studying these deep rocks.
The researchers made amazing discoveries early on. In a rock layer 3000 meters deep they found a strange substance that was almost completely identical to moon rock. Six kilometres below, they found gold unexpectedly. They also discovered that the Earth's interior was much hotter than they had previously calculated. In 1989, the drill reached the lowest point of the borehole, but it was not 100 degrees Celsius, as had been assumed, but 180 degrees Celsius. This unexpected heat caused great difficulties for the researchers and the further progress of the project.
Shortly afterwards, the strange incident occurred. The drill should now have reached a depth of 14 km, when the drill played crazy as if it had hit a cavity. Also an alleged temperature of 1100 degrees Celsius was measured. The quite confused researchers therefore dropped heat-resistant measuring instruments and a microphone into the shaft. Through the microphone, they heard strange sounds sounded like human cries, from many of tormented ones at the same time!
Here's the recording:
According to the scientists, these are not cries but echoes of seismic activity, i.e. normal noises caused by the displacement of the Earth's plates. The project had to be terminated in 1992 because the unexpectedly high temperatures caused great problems for the scientists in their further research.
What do you think?
The researchers made amazing discoveries early on. In a rock layer 3000 meters deep they found a strange substance that was almost completely identical to moon rock. Six kilometres below, they found gold unexpectedly. They also discovered that the Earth's interior was much hotter than they had previously calculated. In 1989, the drill reached the lowest point of the borehole, but it was not 100 degrees Celsius, as had been assumed, but 180 degrees Celsius. This unexpected heat caused great difficulties for the researchers and the further progress of the project.
Shortly afterwards, the strange incident occurred. The drill should now have reached a depth of 14 km, when the drill played crazy as if it had hit a cavity. Also an alleged temperature of 1100 degrees Celsius was measured. The quite confused researchers therefore dropped heat-resistant measuring instruments and a microphone into the shaft. Through the microphone, they heard strange sounds sounded like human cries, from many of tormented ones at the same time!
Here's the recording:
According to the scientists, these are not cries but echoes of seismic activity, i.e. normal noises caused by the displacement of the Earth's plates. The project had to be terminated in 1992 because the unexpectedly high temperatures caused great problems for the scientists in their further research.
What do you think?
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