Chinese scientists have initiated a drilling project to create a 10,000-meter (32,808 feet) borehole into the Earth’s crust, signaling China’s interest in exploring new frontiers both above and below the planet’s surface.
The drilling operation, which commenced in China’s Xinjiang region, aims to establish the country’s deepest borehole to date, as reported by Xinhua News Agency. Simultaneously, China launched its first civilian astronaut into space from the Gobi Desert earlier that day.
According to the report, the narrow shaft will penetrate more than 10 continental strata or layers of rock and eventually reach the cretaceous system in the Earth’s crust, containing rock formations dating back approximately 145 million years.
Sun Jinsheng, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, compared the construction challenges of the drilling project to a big truck driving on two thin steel cables, highlighting the complexity involved.
In 2021, President Xi Jinping emphasized the importance of advancing deep Earth exploration in a speech to prominent scientists. Such endeavors contribute to identifying mineral and energy resources while aiding in the assessment of environmental risks like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The current record for the deepest man-made hole on Earth is held by the Russian Kola Superdeep Borehole, which achieved a depth of 12,262 meters (40,230 feet) in 1989 after two decades of drilling.
