Since ancient times, people have dreamed of knowing what is under their feet. Not here, on the surface of the Earth, but there - deep in its bowels. Unfortunately, with the help of existing equipment, it was possible to get into the depths of only a few hundred meters.
Drilling operations on the Kola Peninsula began in 1970 and continued until 1992. During this time, the drillers made successful discoveries. Indeed, the earth’s crust was “pierced” by more than 12 km!
The Kola well has confirmed many of the guesses of scientists, but has also refuted a lot. It was assumed that the earth's crust was similar to a layer cake - basalts are at the very bottom, granites are above, and we walk along sedimentary rocks. This turned out to be not quite so. Granites are 3 km lower than scientists thought. And the drillers never reached the basaltic layer. The last kilometers were exclusively granite. At the International Geological Congress, which took place in 1984, they even proposed burying the well, because it refutes all the assumptions of scientists. Naturally, this was said as a joke.
Initially, it was planned, by the way, that the well on the Kola Peninsula would be much deeper. It was believed that the temperature would be low to 15 kilometers, and they supposed to dig up to 20 km, that is, almost to the mantle itself. But the Baltic Shield brought a surprise. At a level of 12 km, a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius was higher than was predicted. Moreover, scientists today do not know why this happened.
But this is not all the discoveries that the Kola well gave the world. Thanks to her, it became known that life on our planet arose much earlier than anticipated. Petrified microorganisms at those depths where they should not be, according to scientists, and huge concentrations of methane gas forced the scientific world to radically change the theory.
What is the Kola well? Probably, many imagine a mine or something like that. But such fantasies are far from the truth. In fact, for our Earth it is comparable to a needle that ruthlessly pierces its bowels. A drill goes into the depth, the diameter of which is slightly more than 20 cm. Numerous sensors are fixed at its end, which made it possible to make so many discoveries.
Many mysterious legends are associated with a well on the Kola Peninsula. Or not legends - who knows? Perhaps this is what happened. For example, drillers say that from the depths came sounds similar to terrible screams. The most impressionable claim that hell is there.
When the 10 km mark was reached, troubles poured on the Kola superdeep - a chain of mysterious events, the explanation of which was never found. At the sight of a melted drill, scientists could only shrug their hands, because it is not able to withstand only the temperature of the Sun! And once the cable broke. And later, his remains could not be found.
However, they stopped drilling completely because of devilry. The official version is a lack of funds. By mysterious coincidence, precisely at the same time, an explosion occurred at great depths. No explanation for this incident was found.
Well, the Kola well adequately served the world. It excited the entire scientific world, and the mysterious legends associated with it will excite humanity for a long time to come.
