As the second-largest economy in the world explores new frontiers above and below the planet’s surface, Chinese scientists have started drilling a 10,000-meter (32,808-foot) hole into the Earth’s crust. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, drilling for what is expected to be China’s deepest-ever borehole started on Tuesday in the nation’s oil-rich Xinjiang province. China also launched its first civilian astronaut from the Gobi Desert into orbit.
According to the study, the slender shaft will through more than ten continental strata, or layers of rock, before reaching the cretaceous system in the Earth’s crust, which contains rock that is around 145 million years old.
“The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be compared to a big truck driving on two thin steel cables,” Sun Jinsheng, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told Xinhua.
In a speech to some of the top scientists in the country in 2021, President Xi Jinping called for faster advancements in deep Earth exploration. By identifying mineral and energy resources, as well as assessing the dangers of environmental catastrophes like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, such study can aid.
The Russian Kola Superdeep Borehole, which took 20 years to drill to a depth of 12,262 meters (40,230 feet), remains the deepest man-made hole on Earth.