Deepest Hole On Earth Permanently Sealed After Finding 2 Billion-Year-Old Fossil

In a remote part of north-west Russia, decades have been spent drilling a hole down into the center of the earth. The hole is the deepest borehole in the world, at over 40,000 feet deep.

However, something wholly unexpected happened, causing the researchers to hurriedly seal it back up and abandon the project forever.

Spirit Of Exploration

Man has been mystified and entranced by exploring the heavens ever since the first manmade satellite was sent into space in 1957. As technology develops, learning about the stars and the cosmos is easier than ever.

We now know more about the universe than ever before, thanks to global space agencies and private companies. Even so, there is another world we know surprisingly little about.

Racing

It is shocking to think that we know more about space than we do about what lies under our own feet. Many people know about the space race that was waged between the U.S. and the U.S.S.

R, and while the Cold War is well-remembered, few people know about the battle to learn about the world below our feet.

Crusty

In the late 1950s, American and Soviet scientists started to organize elaborate experiments to penetrate the Earth’s crust. According to conventional thought, the Earth’s crust is about 30 miles thick.

Beneath this relatively thin shell, lies the mantle — an unknown and mysterious inner layer that accounts for as much as 40 percent of the planet’s mass.

Headstart

Then, in 1958 the U.S. took the lead with the launch of Project Mohole. Located near Guadalupe in Mexico, the project was intended to drill into the Pacific Ocean bed.

Teams of engineers began the unprecedented project, however, eight years after it started, the operation’s funding stopped, having reached only 600 feet. Even at this depth, the American scientists still hadn’t reached the mantle.