China is drilling a 10,000-meter-deep hole into Earth’s crust

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. That morning, China 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.

Sun Jinsheng, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told Xinhua, “The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be compared to a big truck driving on two thin steel cables.”

According to China National Petroleum Corp., the project’s driving force, the project will test deep underground drilling technology and offer information on the interior structure of the Earth.

The anticipated drilling time is 457 days.

In a speech addressed to some of the top scientists in the country in 2021, President Xi Jinping called for faster advancements in deep Earth exploration. Identifying mineral and energy resources and assessing the dangers of natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are both possible with the help of such work.

The Russian Kola Superdeep Borehole, which took 20 years to drill to a depth of 12,262 meters (40,230 feet), continues to hold the record for being the deepest man-made hole ever created.