Explained: China is drilling its deepest-ever borehole in the Earth's crust. Here's why

China has started digging a hole in the Earth's crust measuring 10,000 metres (32,808 ft). According to Xinhua news agency, the effort to dig the country's deepest-ever borehole began on Tuesday (30 May) in the Tarim Basin, which is located in the oil-rich Xinjiang province.

But what is the real reason behindthe expedition and what could be the challenges ahead?Let us take a deeper look.

What's the reason behind this activity?

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The project, according to the Xinhua news agency, "represents a landmark in China's deep Earth exploration, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study areas of the planet deep beneath the surface."

According to Bloomberg, earlier in 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping advocated for advancements in deep earth research when speaking to the country's top experts.

This mission can assist scientists in discovering valuable minerals and energy resources. Furthermore, it can be useful for assessing the risks of environmental calamities, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, according to the report.

The announcement of this new venturecomes just days after the Asian country completed the construction of a 12,000-tonne offshore oil and gas drilling platform to exploit geological deposits of natural gas, according to the website Interesting Engineering.

Drilling of the deepest-ever hole into the Earth's crust began in northwest #China's #Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Tuesday with a depth of more than 10,000 meters. #ChinaInspires pic.twitter.com/GxgWzsf26y — CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) June 1, 2023

Notably, demand for petrol and jet fuel has surged in China after the repeal of the zero-COVID-19 policy in December. According to Reuters, Beijing is expected to import a record amount of crude oil this year due to high demand.

How will the drilling take place?

As reported by theXinhua news agency, the drill has a design depth of 11,100 metres. According to the article, the 2,000-tonne heavy machinery would drill into the earth, penetrating through ten continental strata - or layers of rock.

The drilling also intends to reach the Cretaceous system, which has rocks reaching back 145 million years, according to Bloomberg,

What are the challenges ahead?

The borehole is being constructed in the Tarim Basin, which, according to Britannica, is a large depression drained by the Tarim River.

The Taklimakan Desert, China's biggest desert, is located in the midst of this basin and covers 342,000 square kilometres.

According to Xinhua news agency, the borehole is located in the desert's interior.

Drilling such a deep hole into the Earth's crust will not be easy due to the "harsh ground environment and complicated underground conditions" in the Tarim Basin.

Sun Jinsheng, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told Xinhua news agency about the project's difficulties: "The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be compared to the difficulty of building a house."

Will it be the deepest hole ever?

Even though digging a 10-kilometre hole is ambitious, it is not the deepest human-made hole on Earth.

The deepest man-made hole on earth is the Russian Kola Superdeep Borehole which took almost 20 years to drill.The hole had been drilled past 12,000 metres in 1989 but the process was then reportedly stopped for about one year due to various scientific and celebratory visits to the site.

The drilling operation began in 1970, and the borehole was completed in 1989 at a depth of 12,262 metres (40,230 ft).

As per aBBC report, the operation had to be halted in 1992 when the temperature hit 180 degree Celsius (356F), which was double the predicted mercury at that depth.

The laboratory was closed down three years later due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and a lack of funds for such exploratory programmes, according to the article.

Americans began Project Mohole in the early 1960s, with the goal of drilling through the Earth's crust to reach and investigate the mantle. They excavated the Pacific Ocean floor near Guadalupe, Mexico. However, after reaching 183 metres below the seafloor, the project was cancelled because of rising expenses.

Germany also attempted Earth exploration in 1990 with the German Continental Deep Drilling Programme (KTB) in Bavaria, which reached a depth of ninekilometres. This project, too, was eventually shut down.

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In the words of Uli Harms of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Programme, "Continuing these expeditions requires a significant amount of money."

“In the end, it really is a cost issue. These expeditions are extremely expensive – and therefore they are difficult to repeat. They can cost hundreds of millions of euros – and only a small percentage will actually be for the earth sciences, the rest will be for technological development, and of course, operations.”

The day when all of these obstacles are overcome and mankind may eventually explore the Earth's mantle still seems far away. Scientists, on the other hand, are optimistic.

(With inputs from agencies)

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