In this post, we gathered a list of 5 deepest man-made holes.
The Berkley Pit
Berkley pit is the open pit for copper mining. Its overall depth reaches about 1780 ft (543 m). Anaconda Copper and Atlantic Richfield Companies operated it between the years of 1955 and 1982. Currently, It is filled with water to a depth of about 900 ft (270 m). However, the water’s high acidic level makes it toxic. For instance, group of migrating geese landed in the Pit in 1995, and later on, 342 carcasses of geese were found near the Berkley pit. A similar story happened again in 2016.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole
The main purpose of this borehole was to dig into the Earth’s crust for the purpose of geological and biological researches.
It is called in “Kola” because the scientific drilling was conducted on the Kola Peninsula of the Soviet Union.
Drilling started on 24th of May, 1970 and finally finished in 1989, when total depth of the borehole reached 40,230 ft. (12,262 meters). Despite its 7.6-mile depth, its diameter is only 9 inches (23cm).
The Kola Superdeep Borehole remained as the deepest man-made hole for two decades, until other deeper holes started to appear in the different parts of the world.
Al Shaheen Oil Field
Al Shaheen was the deepest man-made hole between the years of 2008 and 2011. It locates on the coast of Qatar.
In 2008, it was drilled into the record depth, which measured to be 40,320 ft. (12,290 m). Its depth is slightly deeper than The Kola Superdeep Borehole.
Odoptu well
Odoptu is the part of Sakhalin I project. It is considered as one of the deepest man-made holes in the world. It was drilled by Exxon Neftegas Ltd. to extract oil in Sakhalin region of Russia. When it was drilled in 2011, it broke the drilling record with the depth about 40,502 ft (12,345 m). The well was completed in 60 days. However, the next hole in our list beat this record in 2012.
Z-44 Chayvo well
Z-44 Chayvo well is the deepest man-made hole ever with the depth of 40,604 ft (12,376 m). It is also part of Sakhalin I project. It is not surprising that the deepest man-made holes are oil wells because people do not mind to dig dipper as long as there is a promise of good fortune.
