What is it if not a trip to the center of the Earth to investigate the underworld? Everyone is wondering what Beijing is up to again.
Xinhua stated that Chinese scientists drilled 10,000 meters (32,808 feet) into the Earth’s crust.
The second-largest economy’s ambitious endeavor explores new horizons above and below ground.
Xinhua stated that drilling began in China’s oil-rich Xinjiang province. China launched its first civilian astronaut from the Gobi Desert that morning.
The research states that the narrow shaft will cross 10 continental strata to reach the Earth’s cretaceous system.
This system has 145-million-year-old rock formations.
Sun Jinsheng, a Chinese Academy of Engineering expert, compared this drilling project’s construction obstacles to a huge vehicle balancing on two thin steel wires.
China National Petroleum Corp. leads this endeavor to study the Earth’s interior and develop innovative deep underground drilling technology.
In 2021, President Xi Jinping addressed China’s top experts on deep Earth research.
This study can find significant mineral and energy resources and analyze environmental dangers like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
According to NewScientist, Xinjiang’s Tarim Basin possesses China’s largest and deepest oil reserves, and Sinopec has established other ultra-deep wells in the region.
457 days should finish the project.
The scientific news website said the business had dug 49 wells deeper than 8000 meters in the Shunbei oil and gas area.
Researchers may learn more about Tarim Basin geology through the drilling effort.
The basin gathers water from three mountain ranges and was formed around 200 million years ago when the Palaeo-Asian Ocean closed.
“It looks very much like an industrial oil drilling project as opposed to a scientific drilling project,” NewScientis cited Edward Sobel from the University of Potsdam in Germany. “Research wells try very hard not to find oil and gas,” he continued.
The Russian Kola Superdeep Borehole, drilled for 20 years, reached 12,262 meters (40,230 feet) in 1989.