After space, China has now explored the depths of the world. For this, he started to dig a hole of 10 thousand meters, that is, 10 kilometers, in the earth. A giant 82-metre-long drilling machine has started work in the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. This giant steel drilling tool will reach 1.5 to 65 million year old rocks in less than 145 years.
Hao Fang, one of the scientific directors of the project in question, explains that the primary purpose is to identify mineral resources and assess natural disaster risks. Digging this deep into the Earth will provide valuable information about the geological evolution of our planet and thus an understanding of the transformations that this region and even China have undergone.
This drilling is part of a strategy to probe the depths of the earth, first announced by Xi Jinping in a speech to a community of scientists in 2021. Chinese rulers want to identify the mine and energy resources available in their country that can be allocated for use, including hydrocarbons such as oil and gas.
For now, this is just the beginning of the process for China. The hole to be drilled will be the deepest artificial pit in the country. But on a global scale, SG-12 in Russia, which goes 262 meters deep, is the deepest hole ever drilled by man. So much so that the 3-meter Mariana Trench, the deepest trench in the ocean, is deeper. However, humanity is now very, very far from the Earth's center, which is 10 kilometers deep.