One of the most repeated popular phrases in the world is that if you are a deep well in the earth, you can reach China. But now it looks like the Asian giant is going the other way: as it’s building the largest ever tunnel for underground exploration.
Drilling of China’s first well more than 10,000 meters deep for scientific exploration began on Tuesday in the Tarim Basin in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xinhua reported.
It represents a milestone in China’s Deep Earth exploration, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study regions of the planet deep beneath the surface.
With a depth of 11,100 metres, the well is located inside the Taklimakan Desert, the largest desert in China.
During the drilling process, equipment including bits and drill pipe weighing more than 2,000 tons will go deep into the Earth, penetrating more than 10 continental strata, including Cretaceous systems.
Wang Chunsheng, a technical expert involved in the operation, said drilling the well more than 10,000 meters deep is a bold attempt to explore uncharted territory of the Earth and push the limits of human understanding.
“The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be compared to a large truck running on two thin steel cables,” said Sun Jinsheng, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
The Tarim Basin is one of the most difficult areas to explore due to its harsh terrestrial environment and challenging underground conditions.
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