Humans have ventured into space, explored the moon, and currently orbit Earth in the International Space Station, but China is taking a different route—exploring deep into the Earth. China is drilling in the Sichuan Basin with plans to reach a depth of over 30,000 feet (9,000 meters), and they’ve begun a second project in the Tarim Basin, aiming for 36,000 feet (11,000 meters). This depth would make their boreholes among the deepest ever drilled by humans, though the current record belongs to Russia’s Kola Superdeep Borehole, which reaches 40,230 feet (about 12,300 meters).
China’s drilling has two primary goals: scientific exploration and potential commercial benefits. From a scientific perspective, the deeper they drill, the further back they can peer into Earth’s history, as each layer of the Earth’s crust reveals details about the planet’s formation and evolution.
Geologists are excited by the prospect of unlocking new data about Earth’s internal structure. The aim is to reach material formed over 145 million years ago, providing valuable insight into the Earth’s geological past and offering data that could improve understanding of natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
On the commercial side, China may also be hoping to tap into deeply buried energy reserves. Accessing these resources could provide a significant boost to their energy security and economic growth. Chinese President Xi Jinping initiated this deep Earth exploration in 2021, underlining its importance to the country’s scientific ambitions.
While China’s efforts are groundbreaking, they aren’t expected to surpass the depth of the Kola Superdeep Borehole. Russia’s drilling project, which began in 1970, took over 20 years to reach its final depth and faced numerous challenges, including extreme heat, mechanical failures, and equipment breakdowns. Despite these obstacles, the project made significant discoveries, such as finding microscopic plankton fossils and water deeper than scientists had expected, as well as confirming theories about plate tectonics by studying metamorphic rock beneath the Earth’s surface.
Drilling to such great depths poses significant challenges, from high temperatures to equipment failures, and China is not immune to these issues. However, their project is ambitious, with a relatively short timeline of about 15 months. If successful, China could break new ground, not just in depth, but in advancing our understanding of the Earth’s internal layers and potentially unlocking cleaner energy sources.
One particularly exciting prospect is the potential to access supercritical geothermal energy. This form of energy, buried as deep as 20 kilometers below the Earth’s surface, could be as powerful as fossil fuels and as clean as renewable energy sources like solar or wind. If successfully tapped, it could revolutionize global energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create millions of jobs. However, the challenge remains—drilling to such depths and overcoming the technical and environmental hurdles that come with it.
