在俄罗斯西部深处的寒冷沙漠地带中 有着人类进行过的
Deep in western Russia, the frigid desert contains the remnants of one of the most ambitious
最具野心的实验之一的遗址
scientific experiments ever performed.
现在它已成废墟 是个被扭曲的金属与坍塌的混凝土充斥的废土之城
It’s a ruin now, a wasteland of jagged metal and crumbling concrete.
如果你仔细观察周围 你会发现一个锈迹斑斑的圆盘被栓在地面上
If you search around long enough, you will find a rusted disc, bolted to the earth.
不用猜也知道你甚至会想把它捡起来
So unassuming that you might even try to pick it up.
但那根本不可能
But you won’t be able to.
这其实是一个盖子 用于封闭一个深入地下12公里
It’s the welded-shut cap of a borehole that plummets more than twelve kilometers into
比最深的大洋还要深的钻孔
the earth, deeper than the deepest depths of the ocean.
这是地球上最深的洞
It’s the deepest hole on earth.
它的名字叫做科拉超深钻孔 而它的存在并不是为了
It’s called the Kola Superdeep Borehole, and its existence has nothing to do with petroleum
开采石油
exploration
相反 在1970年刚开始钻这个洞时
Rather, when drilling began in 1970, Soviet scientists hoped to eventually drill down
苏联科学家希望最终能够钻到一万五千米以下
to fifteen thousand meters in order to gain a better understanding of the nature of the
从而能够更好地了解地壳的性质
Earth’s crust.
因为事实上我们对于我们脚下的土地的了解甚至还赶不上
Because the truth is, we know less about what’s under our feet than what’s on the other side
我们对太阳系另一头的了解
of the solar system.
他们不停地钻了二十四年 最后尽管在1994年工程终止的时候未能达成目标
They drilled on and off for twenty-four years, and though they didn’t quite reach their goal
但这些工程师已经创造了最深钻洞的记录：12262米
when work came to a halt in 1994, the engineers had reached a record depth: 12,262 meters,
这个记录直到今天都没有被打破
a record that still stands today.
二十年过去了 科拉钻孔依然是一项十分卓越的
Two decades later, the Kola Borehole remains a remarkable technological and scientific
科学成就
acheivement.
为了钻出这个洞 工程师们创造了一种新的办法 使得只有钻杆末端的钻头在转动
To drill it, engineers devised a new method by which only the drill bit at the end of
润滑剂增压钻探泥浆 则从特制的钻头泵入
the shaft was rotated, the lubricant, in this case, pressurized drilling mud, was pumped
让它能够高速旋转
down through a custom drill bit, allowing it to spin.
为了对钻洞底部进行探测他们也不得不发明了新的工具
Instruments had to be invented to take measurements at the bottom of the hole.
所以我们从打通三分之一波罗地海板块地层中可以知道什么呢？
What did we learn by drilling a third of the way through the Baltic continental crust?
第一点就是那里都是水 在此之前科学家是不相信在那个深度是有水的
For one, there’s water down there, at depths scientists didn’t believe water could be found.
他们怀疑由这些氢氧两种元素构成的水是由于地下深处的极端高压
They suspect that the water formed from hydrogen and oxygen that were squeezed out of rock
而从岩石晶体中渗出的
crystals due to crazy high levels of pressure that far down.
和地下水不同 这些水是岩石矿物自身产生的
Unlike groundwater, this water originated from the rock minerals themselves.
这种现象是从未被观测到的
Never before had this been observed.
另一点让人惊讶的是俄罗斯人在6.7千米的深处
Also surpising, how about microscopic fossils discovered by Russians at depths of up to
发现的微生物化石
6.7 kilometers?
研究者们从这些化石中找到了二十四种单细胞浮游生物
Researchers catalogued twenty-four species of single-cell plankton microfossils over
而且这些生物都并不是从它们惯常出现的
the course of the project, and they weren’t found in the kinds of deposits we’re used
矿床(如石灰石和硅石)中发现的
to finding them, like limestone and silica.
这些化石被碳氮有机化合物覆盖
These were covered by organic carbon and nitrogen compounds, preserved thanks to those high
多亏了地下的高压和高温 从而得以保存至今
pressures and high temperatures so far below the surface.
说到温度 当工程师们打通到12公里时
As for those temperatures, by the time the engineers broke through the twelve kilometer
那里的岩石样本都已经有二十七亿年的历史了
mark, where rock samples were dated at 2.7 billion years old,
而热量则成为了最主要的的问题
the heat became a major issue.
研究者们认为这里岩石的温度可以达到100摄氏度
Researchers thought the temperature of the rocks would be about 100 degrees Celsius.
最终他们发现实际温度达到了180度
What they found were temperatures in excess of 180 degrees.
正是因为高温导致了钻探的终止
It was this heat that caused the drilling to come to a stop.
工程师描述说12公里深处的岩石相比于岩石更像是塑料
Engineers described the rocks at 12 kilometers as acting more like plastic than rock.
当然 和这项工程一样令人惊讶的是 科拉超深钻孔仅仅打通了
Of course, as astonishing as this project was, the Kola Superdeep Borehole only made
很微小的一部分地层
it through a tiny fraction of the Earth’s layers.
12公里已经是人类所能到达最深的深度的三倍了
12 kilometers is three times as deep as humans have ever gone, but the Earth’s mantle desn’t
但是地幔的部分直到地表以下35公里时才刚刚开始
even begin until about 35 kilometers below the surface.
而地幔又还要延伸两千八百公里
The mantle then continues for another twenty-eight hundred kilometers;
而地核的中心 则要在地表六千三百多公里以下
the center of the inner core: more than sixty-three hundred kilometers below the surface.
换个说法就是 我们花了24年去钻这个钻孔
Put another way, this borehole which took 24 years to drill, made it roughly 0.002 percent
但也仅仅向地球的中心接近了大概0.002%
of the way to the middle of the Earth.
地球可真大
It’s a big planet, you guys.
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