Why digging 12 miles deep is almost impossible
Humans have drilled only 12.3 kilometers into the Earth and haven't gone further despite decades of tech advances. So what's stopping us?
The deepest hole humans have ever drilled into the Earth is just 12.3 kilometers, about 0.2% of the distance to the planet's core. That effort, the Soviet-era Kola Superdeep Borehole, took more than 20 years to complete. And despite decades of technological progress since, we haven't gone any deeper. So what's stopping us?
Business Insider visited drilling sites and spoke with engineers and industry experts to understand what it would take to go deeper than ever before, and whether reaching the Earth's mantle is even possible.
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