世界上最深的人造洞“地獄之井”，深4萬英尺

世界上最深的人造洞“地獄之井”，深4萬英尺

Earth’s deepest artificial hole stretches 40,000 feet below the surface — and it’s only covered by a rusty metal lid.

地球上最深的人工洞穴位于地表以下4萬英尺，上面只有一個(gè)生銹的金屬蓋。

Russia’s Kola Superdeep Borehole was created by the Soviets in the name of science so they could learn more about what’s really under our feet and dig to depths unknown.

俄羅斯的科拉超深鉆孔是由蘇聯(lián)人以科學(xué)的名義創(chuàng)造的，這樣他們就可以更多地了解我們腳下的東西，并挖掘到未知的深度。

The project to drill into the Earth’s surface began near Murmansk in the 1970s, when Soviet scientists wanted to learn more about the Earth’s crust.

鉆探地球表面的工程始于20世紀(jì)70年代摩爾曼斯克附近，當(dāng)時(shí)蘇聯(lián)科學(xué)家想要更多地了解地殼。

Rakot13/Wikimedia

Over two decades, they managed to dig more than 7.5 miles down into the Earth.

在20多年的時(shí)間里，他們成功地向地下挖掘了7.5英里。

However, in 1992 they had to stop drilling because the temperature was around 180 degrees Celsius (356 Fahrenheit), which was far hotter than the scientists predicted it would be.

然而，在1992年，他們不得不停止鉆探，因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)的溫度大約是180攝氏度(356華氏度)，比科學(xué)家們預(yù)測的要高得多。

Experts still need to figure out a way to overcome this temperature issue if they want to keep drilling and not destroy all of their equipment in the process.

如果專家們想要繼續(xù)鉆探，同時(shí)又不想在鉆探過程中破壞所有設(shè)備，他們還需要找到一種方法來克服這個(gè)溫度問題。

All this drilling wasn’t for nothing though as some scientific discoveries were made.

盡管有一些科學(xué)發(fā)現(xiàn)，但所有這些鉆探活動(dòng)并非毫無意義。

The researchers found out that there is water at 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) into Earth’s crust, despite this previously being thought to be impossible.

研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，在地殼深處12公里(7.4英里)處有水，盡管之前人們認(rèn)為這是不可能的。

They also found 24 new types of long-dead single-celled organisms and gained access to rocks that were 2.7 billion years old.

他們還發(fā)現(xiàn)了24種早已死亡的新型單細(xì)胞生物，并接觸到了27億年歷史的巖石。

The Kola Superdeep Borehole is 23 centimeters (about 8.7 inches) in diameter and its metal lid is welded on so it is unlikely that anyone would ever fall down it.

科拉超深鉆孔直徑23厘米(約8.7英寸)，金屬蓋是焊接的，所以不太可能有人從上面掉下來。

Locals in the area say that the hole is so deep you can hear the screams of people being tortured in hell, hence its nickname being “the well to hell.”

該地區(qū)的當(dāng)?shù)厝苏f，這個(gè)洞太深了，你甚至可以聽到人們在地獄里被折磨的尖叫聲，因此它的綽號是“地獄之井”。

If you fell down the hole, it would take around 3.5 to 4 minutes to reach the bottom.

如果你不小心掉了進(jìn)去，要花3.5到4分鐘才能到達(dá)底部。

Lots of countries wanted to be the first to drill into the Earth’s mantle during the Cold War and today Japan is attempting to set this record.

許多國家在冷戰(zhàn)期間都想成為第一個(gè)鉆到地球地幔的國家，而今天日本正試圖打破這一記錄。