15 DEEPEST Holes in the Earth

the world is dotted with incredibly deep holes from man-made excavations to naturally occurring sinkholes join me for today's video I'm going to count down the top 15 deepest holes in the Earth number 15 the Great Blue Hole just 60 miles off the coast of Belize is the unfathomable Deep Blue Hole this amazing natural wonder is an underwater sinkhole that researchers believe to be the largest of its kind nearly perfectly circular and shape is characterized by its Rich blue color the hole is almost a thousand feet in diameter and a terrifying 410 feet deep it lies in the center of an atoll called Lighthouse Reef where an island of coral encircles the shallow like turquoise colored Waters of a Lagoon water levels are so shallow that parts of the Ring surrounding the dark blue sinkhole are even known to crust the surface at low tide the sinkhole originally formed as a limestone cave during the last glacial period a time when sea levels were much lower as the ocean began to rise the cave system flooded and eventually collapsed creating this unique vertical cave smack dab in the middle of the ocean as one can imagine this Great Blue Hole is a diving hot spot with people coming from far and wide to see the geological formations that now lie in the ocean's depths it's possible to dive all year round however April to June is considered to be the prime time for a better visibility and spotting whale sharks in the area the Great Blue Hole was braved by the famous explorer Jacques Cousteau who made the site famous in 1971 by declaring it as one of his top 10 best diving sites in the world at the time Cousteau sailing on a ship Calypso investigated The sinkhole's Depths and confirmed that it had indeed originated from a limestone K formation huge stalactites and stalagmites were also found below the surface some even reaching 30 to 40 feet in length it said that the deeper one goes the water becomes even more clear and the formations become even more complex the Great Blue Hole is part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System a world heritage site of the United Nations educational scientific and cultural organizations number 14. Bingham Canyon mine the Bingham Canyon mine is a massive open pit mining operation owned by Rio Tinto out in the okir mountains just Southwest of Salt Lake City Utah in the United States the mine is the largest man-made excavation and deepest open pitmont in the world having produced more copper than any other mine in history so just how much copper is that well about 19 million tons that's a lot of pennies Bingham Canyon mine began production at the turn of the 20th century in 1906 and since then the pit has grown about three quarters of a mile deep two and a half miles wide and covers 1900 Acres of space it's so big in fact that it became a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and you can even see it from space the mine employs about 2 000 people at a time and about 45 000 short tons of raw material are removed from here daily one electric shovel alone can bring in nearly a hundred short tons of ore in a single scoop and five miles of conveyors bring the ore to the copperton concentrator and flotation plant with the longest conveyor in that series extending three miles as you'd expect with an operation of this scale the Bingham Canyon mine is one of the world's most productive mines and one of the richest has prices of raw materials fluctuate there are brief moments in time when the mine itself is worth more than the copper it holds number 13. Sanford underground research facility when it comes to massive infrastructure projects in the United States the country tends to dig deep really deep almost 5000 feet below the surface and Lead South Dakota is the Sanford lab what was once a gold mine is now the site for the study of Dark Matter dark matter and neutrino physics are best observed and researched far from the cosmic rays caused by Earth's mass so the length of six empire state buildings deep into the ground is the perfect place the facility is massive and while it only encompasses less than a square kilometer above ground there are over 31 square kilometers of space underground there's plenty of room for multiple Laboratories campuses and even water treatment facilities Sanford Labs is also open to the public to spread awareness among scientists geophysicists and researchers to the Future as well as educate the rest of us about the previous gold mines history but the fun doesn't stop there because although the Sanford lab itself is about 5 000 feet below the surface the mine itself goes on for total of eight thousand feet the facility is housed at the previous Homestay gold mine a deep underground Gold Mine founded during the Black Hills Gold Rush in 1876. today the lab houses multiple Caverns complexes and campuses dedicated to experiments in things like dark matter and ionized radiation as well as assembly labs and water treatment facilities it's the type of hole that the deeper you dig the more interesting things become number 12. vivos underground shelter Network billionaires like Jeff Bezos Elon Musk and Richard Branson are racing each other to see who can reach space and other planets first and while those men are looking up others in the ultra-rich community are looking down Robert vinceno is the founder of the vivos group a Southern California Enterprise responsible for building a nationwide network of survival shelters for 2012. the coming Encounter of Apophis in 2029 or whatever and whenever the need may come to date the company's first underground complex has started construction near Barstow California about 400 feet below the surface each nuclear blast proof facility is engineered to withstand surface temperatures reaching 1200 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 days a force magnitude 10 earthquake water submersion for up to 500 hours or Winds of up to 450 miles an hour as well as radiation biological or chemical attack as the apocalypse may come in many forms the shelters are also made to withstand the pressure of 90-pound hailstones traveling at a speed of 100 miles an hour form a 50 Megaton air burst detonated 20 miles away and in the event of social Anarchy the compound may even serve as an armed Fortress each shelter will hold up to 200 people each with approximately 100 square feet of personal space and will be equipped within a food clothing medicine fuel water and survival gear for one whole year A well-stocked menu of freeze-dried foods and urgent medical and dental care center and a large wardrobe inventory will be among some of the amenities there are current plans to build 20 shelters around the nation each within 150 to 200 miles of a major metropolitan area when fully completed vivos will accommodate 4 000 people as if it's a modern day Noah's Ark for those who can afford it it's also encouraging universities to donate DNA samples of every living thing on Earth to be stored in their refrigerated vaults number 11. chuki kamata mine just called chooky for short the chuki kamata mine is the largest open pick copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world located in Northern Chile chuki sits over 9000 feet above sea level this mine has grown to be over two and a half miles long and nearly two miles wide and almost three thousand feet deep chuki's history extends back to the end of the 19th century when the indigenous Inca began digging through mineral deposits the earliest examples of ink and Mining were found during an 1899 discovery of the copper man a mummy dated to 550 BCE which was found in an ancient mine shaft and trapped by a rockfall by the early 1900s the Spanish began exploiting the area and Chilean and English companies would soon catch wind of the goings-on here quickly entering the picture to mine the veins but no one could have possibly anticipated the future of the area mining activity was relatively small scale until the war of the Pacific when Chile annexed both parts of Peru and Bolivia including chukikamaram this caused the so-called Red Gold Fever and miners flooded it from far and wide to claim their Fortune at some point there were 400 mining claims at once the chuki mine and the surrounding areas were a disorganized mess and the law was nowhere to be found Shanty towns and settlements popped up seemingly overnight and the overconsumption of alcohol gambling and murder became an everyday occurrence even Che Guevara passed through here as a youth having written about it in his motorcycle Diaries but despite the Gold Fever The Wild Chucky was eventually tamed by the Chilean Army private companies came in to seal the deal and by the 1990s the open cast was the largest in the world before being surpassed by the Escondido mine number 10 diavic diamond mine just a few degrees shy of the Arctic Circle and more than a few degrees shy of inhabitable the diavic diamond mine is the shimmering prize of the Northwest Territories since its initial Construction in 2001 the diavic diamond mine has steadily churned out precious stones at an amazing rate each year 3 500 pounds of diamonds with a value of a hundred million dollars are mined from bievec and sold to the rest of the world although the wealth from the mine is truly amazing the real feat is not in the mining but the transportation from the mine 200 miles south of the mine is Yellowknife a small town that averages high temperatures below zero for five months per year farther north the weather doesn't get any better and the mining company set on exploiting the resource knew a solution was necessary to easily move the diamonds out of the sub-arctic the obvious and extremely Canadian Choice was ice roads in the winter the ice roads leading to and from the mine are the only connection between the massive hole and the newly constructed the Avec airport and all it takes is the slightest change in weather to leave the miners and their Precious Cargo stranded in the Northwest Territories but not only are these some of the most difficult diamonds to mine but they exist in one of the deepest mines in the world 400 meters below the surface if Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend then the rocks from the niavic diamond mine certainly form a deep connection number nine Guatemala City sinkhole the 2007 Guatemala sinkhole was as disastrous as it was absolutely massive reaching a haunting depth of 330 feet this is another classic case of human activity having devastating consequences with the sinkhole being caused by fluid from the sewers eroding the uncemented volcanic ash Limestone and pyroclastic deposits that live underneath Guatemala City so couple all of that underground instability with excessive rainstorms and the water seeping its way deep underground to dissolve The Rock and you've got a recipe for utter disaster nearby citizens even say they could hear a rumbling near the site of the sinkhole just before the collapse and when you have a sinkhole in such a densely populated area it's virtually impossible for people to walk away unscathed and unfortunately five people lost their lives and one thousand people needed to be evacuated all in all it costs the Guatemalan government 2.7 million dollars to not just fill the sinkhole with cement but to also redirect the sewage pipes number eight the darvaza gas crater and at the end of the day no one really knows for sure if there's an afterlife but to quote one of the great heavy metal bands Slayer there is no heaven without a hell and the gate to hell in Turkmenistan drives a pretty hard bargain located near the village of the vasey the door to hell is a 230 foot deep hole that's been burning now for 40 years and is showing no signs of slowing down but how does something like this happen well the answer to this question is pretty simple the gate to hell was open when the former Soviet Union was Drilling in the karakum desert and accidentally came across a pocket of natural gas a sinkhole ensued and the rig collapsed releasing noxious fumes into the air but the drilling team Set Fire to the sinkhole to keep the gas from further releasing into the air and assume that the fire would go out in just a few days cut to 40 years later and this sinkhole is still going strong there have been some efforts to put the fire out but let's just say that those plans have all turned to Ash while a bit unsettling the gates of hell has become one of the country's most popular tourist destinations and offers a different type of Oasis for hikers number seven the mere mine located in the Siberian region of Eastern Russia the mere mine is one of the largest excavated holes in the world 1722 feet deep and 3 900 feet in diameter excavation began in 1957 and was discontinued in 2001 and then reactivated in 2009 as an underground Diamond Mine the mere mine was the first developed and largest diamond mine in the Soviet Union after the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s the diamond pit was bought by the Saka Diamond company which quickly struck it rich reporting over 600 million dollars in annual Diamond sales but if the thought of a diamond mine in the harsh Siberian climate sounds a bit outlandish well you're right opening the pit wasn't easy seven months worth of winter per year froze the ground solid making it near impossible to mine it's not until summer months when the ground turns into a slush that the real work can begin buildings had to be raised on piles so they wouldn't sink from their warmth melting the permafrost the main processing plant had to be built on better around 12 miles away from the mine the winter temperatures were so low that car tires and steel would shatter and oil would freeze workers had to use jet engines to thaw and dig out the permafrost or blasted it with dynamite to get access to the underlying kimberlite the entire mine had to be covered at night to prevent the Machinery from freezing it's absolutely crazy and it gives a whole new meaning to ice on your wrist and ice on your chain number six Darren kuyu underground city like something out of an unmade Indiana Jones movie The Darren cuyu underground city was discovered in modern times when a man found a hidden room behind a wall in his home which after further digging was revealed to lead to an ancient underground complex 18 stories deep likely first established around the 7th or 8th Century BC the massive Subterranean complex in Turkey was built by the ancient population of the time to provide protection against invading forces and what a defense it became continually growing since its Inception and significantly expanding during the Byzantine period centuries later this hidden complex is thought to have been able to protect twenty thousand inhabitants for long periods of time thanks to a number of surprisingly Advanced if crudely implemented Innovations the city descends a stunning 18 stories underground deeper than any of the other underground complexes found in this area and it's fitted with thousands of ventilation shafts and waterways that provide fresh air and water to each level of this site there were rooms for Stables churches lodging and storage and of course a winery lest the citizens become bored during a Siege the city was protected by doors made of massive Stone wheels that could be rolled in front of the entrance essentially making it another wall today over 600 entrances to the Darren cuyu underground city have been found in Courtyards and private residences around the city giving the impression that there may have been some holes in this impressive defense but hundreds of entries or not it's doubtful that many enemies could make it past two foot Stone doors number five the big hole resisting the urge to make any yo mama jokes in 1866 Erasmus Jacobs found a tiny white Pebble on the de culk Farm on the banks of the Orange River near hopetown in the former Cape Colony that Pebble turned out to be a 21 and a quarter carat diamond it was only five years later that the De Beers brothers gave Dutch diamond mine Prospectors permission to dig on their small farm 76 miles north of that spot where the tiny Pebble was discovered an even larger 83 and a half carat diamond was found on the slopes of a small hill called kohlsburg koche which led to the first Diamond Rush in the area besieged by Fortune Hunters the De Beers brothers sold their farm and moved elsewhere miners started arriving by the thousands and the new Rush Frontier Town was quickly erected by June of 1873 new Rush was renamed Kimberly after John Woodhouse Earl of Kimberly and British Secretary of State for the colonies among the most ambitious Prospectors were two Englishmen Cecil J Rhodes and Barney barnardo ambitious and enterprising they bought one hole after another and became the biggest mine owners in the area in 1888 they merged their companies and so was born to Beer's Consolidated mines limited the Forerunner of the firm that still plays a leading role on the diamond stage today and still has its headquarters in Kimberly Kimberly's complex web of Rhodes is a topographic reminder of a chaotic past and not one but five big holes and a number of smaller mines have been gouged out of the earth reaching ever deeper into its bluish diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes the largest the Kimberly mine or the big hole covered 1.8 million square feet and reached a depth of 778 feet and yielded three tons of diamonds number four goddard-based tunnel back in 1947 the Swiss engineer Carl Edward gruner dreamed of creating a massive tunnel unrivaled in length and depth in his home country's Goddard mountain range finally in 2016 his dream became a reality with the construction of the goddard-based tunnel the tunnel sits over 8 000 feet below the ground goes on for over 35 miles and costs 12 billion dollars to bore it the opening of the tunnel was so Monumental that the leaders of Germany France and Italy were some of the guests in attendance and tens of thousands of people gathered for an opening Festival the tunnel was given its very own theme song Too the goddard-based tunnel was now home to a high-speed rail and makes a trip between Zurich and Milan in about two and a half hours this tunnel is a Marvel of Swiss Ingenuity and engineering and brings a great sense of Pride to the country so much so that the Swiss citizens agreed to pay an extra thirteen hundred dollars per person in taxes to help complete the project which saw two massive boring machines meet in the middle marking the tunnel's completion for almost 20 years when it was finished the Goddard tunnel became the world's longest running Railway and the world's deepest traffic tunnel reaching a maximum depth of 8040 feet looks like the Swiss people's ties to their Community really Run Deep number three Ice Cube neutrino Observatory telescope detector Observatory whatever you want to call it the Ice Cube neutrino Observatory isn't just one of the deepest holes on Earth it's also one of the coolest constructed between 2005 and 2010. it's the world's largest neutrino research array this Observatory consists of 86 identical holes drilled one and a half miles deep scattered throughout the ice of the South Pole and filled with extremely sensitive particle physics monitoring equipment the Ice Cube is a tangential facility of the much larger Edmondson Scott South Pole station both of which are literally located at the South Pole in Antarctica where temperatures are normally a deadly negative 75 degrees Fahrenheit the research in this cold hole is as obscure as it is esoteric as they essentially search for signs of tiny subatomic particles called neutrinos as they streak through the crystal clear ice thousands of feet below the surface but its impact could be profound neutrinos are one of the most mysterious building blocks of the universe and while studying them is notoriously difficult the more they'll be able to explain how the universe Works Beyond these extreme difficulties of travel and habitation of the location the drilling of the all-important all identical holes used for the array sensors is an engineering Marvel using highly Advanced Equipment scientists board into the Earth with an ultra high pressure hot water drill not unlike a massive power washer each tube took approximately 40 hours to drill in total Antarctica seems like a long way to go to measure one tiny particle but the darkness and purity of the subsurface ice at the South Pole create a naturally ideal environment for detecting neutrinos which almost will never actually interact with matter making them very hard to measure in fact it's only when one accidentally collides with another particle and creates a reaction that its presence can be examined and that is difficult to create in a lab environment number two Cola super deep borehole during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union were racing to see which country could do things bigger and better the project known as the cola super deep borehole began in the 1970s on the Russian border with Norway on the cola Peninsula with the sole purpose of drilling as deep into the Earth's crust as technology would allow the result is a massive hole that goes on for over forty thousand feet down it took the Soviet researchers about 20 years to drill that far and they only reached about one third of the way into the Earth's crust there were some in the project who said that they dug a hole to hell and if you listen hard enough you can hear the screaming Souls below whether that's true or not that's a deep hole and while the project was scrapped in the 1990s due to lack of funding the rusty remains of the drill are still intact the defunct structure and the never-ending hole beneath it represent a time when World superpowers needed to show off their technological and Engineering advancements while many of us have heard of the Space Race the cola super deep borehole was part of a race to the Deep Frontier it was a lesser known and perhaps stranger Endeavor that the Soviet Union both ended and won in 1989 when the cola super deep borehole became the deepest man-made hole on Earth number one z-44 Chavo over the years oil drilling companies have had to go deeper into the Earth to extract that thick liquid gold in 1949 the average depth of an oil well drilled was 3 635 feet and by 2008 that number reached 6 000 feet but humans are advancing our technology faster and faster allowing these companies to go deeper than the folks in the 40s could ever dream of for some there's nowhere to go but up but when it comes to z44 Chavo there's nowhere to go but down in 2011 Exxon the operator of the sakalin-1 project drilled the then world's deepest well surpassing previous record holders the AL Shaheen well and the cola super deep borehole as the world's longest borehole the adoptu op-11 well reached a measured total depth of 40 502 feet deep but in 2012 Exxon NAFTA gas beat its own record by completing the z44 Chavo well the well has an astonishing depth of 40 604 feet which is 15 times the height of the world's tallest skyscraper the Burj Khalifa in Dubai this hole is so deep and so menacing that many have dubbed it the well to hell I'll see you next time watch our binge watching playlist if you'd like to watch all of our most popular top 15 videos grab a drink grab a snack and get ready to binge the top five show has launched Channel memberships thank you to our channel members

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 43,793

Keywords: deepest holes, holes, sinkholes

Id: 2qip2RqILSE

Length: 21min 54sec (1314 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2023