If you are looking for some intriguing or awe-inspiring places on earth, our list of 10 biggest deepest holes in the world should give you something to think about. Whether they are a result of mankind’s search for resources, scientific breakthroughs, or natural occurrence there are numerous holes around the earth, that are either so massive, or reaching so deep below the earth, that you have no choice but to feel amazed upon grasping their magnitude.
Commonly known types of natural holes in the earth are sinkholes, caves and pit caves. If you are wondering how deep can sinkholes be, or in other words what is the deepest sinkhole in the world, you can expect to find an answer to that question on our list.
What is a sinkhole in the water?
A sinkhole or a cave in the ocean is called a blue hole, but they can be also found on some islands. The main difference with regular water filled sinkholes is that these are filled with seawater. One of the most famous blue holes is the Great Blue Hole, and it lies off the coast of Belize.
How deep is the Great Blue Hole?
The hole is 410ft (125m) deep, however, it’s not the deepest hole in the ocean. Depending on your views what constitutes a hole, the deepest natural hole in the world might be Marina Trench in the Pacific Ocean. It is a very large crescent shaped area that is more than 1,500 miles (2,550 km) long and 43 miles (69 km) wide on average. Its deepest part is nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) below the surface of the ocean. To me, it’s kind of strange to call it a hole, because it is at the bottom of the ocean, and if we follow that logic than the World Ocean is the biggest hole in the world, and I doubt that many readers would find that answer satisfactory or interesting. The deepest blue hole is Dragon Hole with the depth of 987 feet (300.89 m) located in South China Sea.
Pixabay/Public Domain
We can find answers to questions such as how deep is the world’s deepest pit and what is the deepest hole ever dug by man in Mining operations and scientific drilling programs. Believe it or not, the concept of mining is super old — the oldest mine is supposedly 43,000 years old. Prehistoric mines, obviously can’t be compared with modern ones, but that significant progress in mining capabilities has been paid, with mining operations becoming more destructive to the environment and ecosystem. There are various mining techniques, and they result in different kinds of holes in the earth. If you are looking for the deepest pit on earth, then the deepest open-pit mine (also called open cut mine) would be a good candidate, again depending on your definition of the word “pit”.
What is an open cut mine?
According to mine-engineer, it is “an excavation or cut made at the surface of the ground for the purpose of extracting ore and which is open to the surface for the duration of the mine’s life”.
What is the largest open pit mine in the world?
Calculating the volume of the mine isn’t really practical so if we are talking about the surface, then it is Garzweiler opencast mine in Germany its surface is 18,5 square miles (48 square km).
Scientific drilling led to significant improvements in drilling technologies, and resulted in the creation of the deepest man made hole in the world. The primary reason for scientific drilling is to learn more about earth’s structure. The current theory is that below the earth’s crust lies mantle (that can be divided into upper and lower) and below the mantle is the outer core, and finally in the center is the inner core.
What is the Mohole project?
Mohole project was a drilling project, with the goal of reaching the boundary between the earth’s crust and mantle, which is called the Mohorovicic Discontinuity. However the Congress discontinued the project, because of its high costs.
How far is it from the surface to the center of the Earth?
Now that depends from where are you standing, and it can vary from 3967 miles (6,384.4 km) to 3,948 miles (6,353 km). Even sea level can be further or closer to the center of the earth, because earth is not a perfect sphere.
Because this is a list of 10 biggest deepest holes in the world, it was not practical to rank holes per depth, nor per size. We decided that variety is the best way to go with this list, so we included four impressive natural holes: the deepest cave, pit cave with the deepest free fall, the largest (and deepest) sinkhole, and something that in layman terms can be called the largest sinkhole, but is actually a depression(and yes if you are extremely pedantic sinkholes are types of depressions). We’ve also included these man made holes: the biggest and deepest open pit mine, the deepest gold mine, the deepest oil well, and the deepest hole in the world. In order to make our list a little more interesting, we’ve included two holes that are not special just because of their depth or size, but because they have some unusual features — for example being covered in ice. And, talking about holes and ice reminds me that we have an article that you might want to check out –- 11 Plot Holes In Disney’s Frozen. We also considered inclusion of the largest underground mine in the world which is, according to Mining, El Teniente in Chile. However, the deepest gold mine’s depth seemed much more impressive and that is why we put it on the list. Continue reading if you want to find out, how deep is the deepest hole in the world?
10. Vrtiglavica (Vertigo) Pit Cave
Depth: 2109 feet (643m)
Vrtiglavica is the a pit cave with the deepest free fall of 1978 feet (603m). As a bonus feature the cave has a waterfall, and it is one of the deepest underwater waterfalls in the world.
9. The Krubera Cave
Depth: 7,208 feet (2,197m)
We are continuing our list of biggest deepest holes in the world with the Krubera cave that is the deepest cave on Earth, in the Western Caucasus in Abkhazia, Georgia. It also has an impressive length of 8,346 miles (13.432 m). Just think about it, even if you could just walk straight to the bottom it would take you a while to reach it. Now imagine crawling through those small passages, and using safety equipment. Only experienced speleologists now how long it takes to get to the bottom, as well the exhilarating experience when they reach their goal.
8. Xiaozhai Tiankeng “Heavenly Pit”
Depth: 2,170 feet (662m)
Length: 2053 feet (626m)
Width: 1761 feet (537m)
Xiaozhai Tiankeng is the largest sinkhole in the world, and no just by looking at number s it is very hard to imagine how big it is. About 1,285 plant and animal species live at the bottom of this sinkhole, believe it or not including clouded leopard, there is also an underground river and a cave at the bottom. Now, let’s see what waits us next on the list of biggest deepest holes in the world.
7. Qattara Depression
Surface: 7,000 square miles (18,000 square km)
Maximum Depth: 435 feet (133 m)
This is an unbelievably big hole created by erosion. If Egypt could successfully fill this depression with water it would become a very large lake, unfortunately no one has succeeded in creating financially realistic plan to do it.
6. Darvaza gas crater “Door to Hell”
Crater width: 226 feet (69m)
Depth: 98 feet (30m)
In 1971 Soviet scientists messed up setting up a borehole for gas, and everything collapsed into a newly created sinkhole. To stop the spreading of poisonous gas they set it on fire. More than 40 years later, and the gas in this extraordinary sinkhole in Turkmenistan is still burning. The scientists setting it on fire, supposedly believed that the fire will last for a few weeks. We simply had to include this natures wonderful monument to human greed and ignorance in our list of 10 biggest deepest holes in the world.
5. Mponeng Gold mine
Depth: about 2.5 miles (4km)
Number five on our list of biggest deepest holes in the world is this deepest gold mine in the world in Gauteng South Africa is effectively an underground city. The current size of it is not big enough, and they are exploring whether an expansion can extend its life beyond 2050.
Pixabay/Public Domain
>4. Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah
Width: 2.75 miles (4.5km)
Depth: 0.75 miles (1.2km)
Bingham Canyon mine is the biggest and deepest open-pit mine in the world, it produces copper, along with some gold, silver, molybdenum, platinum, and palladium.
3. IceCube south pole Neutrino Observatory
Depth: 1.52 miles (2450m)
Near the south pole is this $270-million worth observatory, the number three on our list of biggest deepest holes in the world. Only people working there know what are they doing with those light detectors reaching so far underneath the surface surrounded with ice.
2. Z-44 Chayvo Well
Measured Depth: 7.69 miles (12,376m)
Even though the measured depth of this deepest oil well is not the same as the real depth, digging so deep to get oil is still damn impressive. It also shows that such kind of drilling has become relatively “normal” which sounds like something from science fiction if you can really imagine how deep 7.69 miles is.
Copyright: 1971yes / 123RF Stock Photo
1. The Kola Superdeep Borehole
Depth: 7.5 miles (12,261m)
The deepest hole in the world is the Kola Superdeep borhole, in Murmansk Russia. The drilling started in 1970, and it was finished in 1994, they had to stop the drilling because the temperatures were too high at the depth that they reached. Fossils of 24 ancient species were excavated, during the project. The hole was sealed with a metal cap in 2005, and the project was finished. We hope our list of 10 biggest deepest holes in the world, satisfied your curiosity.
