Any inquisitive person who decides to find out what is in the center of the earth will be upset. For what is hidden in the interior of our planet, even academic science does not know. Versions about the structure of the Earth - as many as you like, but the facts confirming them - alas, no. There is confusion and vacillation.
Therefore, some pundits are even inclined to believe that our planet is hollow and inhabited inside! The famous traveler, geologist, head of the expedition "Russian biogen" Alexander Borisovich GURVITS agreed to tell how everything is in reality.
Alexander Borisovich, so what is still under our feet?
- It's a paradox, but none of the living people can answer this question. Meanwhile, it is extremely important to penetrate into the true picture of the structure of our planet. After all, the solution will allow scientists to understand the laws of natural phenomena occurring in the depths of the Earth. And knowledge of these laws will make it possible to predict natural disasters in advance, because tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis are just an echo of the planet's deep processes.
Over the past 25 years, the rampant elements in one form or another have affected a good half of the world's inhabitants. The number of deaths from natural and technical disasters annually increases by 4.5%, the number of victims - by 8.5%, and economic losses - by 11%. The difficulty of predicting disasters lies in the fact that all attempts to penetrate deep into the Earth were unsuccessful: drilling stopped at a depth of 3 km, and further progress became impossible due to ore gas emissions. The deep drilling method made it possible to penetrate 12.3 km into the bowels of the Earth, while there were still 6,300 km to the estimated center.
What prevented you from drilling a well to the center of the Earth?
- Attempts to penetrate the Earth's mantle have been made, and more than once. The first two ultra-deep wells were drilled in Louisiana, North America. Pragmatically fearing possible contingencies, the project managers equipped the well with 1-kilometer-diameter casing pipes. And next to the drilling rig, a special concrete plant was erected, which, in the event of an accident, would feed a fast-setting solution into the casing.
To a depth of 9 km, the well was drilled as usual. But further problems arose: signs of internal pressure began to appear, and the drilling fluid was “polluted” with hydrogen sulfide. The drillers started joking that they had made it to the underworld. And then, as if in confirmation of their words, molten sulfur poured out of the well from a depth of 9.6 km. The tunnellers began to lose consciousness. Fortunately, the automatic protection worked. The safety gates closed. And the concrete plant provided the supply of the special solution to the casing - the well was closed.
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Have our scientists tried to get to the underworld?
- All these experiments took place in the last century, and, of course, the USSR could not but respond to the challenge. But domestic drillers suffered the same sad fate. While drilling the Kumzha-9 well on the Pechora River in the Arkhangelsk Region, despite the favorable forecast of geophysicists, a powerful gusher of gas, oil and drilling mud unexpectedly struck from a 7-kilometer depth from the wellhead. So much so that the drill simply flew into the zone of abnormally high reservoir pressure. The pipes from the drilling rig flew in different directions. A fire started - a torch flared up 150 meters high. It was impossible to get close to the well. As a result, the torch was extinguished only with the help of underground nuclear explosions. After extinguishing the fire, a 76-meter rock appeared on the site of the drilling site: it froze and under the influence of fire turned into ceramic clay drilling mud. It's a pity, then this monument was demolished.
"Kumzha-9"
Oil products are still oozing from the griffins of well No. 9.
Has anyone really managed to penetrate into the bowels of the Earth deeper than 7-8 kilometers?
- Well, why not? The most instructive example for geologists, geophysicists and even biologists was the example of a superdeep well on the Kola Peninsula near the village of Nikel. The so-called SGS-3 set an unrivaled world record for drilling to a depth of 12.3 km. The place for the mine was chosen by a special institute of geophysics, and 520 people worked at SGS-3 itself during the Soviet years. (Today there are about 50 of them left.)
According to preliminary data, the sinkers had to lift samples consisting of basalt to the surface, and the deeper, the denser the mineral had to be.
Taking into account the meteorological conditions of the Arctic, a closed cover in the form of a bell tower with a height of 102 meters was erected over the drilling rig. All working areas of the drilling rig were automated and mechanized in the best possible way, with telephone and radio communications established between all departments. And the "bell tower" was equipped with microphones.
Up to 7 km drilling proceeded as usual. The only "but" was the rise in temperature. The surprises began at a depth of 7.5 km. The temperature at the bottom, where the drill directly touched the basalt, increased to 100 degrees, and the density of the samples raised to the surface decreased by 20%. It definitely spoke of approaching the voids. After analyzing the samples, geochemists found hydrogen and helium in them, and biologists - unknown bacteria. Since the bacteria were dead, they were called aerophobic, that is, afraid of air.
Suddenly the drill jammed tightly. Immediately, they started sinking the second shaft. And at a depth of 8 km, the temperature has already risen to 120 degrees. The basalt became porous, the number of bacteria increased and… another accident. But no one dared to stop drilling, because it was about the prestige of the state. Instead of ordinary steel pipes, they began to use new ones made of high-strength steel, the drill was made of molybdenum, the diamond grains were replaced with an artificial material called elbor, which surpassed diamond in refractoriness, strength and hardness.
Finally, the seventh borehole reached a depth of 12,240 meters.
And then the inexplicable happened. At night, when only the duty engineer, mechanic and electrician were nearby, the drill jammed again. The machine fell silent, and the ensuing silence was broken by a strange noise from the well. Something very quickly rose along the trunk from the depths of the Earth to the surface. Suddenly there was a light cotton and … something flew out of the casing. Each of the three witnesses to this event saw something different: a shadow, a cat and a bat. At the same time, an incomprehensible creature swore loudly, climbed in a spiral to the top of the drilling bell tower, and then, gliding back down, darted into the well.
Maybe people just dreamed of something because of overwork?
- Everything could be attributed to hallucinations, if not for the microphones that recorded the incident from beginning to end. This extraordinary event was reported on Mayak radio, and a short note appeared in the Trud newspaper describing the incident. And note, all this happened in the USSR in the 1980s! By the way, everyone can listen to this "recording of the underworld" - it is posted on a special English-language site on the Internet.
What happened next?
“Unfortunately… nothing. The tunneling crew was disbanded, and all registration records were sent to Gokhran. Until 1992, at SGS-3, they still tried to continue drilling, but they failed to go beyond the 12,262 m mark.
But why are all researchers of the depths of the earth pursued by failure, where the root of evil lies?
- In all cases of ultra-deep drilling, the tunnellers acted competently and professionally. The error lay in the initially controversial hypothesis about the structure of the earth's interior. Indeed, in fact, the scientific and instrumental study of the structure of the Earth began only at the beginning of the 20th century - with the development of the science of seismology and with the invention of the seismograph, which records the vibrations of the earth's surface.
American scientists GF Reid and H. Reid hastened to put this new word of technology into practice. And as a result of long observations and numerous experiments, they came to the conclusion that light rocks lie on the surface of the Earth, and heavy rocks in the depths.
It looks logical
- Yes, geologists, mineralogists and petrographers liked this scientific interpretation of the structure of the upper layers of the globe. And the fact that rock samples were delivered to Reid's laboratory from mines only 300 meters deep did not bother anyone. Nobody looked deeper then anyway.
Did everyone agree with the statement of the Americans and none of the scientists even tried to challenge it?
- Such scientists, of course, were. One of them is the world famous academician Vladimir Obruchev. He developed the theory of a hollow earth. But by that time, the Reid-Reed concept was firmly established in geology. So Obruchev was able to tell about the hypothesis only on the pages of his novel "Plutonium", which, incidentally, was very popular in the USSR. So, according to Obruchev, the Earth is not a homogeneous body, but a hollow sphere, inside which a dwarf floats in zero gravity - a small sun, in density exceeding basalt by hundreds of thousands of times!
Yes, but we all know from the school geography course that the Earth's core consists of iron and nickel, which create a magnetic field around the planet …
- Yes, this is taught in school today. However, in universities, professors add that nuclear reactions also occur in the nucleus, which, in theory, should destroy the magnetic field. It turns out that the Earth is a cooling and calming ball, and periodically occurring volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are the last convulsions of the planet.
So Obruchev was wrong?
- Just the opposite. He was close to solving the mystery of the Earth's core like no other! However, it must be admitted that the theory of a hollow earth is not new. In the 17th century, it was already voiced by Edmund Halley, who argued that our planet is three nested spheres, which may well be inhabited. And in the 18th century, the greatest mathematician of all times and peoples Leonard Euler, solving the equations of celestial mechanics, calculated that the Earth is hollow.
Which version seems to you the most interesting?
- Until the results are verified empirically, it is definitely impossible to talk about something. But, on the other hand, today it is already clear that modern fundamental theories raise more questions than answers. And yet the most attractive is the theory of the German physicist and geologist Peter Paul, who for many years tried to create a unified theory of the origin and development of the Earth.
His version looks like this. Initially, there was a certain energy-informational sphere. A frame was formed around it, on which the synthesis of matter subsequently took place, magma appeared, and the planet acquired a body. Further development of the Earth proceeded according to the principle of a multilayer cake. First, the atmosphere and the earth's crust are formed, separated by emptiness. This is followed by the inner mantle, followed by the outer, then again the earth's crust, where you and I live, and again the atmosphere.
The most interesting thing is that the inner layers may well contain mountains, rivers, forests, and mineral deposits. And these layers themselves may be several. So the legends about the dwarves who went underground may well turn out to be a reality. By the way, Paul's version organically incorporates many theories of the structure of the planet, both Western and domestic. Paul even suggested ideal locations for drilling entrances to the inner layers of the Earth. In his opinion, they are located in the region of the North Pole, where a layer of magma is either very small or absent altogether.
And yet, what is the verdict of scientists today: what does the Earth conceal within itself?
- Not so long ago - in the 1990s - a new direction appeared in physics - ether dynamics, which considers ether as the next level of organization of matter after elementary particles. Ether, as you know, was "abolished" by theoretical physicists at the beginning of the XX century - and in vain. Because from the point of view of the new science, ether is a real gas that can and should be studied, and much can be explained in this way.
According to the latest developments in ether dynamics, our planet is in constant energy-information exchange with the Universe. It has already been proven that light from stars flies to the Earth from all corners of space, which is converted by solar batteries into electrical energy. Together with it, a flow of protons, or proton gas, which scientists call the etheric wind, goes to our planet. Through faults in the earth's crust, along cracks in the lithosphere, it penetrates into the womb of the Earth, and it … grows!
Its weight, according to some reports, is increasing by 500 tons every second. Of course, due to this, the distance between the continents also grows. It has been proven that every year America floats two centimeters away from Europe. Therefore, fans of ether dynamics are convinced that the Earth inside is filled with dense ether and is empty. But closer to the surface, plasma is formed from dense ether - fragments of atoms that form the plasmasphere, which, in turn, creates minerals floating in magma or mantle. And then - in full accordance with the school curriculum - there are plates of the lithosphere, on which you and I live.
Interviewed by Dmitry SOKOLOV