Earth’s most terrifying holes – from 40,000ft ‘well to hell’ to fiery pit of poisonous gas
THE WORLD can be a scary place and its geology is no exception.
In honour of Halloween we've rounded up some of the creepiest holes on Earth from eerie sinkholes made by Mother Nature to terrifying man-made pits.
Kola Borehole
Earth's deepest artificial hole stretches 40,000 feet below the surface – but it's only covered by a rusty metal lid.
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.
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.
Over two decades, they managed dig more than 7.5 miles down into the Earth.
However, in 1992 they had to stop drilling because the temperature was around 180 degrees Celsius, which was far hotter than the scientists predicted it would be.
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.
All this drilling wasn't for nothing though as some scientific discoveries were made.
The researchers found out that there is water at 12 kilometres into Earth's crust, despite this previously being thought to be impossible.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole is 23 centimetres in diameter and its metal lid is welded on so it is unlikely that anyone would ever fall down it.
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'.
If you fell down the hole, it would take around 3.5 to 4 minutes to reach the bottom.
Door to Hell
The Door to Hell is another Soviet experiment that had unintended consequences.
It has a depth of 98 feet and is located in Derweze, Turkmenistan.
Scientists initially wanted to use the remote desert site in 1971 to drill for oil, but the ground beneath the rig collapsed.
Fearing the spread of poisonous gases into surrounding towns, geologists intentionally lit the natural methane gas on fire, thinking it'd burn off in a few weeks.
But it's been burning continuously ever since, and is actively being encouraged as a tourist attraction by the Turkmen government.
At night, camel spiders attracted to its light and warmth fall to their deaths in the pit's fiery bowels.
Earlier this month, Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov appeared at the Door to Hell to disprove a rumour that he was dead after he wasn't seen in public for several months.
He did so by pulling doughnuts around the burning crater in a rally car.
Devil's Sinkhole
The Devil's Sinkhole is a huge vertical cavern that reaches 400 feet down from a 50-foot opening.
It's located in Texas in the US.
A sinkhole is a deep hole formed by some type of collapse in the surface layer of the earth, normally due to erosion underground.
Carved from water erosion over thousands of years, the Devil's Sinkhole's precise history is still unknown to scientists — but artefacts have been found inside the cave dating from 4000-2500 BC.
It's believed to have been used as a Native American burial site as arrowheads and burned rocks have been found in the pit.
Three people are known to have died by falling into the sinkhole in modern times, with one in 1900, another in 1960 and the most recent in 1972.
The sinkhole is also home to more than three million bats throughout summer which, terrifyingly, emerge screeching from the depths at sundown.
Dean's Blue Hole
Dean's Blue Hole is one of the deepest underwater sinkholes on earth at 663 feet deep, taking its name from a local Bahamian landowning family.
Formed over 15,000 years ago, Dean's Blue Hole is thought to be the result of a sinkhole formed by rainwater soaking through cracks in limestone bedrock when sea levels were lower.
The hole is visible above water because of the deep blue hue of its water compared to the light blue around it.
It's home to all sorts of marine life including tropical fish, seahorses and turtles.
And it's now the site of the Vertical Blue free diving competition, considered the Wimbledon of the free diving world.
In 2013, Nicholas Mevoli from Brooklyn died shortly after surfacing from diving into Dean's Blue Hole from a pulmonary edema - excess fluid in the lungs — the first death in an international free diving competition.
And in 2017, Irishman Stephan Keenan became the first safety diver (who assisted struggling competitors) to die doing the job.
Even casual swimmers are advised to treat the hole with caution.
In 2008, three women drowned when one fell into the hole and the other two tried to save her.
The youngest victim, Diedre Major, was just 14.
Cops arrived at the scene to find the three women's bodies floating by the shoreline after the horrific accident.
What is the Kola Borehole deeper than?
Basically everything but here are some impressively large things that it beats in size...
- The Kola Borehole is 40,230 feet deep making it the deepest man made point on Earth
- That makes it much longer than the UK's highest mountain, Ben Nevis, which stands at 4,409 feet
- The shard is only 1020 feet tall to its tip
- The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world and is 2,717 feet high
- The Kola Borehole is also further down that the wreck of the Titanic, which is 12,500 feet down in the ocean
- However, the Z-44 Chayvo well is now the longest man made hole in the world but the Kola Superdeep Borehole is technically still deeper due to postioning
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What do you think is the scariest hole on the list? Let us know in the comments...
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