'>Geotechnical Drilling Columbus Can You Drill Through the Earth's Crust With Geotechnical Drilling?

Columbus Georgia natives often wonder about how deep you can drill with a geotechnical drilling project. Some may even be curious as to whether you can drill through the Earth’s crust. While human technology has not yet progressed to a point where we can penetrate the entire Earth’s crust, we can drill to some very significant depths, although not all of these super deep drilling projects involve geotechnical drilling. Columbus drilling projects typically involve far less dramatic depths, depending upon the objective and what type of data you’re attempting to glean from the drilling operation.

Columbus geotechnical drilling technicians will take a slightly different approach to your drilling project, depending upon factors such as the type of data you’re seeking to gather from the drilling project and the precise geology of the drilling site.

Most geotechnical drilling projects involve drilling to depths of anywhere from just 10 or 15 feet to 80 to 100 feet. But there are some large drilling rigs that can drill thousands of feet into the ground, although these deeper drilling projects are less common. The latter type of drilling venture is more typical of a geo-exploration project, which is usually performed by a companies that is seeking to locate natural resources such as oil, natural gas deposits, or even specific minerals or metals that can be mined.

These deeper drilling projects are more complex and time-consuming, but the reward can be great as a crude oil well or a mine for salt, metals or gemstones can yield millions or even billions in profit.  In Russia, the Kola Superdeep Borehole was drilled to a depth of 7.5 miles. Drilled in 1970, this borehole still holds the record as the world’s deepest drilling project.

The world’s deepest mine shaft is in a South African gold mine, which dips approximately 2.5 miles beneath the surface.

Inside the South African gold mine, the temperature of the stone walls is a scalding 140 degrees Fahrenheit and the mine is at constant risk of collapse due to the weight of the ground above. This illustrates just how complex these deep drilling and mining projects can be, as you must deal with not only incredible depths, but also extreme pressures and heat.

Notably, neither of these projects has fully penetrated the Earth’s crust. The crust can vary in depth from approximately three miles in depth (especially in some regions that underlay the oceans) to over 125 miles in depth.

If drills were to penetrate through the Earth’s crust, they would hit the mantle, which is comprised of softer stone that’s similar to the consistency of hot asphalt. The hot stone moves in circular convection currents, which are believed to be responsible for plate tectonic movement.

The mantle is around 1,800 miles thick in most regions and this portion accounts for nearly 85% of the planet’s total volume. Beneath the mantle is the outer core, which encloses the inner core. Both sections of the core are hot enough to be liquid, but the extreme pressures prevent the rock from taking true liquid form.

*Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Amdrill Inc*