During the past decades, agencies have sent many space explorations to study the Solar System and other regions of the universe. Several countries launch their ambitious space program in a rivalry for space dominance.
Aside from space missions, research ventures have also been conducted to investigate the surface of the Earth and its interior. It remains a significant frontier in the 21st century as it provides an understanding of our planet's composition, structure, and dynamic processes.
China's Deep Geological Survey Project
Scientists in China have begun drilling a 10,000-meter-deep hole into the crust to explore discoveries above and below the Earth's surface. The drilling of what is set to be the country's deepest-ever borehole began on May 30, 2023, in the oil well of Tarim Oilfield in Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang. On the same day, the first civilian astronaut was also sent by China from the Gobi Desert.
The project involves a narrow shaft into the ground, going through over ten layers of rocks or continental strata. It aims to reach the cretaceous system in the crust, which contains rocks that date back to 145 million years.
"The construction difficulty of the drilling project can be compared to a big truck driving on two thin steel cables," according to Sun Jinsheng, a Chinese Academy of Engineering scientist.
On May 28, 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping promoted greater progress in deep Earth exploration during his speech at a meeting with the top scientists & engineers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the national congress of China Association for Science and Technology. He recognizes the importance of this project in identifying mineral and energy resources and assessing the risks of environmental disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Russia still holds the deepest man-made hole on Earth and the deepest artificial point on the planet in its Kola Superdeep Borehole. The construction project took 20 years and reached a depth of 12,262 meters.
READ ALSO: Kola Superdeep Borehole: Soviets Dug World's Deepest Human-Made Hole
The Search for Cretaceous System
In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous Period is the time in history that began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago. It comes after the Jurassic Period and is known for being the end of the age of dinosaurs. This period is biologically significant because it transitions from the early life-forms of the Paleozoic Era to the advanced diversity of organisms in the Cenozoic Era.
The cretaceous period marks the near completion of the division of the supercontinent Pangaea. During most of this period, global sea levels were at their highest elevations in the last 500 million years of our planet's history. Most of the low-lying areas of the continents were covered by shallow seas. It was also a time of elevated temperatures that contributed to the development of volcanic activity along the mid-ocean ridges. Various life forms also dominated the oceans and land, but they faced mass extinction with the collapse of the global ecosystem.
The cretaceous system has attracted the interest of researchers in recent years due to the rich chemical elements present in the boundary clay layer. No other geological system provides more widely divergent types of deposits than the cretaceous system. Rock deposits of various groups and formations are also present in this system. Most of all, the cretaceous system contains an extensive global fossil record of reptiles, fish, and flowering plants.
RELATED ARTICLE: Startup Energy Company Plans to Drill the Deepest Hole Into Earth's Crust to Unleash Limitless Power
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