In the sweltering heart of the Taklimakan Desert, China has begun sinking a borehole more than 11,000 meters deep into the Earth’s crust — a feat that could reshape how we understand the planet’s interior. The project, launched in May 2024, is one of the most ambitious scientific drilling efforts ever attempted, rivaling the legendary Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia.
The operation was confirmed by Xinhua News Agency, which called it a “landmark in China’s deep-Earth exploration.” Overseen by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the borehole is expected to take 450 days to reach its final target depth. Located in the remote Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, the project aims to pass through 10 continental strata and reach the Cretaceous system, a formation that dates back more than 145 million years.
Why China Is Drilling This Deep
The Cretaceous layer — formed during a time of intense tectonic shifts and global climate flux — could hold valuable information about ancient climate records, plate movements, and the formation of fossil fuels. Drilling into it offers scientists a rare look at a part of the Earth that has remained virtually untouched for millions of years.
The Tarim Basin is already known for its energy potential. According to Science Direct, the region contains vast oil and gas reserves trapped in complex geological formations. In recent years, Sinopec, China’s top refiner, reported flows from 8,500 meters below the surface — a depth that few companies worldwide can reach.
But this new borehole aims to go well beyond that. Technical expert Wang Chunsheng, quoted in Chinese media, said the goal is to “decode a part of the planet that’s been completely untouched for millions of years.” The hope is to uncover new resource deposits and improve existing models for earthquake prediction, subsurface mapping, and geological dating.
The Physics of Deep-Earth Drilling
The logistical challenge is immense. The drilling rig, weighing more than 2,000 tonnes, must endure extreme temperatures of 200°C (392°F) and pressures 1,300 times greater than surface conditions. These variables are enough to buckle steel and snap cables under stress.
According to a 2019 review in Nature Geoscience, such ultra-deep drilling projects regularly face unpredictable rock behaviour, sudden collapses, and overheating of equipment — all of which plagued the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the Soviet-era drill that reached 12,262 meters before being abandoned in the 1990s.
That project, ironically, yielded some of the most surprising scientific discoveries of the century — including microscopic plankton fossils at 6,000 meters and water where none was expected.
Sun Jinsheng, a geoscientist at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, compared China’s new borehole to “driving a heavy truck along two silk threads,” referencing the extreme fragility of operations at such depths.
Part of a Wider Strategic Shift Beneath the Surface
This deep-earth initiative aligns closely with President Xi Jinping’s 2021 directive for breakthroughs in frontier technologies, a category that includes space exploration, deep-sea mining, and Earth sciences. It’s no coincidence that the launch of this borehole follows closely on the heels of Chinese missions to the Moon, Mars, and an asteroid return mission.
China appears to be pushing for a kind of “two-front” exploration model — simultaneously reaching outward into space and inward into the crust. That strategy echoes a growing global interest in understanding the planet’s subsurface dynamics, as countries seek new energy sources and climate data amid rising uncertainty.
A US Geological Survey report highlighted the importance of deep-drilling for identifying rare earth elements, hydrocarbon basins, and seismic fault zones. China’s borehole could provide data that improves global geological models, while strengthening its own energy independence and scientific credibility.
What it finds down there — whether new fossil fuels, ancient microbial life, or geological anomalies — could shift not just our scientific understanding, but also the balance of knowledge in a resource-hungry world.
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