The Kola Superdeep Borehole

In the 1980s, a team of Soviet scientists dug a hole in the Earth’s crust so deep that they reached Hell… complete with high temperatures, unexplained happenings, and even the tortured screams of damned souls. At least, that’s what a popular urban legend at the time claimed. Dylan and producer Amanda McGowan explore the origins of this legend – and the real-life scientific quest that inspired it.

We don’t know what the Kola Borehole really sounds like, but Dutch sound artist Lotte Geeven has recorded the sound of another super deep hole (in Germany). Not quite horror movie screams, but pretty cool!

Ready to go down the Kola superdeep rabbit hole? Some more links:

“The deepest hole we have ever dug” (via the BBC)

“Inside the deepest artificial hole on Earth” (via Orion magazine)

Snopes debunks the “Well to Hell” myth

On the US side of things: “How an ill-fated undersea adventure in the 1960s changed the way scientists see the Earth” (via Vox)

Some updates on the “digging to the center of the Earth” front: “Scientists drill deeper into Earth’s mantle than ever before” (via Smithsonian)