Scientists dug the deepest hole ever on earth — and started hearing 'terrifying' sounds from below

The Koala Peninsula, deep in the Arctic Circle, has lakes, forests and snow, yet amidst the natural beauty there is an abandoned Soviet scientific research station. In the middle of that building is a heavy, rusty metal cap that is on the concrete floor, secured with rusty metal bolts and some call it an entrance to hell, per BBC. This is the deepest artificially dug hole on Earth is Koala Superdeep Borehole SG-3 which was drilled at 12.262 km (7.61 miles) in 1989.

It is located in the Pechengsky District of Russia near the Norway border. Reportedly, the borehole was the Soviet Union's project to drill as deep into the Earth's crust as possible, per Indy100. They were able to dig it to the deepest point but couldn't go further because their equipment started melting. During that time it was a great discovery because the geologists were able to understand what the Earth's crust contained at 12.262 km. However, for some, it was terrifying as it was possibly reaching "hell."

Locals say that they can hear the screams of souls tortured in hell. Tabloids also claimed that scientists at the drilling sight heard strange sounds from the borehole which led them to lower a microphone down. The 17-second memo that was recorded picked up horrifying sounds that they described as sounds from "hell." The wailing noise left many scared and they compared it to something supernatural that was happening digging to the deepest point on Earth, per Mirror. Several YouTube videos have also spoken about this theory claiming that the recorded sounds are like people screaming in pain and agony.

However, a myth-busting website analyzed the audio and found that the sound was looped and edited. There were no recording devices at the drilling site and no microphone would have been able to withstand the heat of 180°C. Moreover, a YouTube clip used audio from the radio broadcast "Quiet Please - The Fourable Board" and from a 1972 horror movie "Baron Blood" to compare it to sound from the Borehole. It said: "The file has been looped and layered over itself several times to make the 20 or 30 voices from Baron Blood sound like a few hundred ... so the conclusion here is while hell might be real, this story is not true."

However, the scientists did find something interesting about the Earth's geology. The deep rocks that came up were saturated with water, and valuable minerals like gold and copper, and they found 14 species of fossilized micro-organisms down in the hole. According to BBC, the drilling went on for 20 years but they were still only able to drill only about one-third of the way through the crust to the Earth's mantle. The drilling stopped in 1992 when the temperature reached 180°C. Moreover, after the collapse of the Soviet Union there was no money to fund such projects, and three years after that, the whole facility was shut down. Now, the desolate site is a destination for tourists.

This article originally appeared 8 months ago.