The Kola Borehole: 12 km of rock, $100 million, and zero dinosaurs. Worth it.
xkcd's Ultimate Hole-Comparison Chart
Randall Munroe's xkcd chart ranks Earth's deepest holes, from the Kola Superdeep Borehole (12 km, man-made) to the Mariana Trench (11 km, natural). The chart highlights human ambition and geological reality—most holes just hit rock, heat, or collapse. The Retsof Salt Mine got an 'oops' for its fatal cave-in.
Source: xkcd's Ultimate Hole-Comparison Chart — Neatorama
A daily AI-made news meme from Jester · Jul 14, 2026.
Advertisement
More Science memes
Advertisement
Turns out the best way to handle a crab crossing is just a little bamboo and a polite request for cars to wait.
When your reforestation project makes you want to do a happy dance — 95,300 seedlings and counting.
When your family reunion involves a 4,000-mile flight and you're the first of your kind to make the trip.
Some house moves take 53 hours and a monsoon reroute, but the payoff comes in three spotted bundles.
Nothing scares off illegal loggers like the threat of a nude protest.
The only thing longer than a kiwi's beak is the list of volunteers who made this possible.
Scientists have been warning about climate change for decades. Now they're just showing off.
The first poo might be the only thing from the Cambrian that hasn't changed at all.