Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole
On the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic lies an innocuous iron disc about the size of a dinner plate. If one were to prise this disc open, they would find the remains of the world’s deepest vertical hole. Reaching a depth of over 12 kilometres, the Kola Superdeep Borehole was drilled in the purs...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/02637758231185134 2024-06-23T07:50:29+00:00 Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole Wrigley, Charlotte 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02637758231185134 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/02637758231185134 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/02637758231185134 en eng SAGE Publications https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space volume 41, issue 3, page 549-567 ISSN 0263-7758 1472-3433 journal-article 2023 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758231185134 2024-06-11T04:32:56Z On the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic lies an innocuous iron disc about the size of a dinner plate. If one were to prise this disc open, they would find the remains of the world’s deepest vertical hole. Reaching a depth of over 12 kilometres, the Kola Superdeep Borehole was drilled in the pursuit of excavating scientific knowledges for a better understanding of the Earth’s crust. Whilst the borehole produced some important findings, and hosted an international delegation of researchers, once the Soviet Union collapsed, it fell into disrepair. Since its closure, the Kola Superdeep has become lost to history, but its existence as a ruin has generated new artistic engagements with the underground. This article uses the geological notion of discontinuity – a structural break in the rock – to imagine how discontinuity might be found within the borehole itself. It does this by identifying three access points: excavation through drilling and coring, collaboration through cross-border scientific work, and imagination through art and the weird. By resisting the notion that the subterranean can be objectively known through science, I reveal how the Kola Superdeep produces other relations, knowledges, and ways of sensing the subterranean. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic kola peninsula SAGE Publications Arctic Kola Peninsula Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 41 3 549 567 |
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Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications |
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crsagepubl |
language |
English |
description |
On the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic lies an innocuous iron disc about the size of a dinner plate. If one were to prise this disc open, they would find the remains of the world’s deepest vertical hole. Reaching a depth of over 12 kilometres, the Kola Superdeep Borehole was drilled in the pursuit of excavating scientific knowledges for a better understanding of the Earth’s crust. Whilst the borehole produced some important findings, and hosted an international delegation of researchers, once the Soviet Union collapsed, it fell into disrepair. Since its closure, the Kola Superdeep has become lost to history, but its existence as a ruin has generated new artistic engagements with the underground. This article uses the geological notion of discontinuity – a structural break in the rock – to imagine how discontinuity might be found within the borehole itself. It does this by identifying three access points: excavation through drilling and coring, collaboration through cross-border scientific work, and imagination through art and the weird. By resisting the notion that the subterranean can be objectively known through science, I reveal how the Kola Superdeep produces other relations, knowledges, and ways of sensing the subterranean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wrigley, Charlotte |
spellingShingle |
Wrigley, Charlotte Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole |
author_facet |
Wrigley, Charlotte |
author_sort |
Wrigley, Charlotte |
title |
Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole |
title_short |
Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole |
title_full |
Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole |
title_fullStr |
Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole |
title_full_unstemmed |
Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole |
title_sort |
going deep: excavation, collaboration and imagination at the kola superdeep borehole |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02637758231185134 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/02637758231185134 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/02637758231185134 |
geographic |
Arctic Kola Peninsula |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Kola Peninsula |
genre |
Arctic kola peninsula |
genre_facet |
Arctic kola peninsula |
op_source |
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space volume 41, issue 3, page 549-567 ISSN 0263-7758 1472-3433 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758231185134 |
container_title |
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space |
container_volume |
41 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
549 |
op_container_end_page |
567 |
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1802641389913112576 |