One of the deepest holes into the earth’s crust is in Oklahoma! Bertha Rogers hole is in Washita County.

According to an article from Greedy Finance, the scientific community is still learning about the earth’s crust, thanks to a project that started during the Cold War to see who could dig deeper into the earth’s crust.

The deepest hole in the world, the Kola Superdeep Borehole, is in a remote peninsula somewhere in Russia. After decades of drilling, the team discovered the heat was so intense that they had to stop digging in 2005.

The US took the lead in 1957 with Project Mohole, but the US House cut the funding eight years later.

In 1974 Lone Star Producing Company started drilling for oil in Washita County, Oklahoma. They never found oil but they were able to dig the deepest hole existing on the planet at that moment. Bertha Rogers hole reached six miles below the earth’s surface and remains the deepest manmade hole in America. According to well records from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the Bertha Rogers hole ceased production of natural gas in July 1997 and has since been plugged and abandoned.

In 1989 the Russian team drilled about 7.5 miles into the earth’s crust and believed they could reach even further by 1990 but they didn’t expect all of the heat! According to Greedy Finance, by the time they were nearing their target of 49,000 feet the hole was already 356 degrees Fahrenheit

Researchers found the rocks had a plastic-like texture which they say became a problem. Scientists said the strange texture made it almost impossible to drill through the rocks.

In 1992 scientists said they had no choice but to stop drilling a fourth hole. Drilling stopped all together in 1994 due to a lack of funds, according to Wikipedia. In 2007, the scientific team was dissolved and the equipment was transferred to a private company and partially liquidated. In 2008 was abandoned.

While the project is no longer active, scientists say the whole thing wasn’t a bust. The information uncovered has made a huge difference for the science community.

At four miles deep scientists say they found a 2-billion-year-old fossil showing there was biological activity in rocks deep beneath the surface, among other discoveries.