In the race to the Earth's core, with China and Japan drilling 9,000 meters deep after Russia seals the deepest man-made hole ever

CHINA has joined the race to the Earth's core as the country drills 9,000 meters deep into the Earth's crust.

Fellow superpowers Japan And Germany then also made their own attempts Russia sealed the deepest man-made hole ever, nicknamed the “well to hell”.

China hopes to drill 9,000 meters deep into the Earth's crust with its first deep-sea drillship Mengxiang (photo)Credit: Getty

Russia's Kola Superdeep Borehole is still the deepest man-made hole in the world, extending over 40,000 holes into the EarthCredit: By Andre Belozeroff via Wikimedia Commons

The hole, nicknamed the 'well to hell', was closed by Russia in 1992Credit: Rakot13/CC BY-SA 3.0

Russia'S Kola Super deep borehole was founded by the Soviets in the name of science so they could learn more about what is really beneath our feet and dig to unknown depths.

It extends 40,000 feet below the surface, but is covered only by a rusty metal lid.

The project to drill into SoilThe surface of the Earth began in the 1970s near Murmansk, when Soviet scientists wanted to know more about the Earth's crust.

Over the course of twenty years, they managed to dig more than 12 kilometers deep into the earth.

But in 1992 they had to stop drilling because the temperature was around 180 degrees Celsius, which was much hotter than scientists had predicted.

Experts still need to figure out a way to solve this temperature problem if they want to keep drilling and not destroy all their equipment in the process.

China is now moving a little closer to the Russian record as it will attempt to drill more than 9,000 meters deep into the Earth with its first ocean drillship, the Mengxiang.

If successful, it will mark humanity's first venture into the upper mantle, providing new insights and perhaps breaking new ground in scientific exploration of Earth. South China Morning Mail reported.

Japan has previously announced plans to drill through the Earth's crust and reach the mantle.

In 2017, Japan's deep-sea drillship Chikyu attempted to pass through 4 km of water and 6 km of crust to reach the mantle, which makes up about 85 percent of Earth's volume.

Two years later, Chikyu managed to drill three kilometers beneath the seabed, still far from the planned attempt.

Other countries have also conducted deep drilling projects for scientific research and exploration purposes.

Germany also carried out deep drilling projects, such as the German Continental Deep Drilling Program (KTB), which started in the 1980s and aimed to explore the Earth's crust.

The KTB project reached a depth of approximately 29,527 feet – a record of what China aims to accomplish.