When drilling like 12 km deep into the ground, how is it possible that a 12 km long pipe (drill string) is able to turn the drill bit AND be pushed down enough to drill??

Question

A 12 km long pipe seems like a ridiculous length for any of that to be possible. Isn’t it like trying to drill a hole with a 258 ft long piece of spaghetti?

In: 1335

Answer 1

12km down? Are you referring to the deepest hole ever dug? With super deep boreholes like that, you can’t spin the hole pipe. They developed special rigs that kept the hole vertical, and they had to reinforce the walls on the way down.