Digging a 1000 Foot Hole in Minnesota

[jordehwa]

This may seem weird to you guys but i have always wanted to do this as a kid. So here is my plan on digging a really deep hole, I might not make it to a 1000 feet but i want to dig as deep as i can, maybe even deeper than a 1000 feet.

 

I will add some vents, and maybe rest rooms or rooms to put digging tools in. I dont plan on digging straight down, but kind of at an angle. I will reinforce the walls and ceiling, so it dont cave in

 

If anyone has any tips or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated, like how will i make vents? and how will i get the dirt out when im hundreds of feet deep?

 

I want to know if any one else has tried anything like this? What kind of soils will I be digging in? and at what depths? What kind of stuff could i find?

 

By the way i live in central Minnesota. Thanks and please reply i still need lots of tips and suggestions. its a work in progress

[Moontanman]

Where I live you can't dig down more than a few feet with out hitting ground water. I am betting that your dig will encounter ground water way before you hit 100 feet much less 1000 feet. Getting rid of ground water is a problem in almost all digging projects. So some really powerful pumps to get rid of ground water will be a must for sure...

[Mr Skeptic]

You might want to ask a mining or petroleum person for some advice. Keep in mind that it will get much harder as you progress, because a lot of time might be spent taking dirt to the surface.

 

What size hole do you want?

[jordehwa]

I am betting that your dig will encounter ground water way before you hit 100 feet much less 1000 feet.

 

Yeah I was just thinking about that after i posted. Well I might not be able to dig deep, I should be able to make some cool tunnals.

 

 

I totally rethought my tunnal. Here are the plans I drew with my computer. The white lines are vents made with PVC pipe.

If you guys want you could draw up your ideas.

 

[Doc. Josh]

To make a tunnel safe to travel in will be quite a project, Stibility is im sure a priority, Depending on the soil or rock you will be digging will require heavy machinery at best. Maybe cross bars to support the wall, An extraction setup to make removing the soil a easyer. Depending on the money you plan to dedicate to this i would say somthing to the extent of a A fram bucket system suspended over the the hole. A two man operation would make it more fesable to obtain your goal. Water would be your biggest issue in that case to manage it fairly the hole will need to be significantly large and depending on the setup still be very hard. Almost unobtainable in a sense for a back yard excursion. Anything more you might get into zoning laws,permitting fee's etc.. And then it will become a full on escavastion.. Good luck it would be quite an achievment!!

[Zolar V]

I wonder, what draws men/boys to digging holes or tunnel systems? I remember from my youth that i wanted to accomplish the same goal.

[Leader Bee]

So reading this you want to dig some kind of fallout shelter or liveable underground space; As mentioned above you're going to have several issues: ground water, bedrock, regolith, clay etc basically not just one type of soil and the environment will change as you progress through them.

 

When I saw the topic title I instantly thought of the Kola Superdeep Borehole in the former USSR which was a scientific endeavour begun in the '70's.

 

It's maximum depth reached 40,230 feet.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

[CaptainPanic]

Make sure to inform the neighbours that their house garden or entire street may soon disappear into a big hole or a cave-in, and/or that all the groundwater will be pumped into the nearest drainage by your pumps that keep your hole free of water.

 

As for the rest... Good luck.

 

Call me a conservative engineer... but the way you present your plans makes me think that the chance that you kill yourself while making your bomb shelter is much larger than the chance that WWIII will happen in your lifetime.

[mississippichem]

Call me a conservative engineer... but the way you present your plans makes me think that the chance that you kill yourself while making your bomb shelter is much larger than the chance that WWIII will happen in your lifetime.

 

If you're a conservative engineer, I would call you a good engineer. Conservative is the only way to be in engineering.

 

 

Last words of a bad engineer: We can keep this under-budget and still make our deadline. We'll have to cut some corners but it will work, trust me.

[agentrnge]

I always wanted/still want underground tunnels/fortress/compound/lair. It is neat how common this desire is.

Perhaps the collective gene pool preparing for the nuclear-zombie-plague-apocalypse.

In all seriousness tho it will not happen unless you have some silly amounts of expendable cash for equipment, tools and time.

[lemur]

Wikipedia lists this as the world's deepest mine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TauTona_Mine

 

Now I'm going to go dig up the link Leader Bee posted.

[JohnB]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned a ventilation system. CO2 will stay in the hole rather than flow away.

 

jordehwa, your PVC pipes won't move enough air. You require fans to force the fresh air in or to remove the bad. Likw water, air needs pumping.

[OSHMUNNIES]

1000 ft? you might want to take a look at a geologic map/cross-section of the area you're living in....there's a lot of pretty shallow bedrock in MN.

[Phi for All]

A tunnel system may have a better chance than a really deep hole in the land of 10,000 lakes. Rather than digging a tunnel and shoring up as you go, how about digging trenches and then dropping in some of those steel shipping containers and then back-filling the dirt on top of them? 8' x 8' x 20' each, and they can be welded together with cutouts for doors on any side (as long as you don't cut into the outer load-bearing supports). Some architects are even using these containers for modular homes, with finished walls and tiled floors. Wiring for your ventilation and lighting goes behind the walls, as well as any plumbing necessary.