On the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic lies an innocuous iron disc, welded shut, 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 twelve 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 – such as the absence of the geological transition ‘Conrad’s Discontinuity’ – 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 project builds on recent work in geography to think through space and the subterranean. Using the case study of the Kola Superdeep and drawing on science, interviews and art, it identifies three different but intersecting underground spatialities that are constantly disrupted by earthly forces. By resisting the notion of a subservient planet that has excavation done to it, I reveal how the dynamism of strata, the porosity of borders, and the generative potential of art curate a discontinuous Earth.