That depends on the well and location and weather. Some well definitely do fill up the shaft some if the water levels are higher than usual. Like after a lot of rain. This is usually not a good thing, since that means the water in the shaft is gonna be sitting still. Which is generally not preferred. When they do fill up it is either gonna be slow (days to weeks) or pretty obvious (there is an absolute rain storm going on).
But for this one it looks like the engineer is there to access some sort of equipment. Like a pump. You'd generally put such things where they won't get submerged so that spot hopefully doesn't get submerged either. Though of course, this one is different from my limited experience in multiple ways, so if they're boring a hole this deep and big maybe they're also investing in submersible pumps. Seems unnecessary to me, but still.
At a rate of descent of roughly 1,7 meters a second it's just over 200 meters deep and my guess would be that this is how far below surface level the ground water settles in that area
He is speaking a kind of Persian I can understand. He mentioned that 180 meters has strong water, so I assume the end of it was more than 180 meters deep.
They dig that deep to access water. I assume this is in Iran, which faces water problems. They need this water for agriculture.
He mentions that the “entire 185 meters” has cement insulation on the walls, so I guess that’s the full depth of the well.
And thinking that there might be only 5 meters of water in it just shows how bad the water situation is right now :(
I was about to say Ganat is handmade and they couldn't go this deep, but in the wiki you shared, the vertical depth was up to 275 meters in some places. WOW.
So I've been sober for 18 years. But back in the day I used to partake in some pretty heavy drugs. One night my boyfriend at the time and I were smoking some crack. He decided he wanted to figure out what was wrong with his hand dug well. So he climbed down into it. He didn't have a working flashlight, so he lit some candles for light. I swear all of this made perfect sense at the time. Crack is a hell of a drug.
So as he's climbing down into this well, he realized he couldn't hold the candle and climb at the same time. But the well really isn't deep at all. So he asked me to hold the candle up top and light his way. The candle was on a fancy old candle holder. I tried to hold it sideways so the light would reach him better. Instead the goddamn candle fell out of the candle holder and hit him in the head.
So that was about the time we realized all of this was a terrible idea. He had to climb back up in complete darkness. But he made it and we went back inside. Oh, and the reason our water wasn't working was because the well was dry. Which he should have known because it would always go dry for about 2 months out of each year. I don't know why he thought he had to investigate. Especially in the middle of the night. Don't do drugs kids.
« In regions facing severe water stress, wells now reach such extreme depths that some technicians must descend hundreds of feet into narrow shafts to reach the damaged pumps hidden far below the surface.
These borewells are drilled 800 to 1,000 feet deep to chase falling aquifers, and when equipment fails at that depth, workers are lowered slowly using harnesses and winches so they can inspect or free the machinery in conditions that require constant communication and meticulous control.
Each descent reflects how dramatically groundwater depletion has changed daily life in these areas, turning basic repairs into hazardous underground missions that reveal just how far communities are being pushed to secure their remaining water. »
My concern would be the air quality. They must be in full breathing apparatus which limits work time to 30-60 mins and it must be hot as f*ck down there, so maybe even less.
It depends on the local thermal gradient. Rule of thumb is correct in concept though.
I’ve worked in a shaft in Botswana that reached 50 C at 800 m deep. They have massive chiller plants to cool the vent air to make the mine comfortable. I’ve worked in a mine in England that is only 22 C at the same depth.
As someone who has worked with miners in shafts just as deep, I've been told it gets stupid hot down there, even if the ambient outdoor temperature is 68°F
This just gave me more questions lol. So we're basically drying out the crust of the earth in certain regions? Is this caused by the population size or perhaps by bad recycling or filtration methods? Why do some parts of the world not need such deep wells? What's the effect on nature etc that the surface of the earth is devoid of moisture?
Aquifers can be depleted. There’s a lot more to your questions but I guess you could think of it as “drying out the earth’s crust” although that is almost certainly inaccurate. Population and agriculture have to do with it, in areas of Afghanistan farmers nearly if not completely depleted their ground water. In this case they’re chasing a falling water table is my understanding.
I assume this is in the ongoing crisis in Iran. They’ve had a lot of drought so these aquifers aren’t getting “refilled” as quickly as they would normally. As people and agriculture need water to survive, they’re willing to go deeper to restore old wells. Wells are just went you dig into the ground deep enough to hit the water table or a natural aquifer. It’s sort of like if you go to the beach and dig enough you’ll reach and puddle of water.
That’s probably the best I can explain it in simple terms. There’s a lot of other compounding issues like their system of dams. Turns out water stuff is pretty complicated and we should absolutely listen to the qualified water people.
Wells tap into ground water stored in aquifers. Aquifer size and depth change based on geology, the amount of surface water leaching into them, and the amount of water drawn out of them.
Aquifers are water stored in layers of water-permeable substrate (stones, gravel, sand, etc.). They sit just below the water table (water that directly interacts with the surface) to thousands of feet deep. Aquifers recharge (refill) by surface water leaching down through the soil - the more surface water, the more groundwater. These water systems are often too deep to interact with surface plants and animals (though they can in certain locations like springs) and water can be stored in them for millennia.
Whether an aquifer is easy to reach and how quickly it recharges is based on how close it is to the surface and how permeable the ground is.
Unconfined aquifers lie directly under the water table. Surface water can trickle down and recharge these aquifers in short timespans - days, months, or years.
Confined aquifers have a non-permeable soil layer between them and the surface. Surface water that trickles down can still refill these aquifers, but it can take centuries or millennia.
If humans draw more water from an aquifer than is recharged, the aquifer depletes. That may be due to less water entering the system (drought) or higher removal (larger population requiring more water). As aquifers deplete at the surface, we drill deeper to tap into new aquifers that take longer to recharge. In some areas, we are pulling so much water out of the ground the aquifers will likely never recharge and will eventually run out. Not only do we lose a valuable water source and people will either ship in water, displace, or die, but that water served to stabilize the ground, and its removal can cause sinking land.
Contamination of aquifers is different, that's when we poison an aquifer by introducing dangerous chemicals. That doesn't deplete the water, but can make it unhealthy to drink.
Hydrogeologist here- A+ hydro 101 explanation. Water is everywhere on this planet, but less than 1% of it is drinkable. It is our most precious natural resource.
Then he hears a voice over the radio: the voice of the man whose face appeared below him. But it’s coming from the surface. Starting quietly, calmly at first but building in volume and concern. “I’ll be down there to join you once I get my gear on. No? I’m not already down there, what do you mean?”
It's fine! Glider pilot here and descending 2m/s for a minute of something that can happen to me quite often (during landing or when approaching terrain with too much height). Ear has enough time to accommodate.
I wonder how they ventilate that. I guess it’s technically not a single-entry area but it sure seems like it would be classed as a confined space. I guess maybe the flowing water circulates the air a bit? Either way I hope he’s got a gas monitor.
Nope, nope, nope !!
Can’t get diamonds without busting a couple deepslate cobblestones
Mining straight down is a great idea, of course
Slant drilling is the best way.. like Mr Burns did in Simpsons!
I drink your milkshake, I drink it up!
My straw goes into YOUR MILKSHAKE!
This guy Minecrafts.
Dude was descending so long my phone screen timed out
I hate to spoil the surprise, he's still descending to this day.
🎶 It was the well that never ends! Yes it goes on and on my friend!,🎶
sorry couldn't help myself 😁
Some people started digging it not knowing what it was and they’ll continue digging it forever just because
😆 🤣 😂 😹
Very few will get this reference. “Well” done.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/s/wXxgjxEbdA
Just to find another dude already down there.
Brokeback Well
This Well’s taken
He got his passport stamped by three different countries on the way down...
Three different timezones in China.
Good trick since there's only one time zone in China.
3, but they’re stacked vertically
I'm not usually claustrophobic or anything, but I don't like that at all.
There's also a fear of drowning. Does that well fill up vertically?
That depends on the well and location and weather. Some well definitely do fill up the shaft some if the water levels are higher than usual. Like after a lot of rain. This is usually not a good thing, since that means the water in the shaft is gonna be sitting still. Which is generally not preferred. When they do fill up it is either gonna be slow (days to weeks) or pretty obvious (there is an absolute rain storm going on).
But for this one it looks like the engineer is there to access some sort of equipment. Like a pump. You'd generally put such things where they won't get submerged so that spot hopefully doesn't get submerged either. Though of course, this one is different from my limited experience in multiple ways, so if they're boring a hole this deep and big maybe they're also investing in submersible pumps. Seems unnecessary to me, but still.
imagine dropping your flashlight
Imagine needing to pee.
I’d just pee
I already did.
And you didn’t invite me because?
Sir, this is a well.
Oh well
I'm peeing now.
I’m peeing harder!
Check your DMs
No I’m scared now
I think included in the standard protocol is some kind of looped cord attached to the flashlight to keep it on the wrist
Imagine being in the dark at the bottom and getting hit with a flashlight.
I had to read that twice, the first time I was imagining dropping a fleshlight and was confused.
Well, well, well.
Nope, nope, nope… OH HEY BUDDY
He's just being let down on a rope, but remember some people had to go down there when there was nothing there and build that place!
Hey Dave, the winch is broke. You have 2 options, climb out or wait a week for the part.
Dave: (whispered) "This is the last time I take a job where they put an AI in charge of operations. "
I said that after 10 seconds and it just kept going and going and going!
Literally my first thought
I can say one thing with absolute certainty: No.
Please someone provide some context. How deep is that, and why does it need to be that deep?
It's 2:36 deep is what I saw.
Ya know what, fair.
Not fair
Probably not deeper than your mom.
can confirm
I can second this, she is 2:42 deep
That's deep. Your sister was only 1:24 deep.
She’s dead. Show some respect.
2:30 of that was the dig.
And it’s cold!
At a rate of descent of roughly 1,7 meters a second it's just over 200 meters deep and my guess would be that this is how far below surface level the ground water settles in that area
How many refrigerators is that?
And they say Americans don’t have culture.
A real American would’ve asked for it to be measured in burgers
2,625 Waffle House cheeseburgers deep
The avg fridge is 1.8 meters, so around 111 refrigerators deep
But now do in bananas?
That depends on who’s banana
Edit: I see what I’ve done.
I am
I’m banana
He is speaking a kind of Persian I can understand. He mentioned that 180 meters has strong water, so I assume the end of it was more than 180 meters deep.
They dig that deep to access water. I assume this is in Iran, which faces water problems. They need this water for agriculture.
He mentions that the “entire 185 meters” has cement insulation on the walls, so I guess that’s the full depth of the well.
And thinking that there might be only 5 meters of water in it just shows how bad the water situation is right now :(
A well need not have more than about a meter of water in it - the aim is to get down to the water, not to fill the well.
You can see water stains starting at 1:14 so it seems pretty low. But maybe it's seasonal, I dunno
Could this be a qanat? I’ve never seen one, so I have no idea what they look like, only read about them.
I was about to say Ganat is handmade and they couldn't go this deep, but in the wiki you shared, the vertical depth was up to 275 meters in some places. WOW.
Amazing what you can do when you're thirsty AND hungry
That does seem to fit the bill of what we're seeing in the video.
Iran is extremely prone to earthquakes. My dude had better be allahu akbaring every second that he’s down there...
Actually earthquakes aren't very common in iran and they aren't the strong ones even if it happens
Well now I don't know who to believe.
I live there
Gracias amigo
Two feet for most of it.
Underrated comment. Have my upvote.
500-800 ft
we dont want to know about your foot fetish, how deep is it?
Depends on the current market value of eagles. But anyway, around 100-160 star-spangled banners...
edit: but also seriously they're saying 150-245 meters, while most other posts say over 180 or over 200 meters. So you know, deep.
At least 10 feet
r/theydidthemath could figure it out
Edit: could figure out an estimate
Beginning to feel like we need a rule about linking the source of videos.
Imagine going all the way to the bottom only for you to forget your screwdriver or something outside.
"Hey bob, throw me the screw driver!"
"Heads up!"
"Heads down!"
Heads off.
Heads gone
Head back
Head with a hole
Head with a gash
Head shot
lol!
So I've been sober for 18 years. But back in the day I used to partake in some pretty heavy drugs. One night my boyfriend at the time and I were smoking some crack. He decided he wanted to figure out what was wrong with his hand dug well. So he climbed down into it. He didn't have a working flashlight, so he lit some candles for light. I swear all of this made perfect sense at the time. Crack is a hell of a drug.
So as he's climbing down into this well, he realized he couldn't hold the candle and climb at the same time. But the well really isn't deep at all. So he asked me to hold the candle up top and light his way. The candle was on a fancy old candle holder. I tried to hold it sideways so the light would reach him better. Instead the goddamn candle fell out of the candle holder and hit him in the head.
So that was about the time we realized all of this was a terrible idea. He had to climb back up in complete darkness. But he made it and we went back inside. Oh, and the reason our water wasn't working was because the well was dry. Which he should have known because it would always go dry for about 2 months out of each year. I don't know why he thought he had to investigate. Especially in the middle of the night. Don't do drugs kids.
Congratulations on your sobriety. You’ve done well.
-cuts to a close up a screw driver reaching terminal velocity-
here it comes dave!
-cuts to a close up of screw driver now heating up like the space shuttle entering atmosphere-
Or an earthquake happens and you get stuck down there.
I HAVE BEEN FALLING FOR THIRTY MINUTES
Insert Captain America “I understood that reference” gif here (ooohhh, double meta…)
*A 4th wall break inside a 4th wall break. Thats like 16 walls! *
And this one makes 64 walls!
This makes 128 walls
It's 'Strange', isn't it?
Perhaps. Who am I to judge?
“You can handle it from here?”
Those boots are not longer watertight when at the bottom.
Came to say exactly this. His right boot got eroded quick time
Same! They were dragging that right on the wall like it'd stop them from falling or slow them down.
Not to slow down but to stabilize their descent, it stops stop them from spinning or hitting the wall with the rest of their body
They started broken. You can see the right one flapping right away.
That bothered me so much I completely forgot about claustrophobia and heights.
I came to the comments just to see if someone mentioned the boot 😂
those boots are made for welling
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSILNrgDRnZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
This should answer a few questions.
« In regions facing severe water stress, wells now reach such extreme depths that some technicians must descend hundreds of feet into narrow shafts to reach the damaged pumps hidden far below the surface.
These borewells are drilled 800 to 1,000 feet deep to chase falling aquifers, and when equipment fails at that depth, workers are lowered slowly using harnesses and winches so they can inspect or free the machinery in conditions that require constant communication and meticulous control.
Each descent reflects how dramatically groundwater depletion has changed daily life in these areas, turning basic repairs into hazardous underground missions that reveal just how far communities are being pushed to secure their remaining water. »
My concern would be the air quality. They must be in full breathing apparatus which limits work time to 30-60 mins and it must be hot as f*ck down there, so maybe even less.
I want to see what they were doing down there.
Hot? More likely cold.
On average it's 25-30°C hotter for every kilometer deep you go. So 200ish meters has it 5° warmer. On average.
It depends on the local thermal gradient. Rule of thumb is correct in concept though.
I’ve worked in a shaft in Botswana that reached 50 C at 800 m deep. They have massive chiller plants to cool the vent air to make the mine comfortable. I’ve worked in a mine in England that is only 22 C at the same depth.
Dang you've dug all the way from Botswana to London?
Right!? Just build a road or something
Caves are usually 50-55 degrees F. It’s unlikely he’s in a geothermally active area specifically due to the lack of available groundwater.
IN areas with temperate climate, that is. Until the depth effect kicks in you basically get the year averaged temperature of the surface.
Yeah, but it starts from an average 10°C cave/subterranean temp at sea level.
So add your "5° warmer" and it's 15°C
As someone who has worked with miners in shafts just as deep, I've been told it gets stupid hot down there, even if the ambient outdoor temperature is 68°F
It gets warmer underground after a certain point. Source. I work in an underground mine. It’s hot...
I’ve heard the opposite.
Me too, just now
Not necessarily, but maybe:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_gradient#
My concern would be methane or other high density gas that would linger in those depths.
This just gave me more questions lol. So we're basically drying out the crust of the earth in certain regions? Is this caused by the population size or perhaps by bad recycling or filtration methods? Why do some parts of the world not need such deep wells? What's the effect on nature etc that the surface of the earth is devoid of moisture?
Aquifers can be depleted. There’s a lot more to your questions but I guess you could think of it as “drying out the earth’s crust” although that is almost certainly inaccurate. Population and agriculture have to do with it, in areas of Afghanistan farmers nearly if not completely depleted their ground water. In this case they’re chasing a falling water table is my understanding.
I assume this is in the ongoing crisis in Iran. They’ve had a lot of drought so these aquifers aren’t getting “refilled” as quickly as they would normally. As people and agriculture need water to survive, they’re willing to go deeper to restore old wells. Wells are just went you dig into the ground deep enough to hit the water table or a natural aquifer. It’s sort of like if you go to the beach and dig enough you’ll reach and puddle of water.
That’s probably the best I can explain it in simple terms. There’s a lot of other compounding issues like their system of dams. Turns out water stuff is pretty complicated and we should absolutely listen to the qualified water people.
Crash course to answer your questions.
Wells tap into ground water stored in aquifers. Aquifer size and depth change based on geology, the amount of surface water leaching into them, and the amount of water drawn out of them.
Aquifers are water stored in layers of water-permeable substrate (stones, gravel, sand, etc.). They sit just below the water table (water that directly interacts with the surface) to thousands of feet deep. Aquifers recharge (refill) by surface water leaching down through the soil - the more surface water, the more groundwater. These water systems are often too deep to interact with surface plants and animals (though they can in certain locations like springs) and water can be stored in them for millennia.
Whether an aquifer is easy to reach and how quickly it recharges is based on how close it is to the surface and how permeable the ground is.
Unconfined aquifers lie directly under the water table. Surface water can trickle down and recharge these aquifers in short timespans - days, months, or years.
Confined aquifers have a non-permeable soil layer between them and the surface. Surface water that trickles down can still refill these aquifers, but it can take centuries or millennia.
If humans draw more water from an aquifer than is recharged, the aquifer depletes. That may be due to less water entering the system (drought) or higher removal (larger population requiring more water). As aquifers deplete at the surface, we drill deeper to tap into new aquifers that take longer to recharge. In some areas, we are pulling so much water out of the ground the aquifers will likely never recharge and will eventually run out. Not only do we lose a valuable water source and people will either ship in water, displace, or die, but that water served to stabilize the ground, and its removal can cause sinking land.
Contamination of aquifers is different, that's when we poison an aquifer by introducing dangerous chemicals. That doesn't deplete the water, but can make it unhealthy to drink.
Hydrogeologist here- A+ hydro 101 explanation. Water is everywhere on this planet, but less than 1% of it is drinkable. It is our most precious natural resource.
One more reason to care about climate change. Deep scary holes
Why does this gif fit perfectly on every second Reddit post?
Every time I see this gif there’s a comment underneath it saying how appropriate it is.
It really is the gif that keeps on giffing.
Ah, a fellow r/tvtoohigh’r
It signifies the hopelessness of existence in the grand scheme of things
What is the name of this movie? And what is he looking at? LMFAO
Whatever they're paying him isn't enough. Or paying them, given his buddy was waiting for him down the bottom.
Oh that's just Pennywise, he lives there.
You'll float too
They all float
That scared me more than his descent. Was not expecting that head to pop out at the bottom. Surprise!
Then he hears a voice over the radio: the voice of the man whose face appeared below him. But it’s coming from the surface. Starting quietly, calmly at first but building in volume and concern. “I’ll be down there to join you once I get my gear on. No? I’m not already down there, what do you mean?”
His pay is they promise to bring him back up when he's done.
My brain keep switching the perspective, sometimes I see the dude lay down on a sled and filming his feet moving forward.
Sometimes I see the dude float upwards and reach a watery Heaven + his colleague Jeff
I wonder how far he went down and how it feels like with the higher pressure
Looks like he was descending around 5ft (1.5m) per second. He spent 2m18s going down, so roughly 700ft (213m)
If we was descending slower or faster, then somewhere in the 500-900ft range (150m-275m)
It's fine! Glider pilot here and descending 2m/s for a minute of something that can happen to me quite often (during landing or when approaching terrain with too much height). Ear has enough time to accommodate.
Ears may pop but its no different than an elevator.
What higher pressure?
More air on top
Higher air pressure with lower elevations. It's why your ears pop when you drive over mountains
I wish he turned the camera up to show us the hole he entered from
Officer Nope reporting for duty.
Yeah fuck that
Nah man, nah
Half-expected him to encounter the balrog at the end there
I wonder how they ventilate that. I guess it’s technically not a single-entry area but it sure seems like it would be classed as a confined space. I guess maybe the flowing water circulates the air a bit? Either way I hope he’s got a gas monitor.
I really hope the guy is called Timmy and has a dog called lassie.
Memory unlocked!!!! Thank you
Blows my mind the type of jobs thats out there.
Water way to make a living
Another repair man was already there at the bottom... what kind of well is this?
An unwell
That reminds me, I should call her.
Well that's a big old barrel of I think the fuck not
Chapter 6: The Fall
Oh hi. So, how are you holding up?
BECAUSE I’M A POTATO!
Drill a new one
How is a well like that made?
Human engineering is a marvel huh, I'd love to know too
Nope
Here lies Balin, son of Fundin. Lord of Moria.
So many questions
*taps pocket.... dammit forgot my cigs..
This is a no-no hole.
Wonder if he'd need an oxygen cylinder for that job? Oh, and Faaaaark that!
At some point it started to give me the feeling he travels horizontal