The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-08
DEEPEST WELL IN THE WORLD
 AT CLARKSBURG All Records Broken in Shaft
 at Golf Farm in West
 Virginia. DOWN TO DEPTH OF MORE THAN A MILE Drilling Still in Progress and Much Greater Depth Is Expected.

The deepest well in the world, ai- ready 7,S63 feet deep, is now being drilled on the Golf farm, eight miles northeast of Clarksburg, in northern West Virginia. Until January A the record for depth had been held by a boring at Czuchow, in Silesia, which had reached depth of 7,349 feet, but on that day Dr. I. c. White, the State geologist of West Virginia, announced that the Hope Natural Gas Co. had driven the bit to a depth of 1850 feet, one good American foot in excess of
 the German record. Moreover, the drilling is still in progress and as sui ficient length of cable and adequate power and tools are at hand the pros pectS are good for driving still farther down into the crust of the earth and winning the peunant by consider able margin.
 Seven thousand, three hundred and sfDty-three feet is a very little less than one and third miles. The depth of this well exceeds the height
 of Mount Washington (6,293 feet) and
 of Mount Mitchell (6,711 feet), the
 highest mountain in the eastern United States, and is greater than the
 distance to which many of the Rocky \ Mountains loom above the level of the
 foothills or plateaus on which they
 stand. It is over half a mile deeper
 than the Grand Canyon of the Colo
 rasdo in Arizona. In fact, the bottom
 of the Grand Canyon at the foot of the Bright Angel Trail, which is ap-
 proximately 2,4O0 fet above sea level,
 is about 1900 feet higher above the
 sea than the surface of the ground at
 the Golf well. The well goes nearly
 half a mile farther down into the
 earth than the deepest mines in Mich
 igan, Brazil, or Europe. Several oil
 wells in California, in the Southwest,
 in West Virginia, and in Pennsylvania
 have exceeded 4,000 feet in depth, and
 one near Mcdonald, Pa, about miles
 west of Pittsburgh, reached a depth of
 7,248 feet.
 The thickness and character of the
 beds of rock passed through in bor- ing the well are being studied under
 the direction of the State geologist-
 All the beds are composed of mate
 rials that were once sediments, ana
 most of them were settings in, sea
 water which as at various times coV-
 cred this part of West Virginia In- teresting and important observations of the temperature of the rocks at different depths in the well have been made by the United States GeologlcaI SusOey. Department of the Interior, lin co-operation with the State Geolog- ljcal Survey, with the object of deter mining the rate at which the temper lat11re increases downward in the outer Fc171st Of this part of the earth. C. E. Van Ostrand, of the survey, 1ouIu Ithat Q depth of 1000 feet in the well
 the temperature is 152 degrees fan- lrenheit and that the rate of increase lat this depth is about one degree III l51 feet of depth. This shows that the Iouter crust of the earth m this reslon lis relatively cool, for in many otner regions the temperature increases
 much more rapidly with increase ID Iderth, Even. at some places m llie limited States, according to uncoh- )frmed observations, the tempera1ure
 increases at the rate of one degree in
 Q vertical distance as little as 70 feet'
 and that within a few hundred Iee1
 of the surface. Nevertheless, MT. van
 Ostrand estimates that the tempera- ture of the rocks beneath the GoII } well will be found at the boiling point (212 degrees F.) at a depth somewhere
 around 10000 feet. l The Golf well is near the center ol |, the great Appalachian coal field pas [ in. or trough, and is being drilled II 1i search of deeper oil sands than have e vet been reached in this part or tn' n hasin. The sand upon which mos - hope is based is the "Clinton" sand 6 a formation of Silurian. age, which l k Droltfic of gas and oil across cen , tral Ohio from Cleveland nearly to tn :, Ohio River. From it's outcrop thl - formation dips gently to the southeas
 beneath successively younger torma 7, lions nearly if not all the way | ! Clarksburg. If the drill can reach tn ' Clinton, sand beneath the Golf farm
 which is on an anticline or small up
 ward fold in the shallower strata. l may possibly find gas or oil pent u = under tremendous pressure ant
 ready to escape in enormous volume . Hence. the test not only excites tn
 curiosity of the public and is of grea scientific interest to geologists, but z also of practical value to the oil men q by whom it is being closely watched q If the well strikes a valuable oil 9 a gas pool in the Clinton sand in thl \ part of the basin it may lead to tn z development of new oil or gas re % serves, and if subsequent tests ar < successful, it may open new era il the history of the Appalachian oil ant
 gas region. The possibility of discov q ering such oil and gas deposits, com E prising new reserves hitherto un @ known is the justification Of the grea 2 cost and labor of drilling the tes E well at Clarksburg, though the bes a skill of the Nation may be required t A reduce the cost of drilling very deel R wells to a point at which such worl $ will be economically practicable. l H this boring ends in disappointment l x is probable that similar wildcat test N will be made in other districts unti 1 the oil men are sausIleu that LII & quest is hopeless, but ii thls deel | wildcatting meets success the entIr
 Nation will welcome a most timely
 well as valuable addition to it's petro q leum resouDces, and the gasonne con
 sumner may we'll rejoice at the pros | pect of new, even if limited, supplie : of high-gasoline Appalachian oil.
 # err-n1EEvR AGROUND