#xkcd No. 3266
Date: 2026-7-1
Title: Holes
Alt text: If you're thinking 'Wait, a giant crystal cave in Mexico? What's that?' then I'm SO excited for the image search you're about to do.
https://xkcd.com/3266/
![Description: Diagram comparing depths of notable natural and man-made holes relative to sea level.
Transcript:
Title: HOLES
[Subtitle]: ELEVATION IS TO SCALE RELATIVE TO SEA LEVEL AND GROUND LEVEL. LAND SHAPES AND HORIZONTAL DISTANCES ARE NOT TO SCALE.
[Scale]: The left Y-axis marks elevation in 1000-meter increments from +4000 to -12,000 METERS. A line marks SEA LEVEL at 0.
[Summary]: Due to length limits, the dozens of plotted structures are summarized by depth along the cross-section of earth and ocean.
Above Sea Level: Bingham Canyon Mine, Derinkugu Underground City, Jinping Laboratory, and mountain bunkers (Gran Sasso, Modane, Cheyenne).
0m to -3000m: Veryovkina Cave, Giant Crystal Cave, Sanford Lab, Woodingdean Water Well, SNOLAB, Super-Kamiokande, and Lake Baikal. Tiny stick figures saying "oops" are trapped in small pockets beneath the Restof Salt Mine, Woodingdean, and Pantai Remis Mine.
Deepest Points: Mponeng Gold Mine and several ocean floor boreholes.
The lowest labels at the bottom right read:
- Kola Superdeep Borehole, Russia: Deepest artificial point below surface (-11917m)
- Deepwater Horizon Borehole, Gulf of Mexico: Deepest artificial point below sea level (-11944m)
- Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean (extending past -11,000m)](https://plam-staging-01.sdu.li/media/116867681581839162.jpg)
ALT
@xkcdbot There is a much larger version here