please empty your brain below
Does hiking down a canyon count as below ground level? At least arguably? The Grand Canyon is around 1800m high (according to wikipedia) and lots of people hike down and back up.

dg writes: No

Eric | 28.01.21 - 7:19 a.m. | #

What about furthest below sea level without going underground? I'm guessing my trip to Holland might beat Holme Fen, but I don't think you can beat Holme Fen within the UK.

Sarah | Homepage | 28.01.21 - 7:28 a.m. | #

My lowest below ground level is probably one of the tourist caves in the Peak District, but I can't recall which one so don't know how how deep I was.

Alan S | 28.01.21 - 8:17 a.m. | #

When you walked around yesterday were you holding the iPhone in your hands or resting it on the ground when you took the measurements? That metre difference is very significant when you are only one or two meters above sea level.

dg writes: I did the maths.

I have cruised on a narrowboat on a NON-tidal waterway where the water levels is 0.35, below sea level so my feet (inside the boat) would have been around 0.7m below sea level

Paul | Homepage | 28.01.21 - 8:18 a.m. | #

The deepest possible below ground in the UK is Boulby mine at 1,400 metres. The adjacent Woodsmith mine will be deeper when it is completed.

Martin P | 28.01.21 - 8:48 a.m. | #

Well I've been to the foot of our stairs

Mike | 28.01.21 - 8:49 a.m. | #

Hard to answer this one... This year around 50m lowest. Below ground level probably channel tunnel 75m. Lowest ever the saltmines at Berchtesgarden but can't find depth.

davews | 28.01.21 - 8:51 a.m. | #

I have a hunch there are regularly-used railway tunnels in Britain that go a long way below ground level simply by passing through a big hill, but I haven't been able to find any convincing data.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 28.01.21 - 9:16 a.m. | #

Went down Chatterley Whitfield coal mine near Stoke. Can’t find the level I visited though. Tiny wooden cage to go down. Glad I went. Closed in 1986.

Herbof | 28.01.21 - 9:42 a.m. | #

I've read many times (so it must be true) that Tube lines droop between stations so the slopes aid acceleration and braking. But it doesn't take much of a slope to accelerate or slow a train so probaby not by much.

Tony Woolf | 28.01.21 - 10:16 a.m. | #

I suppose SCUBA diving to 30metres (100ft) seems tame to some of your readers - but it's a lot more challenging than being in a tunnel!

Jambo | 28.01.21 - 10:57 a.m. | #

I had very little to say over yesterday’s post being altitude deficient .

But under sea level, well I live in a country that is 26% under, and another 20% is only 100cm above.

It is not uncommon to see ships on canals and the sea sailing above you behind the dykes.

Michael | 28.01.21 - 11:47 a.m. | #

Probably not as scientific, but another interesting metric is being the furthest away from "outdoors" or seeing the sky. Like, in a 10km tunnel you can be 5km away from the outside world.

Greg S | 28.01.21 - 1:16 p.m. | #

Hard to be sure with these ones. eg I've also been through Arsenalna in Kiev which is apparently the deepest metro station in the world. But I couldn't find anything about whether there are deeper sections of metro tunnel somewhere.

Alan | 28.01.21 - 1:19 p.m. | #

OK, I've finally found a tweet from National Rail confirming that the Cowburn Tunnel on the Hope Valley Line near Edale is England's deepest railway tunnel, 277m beneath a Peak District hill.

And I've been on that, on a train between Manchester and Sheffield, which completely changes my verdict on the lowest I've ever been below ground level.

Post updated

diamond geezer | Homepage | 28.01.21 - 1:54 p.m. | #

I'd be curious to see the readout of a barometric altimeter while crossing the Channel Tunnel. The controlled overpressure inside the carriages of a Eurostar train might result in a computed altitude even lower than 115 metres below sea level.

Joachim | 28.01.21 - 2:50 p.m. | #

Is Aldgate East the deepest part of the Sub Surface lines? It was built the cut and cover way like everywhere else, but was then dug deeper still when the present station was built.

David Churchill | 28.01.21 - 5:38 p.m. | #

Apologies for posting late, but I didn't know which was the deepest alpine tunnel I have been through in Europe (been through them all apart from the new Gotthard Base Tunnel), and had a busy day yesterday including attending my first virtual funeral - a surreal experience and sadly nothing like being there in person.

Ken | 29.01.21 - 12:00 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy