Discontinuity and the underground: permafrost imaginaries and subterranean worlds

The subterranean has been imagined throughout history in a variety of ways, from religious ‘underworld’ narratives to more science-based constructions that utilize visualization technologies such as drilling or sensing. As these technological methods get more sophisticated, it seems the ultimate goal is to uncover the truth of what is down there; a process of excavation that values scientific objectivity and mastery over imaginaries that capture the underground as dynamic, relational, and full of life. This article takes a journey beneath the surface of Arctic Russia, dwelling within several manifestations of the subterranean: the Kola Superdeep Borehole, a utopian Soviet project to drill the deepest hole in the world; permafrost tunnels that store cores and other scientific data used to gain a further understanding of Arctic permafrost; and the tension between Indigenous Sakhan permafrost legends and a rise in the practice of extracting mammoth tusks from thawing permafrost. Across these stories and histories, I argue that the subterranean, far from being a static, knowable, excavatable thing, is in fact a discontinuous entity: impossible to grasp through scientific method alone, and instead an agential, unpredictable and heterogeneous materiality.