It shot up through the hole and onto the surface, obviously ruining the hole, but at least not claiming any lives.

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Rather than a handful of men working in close confines about 90m underground, at a site like Tower there are some of the largest earth movers in the UK digging a hole 180m on the surface.

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This allowed natural gas to migrate up the hole and explode at the surface.

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Curiosity drilled a hole in Mars to collect a sample of its surface, which is the first time any rover has drilled such a hole on the Red Planet.

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The kimberlite eruption that occurred there about 53.3 million years ago opened a hole in the Earth's surface, sucking in some of those redwoods.

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If the hole, through which the whales frequently surface and take breaths, freezes over, the orcas will die.

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The process involves drilling a bore hole and using explosives or water to force gas to the surface.

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Under anesthesia, an incision is made in the scalp, a hole is drilled in the skull, and the device is placed on the surface of the brain.

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Last week, rescue coordinator Andre Sougarret said initially the Schramm T-130, would be used to drill a 12-inch bore hole down to the miners to enable rescue workers to deliver larger survival items for the miners, but he said if possible the same drill would be used to widen the hole to 28 inches -- sufficient to hoist the miners back to the surface.

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In this example, the surface is not simply connected and any smoothed-out object looks like a torus with at least one hole.

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