It seems like it should be a simple task: Dig deep enough straight down and you should strike sunlight on the other side the planet. But before you break a sweat while breaking ground, know this: your hole will lead to a Dead End. Why? Behold, the whole truth as we examine every obstacle to your shortcut through the soil...
Obstacle 1
Earth's Crust
High or low, wherever you go on the planet's surface, You're travelling on or above the crust. Our planet's outer layer began taking shape 4.5 billion years ago atop the fireball of asteroids, comets and other space debris that clumped into a gooey lump to form Earth. As the surface cooled and hardened, Earth's crust was formed. It comes in 2 types:
When you reach the ground and feel the ground, you're touching the continental crust. It ranges from 6 miles (10 km) to 47 miles (75 km) deep under Mount Everest, Earth tallest mountain. Continental crust consists of less dense and much older rocks than oceanic crust.
Oceanic crust is about 4 miles (7 km) at the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches. It's still taking shape in these mid-ocean-ridges, where molten lava from cracks and cools to form new crust.
Neither crust seems particularly thick, right? Tell that to geologists and mining companies that tried digging through it. Despite using mid ocean ridges as starting point for digging operations, they haven't been able to pierce the crust . It's too tough, fiercely hot, and full of hazards, from pockets of molten rock to lakes of boiling sulfur.
Obstacle 2
The Mantle
Even if you managed to dig through Earth's Crust, You've literally only scratched the surface of The Earth. Below lies the mantle. A layer of semi molten metals such as iron, magnesium and aluminium. The heat and pressure here are intense enough to turn carbon into diamond, the hardest natural material on Earth. The easiest way to reach the mantle is to ride oceanic crust.(It sinks slowly to the mantle in a process called subduction) Once it reaches the mantle, oceanic crust melts and returns to the surface as magma in mid ocean ridges, where it is recycled into new crust. The whole process takes about 200 million years, so you might want to pack a toothbrush.
Obstacle 3
The Outer and Inner core
A spherical Mars size-sea of molten iron and nickel swirls 1,800 miles(2,900 km)beneath your feet. It flows around and inner core of iron 2/3 the size of moon.(This flow of liquid iron around the solid inner core is what creates the Earth's magnetic field.) Temperature in the inner core exceed 10,000 degree Fahrenheit(5,600 degree Celsius)-hotter than the surface of the sun-yet the intense pressure here locks the molten iron into a solid sphere. Good luck digging through that.
Obstacle 4
The Big Squeeze
Obstacle 5
Tug-Of-War
It not for the crushing pressure it creates around you, gravity would be your best buddy during long haul to the center of the Earth. It's all downhill to the Earth's inner core, after all, you'd exactly experience zero gravity at exact center of Earth(The vast mass of all that molten layer pulls you in all direction, which cancels gravity effect) But you've only made the halfway point . You must repeat the backbreaking, physics defying work that got you there, instead gravity is working against you. It's time to uphill battle to dig your exit tunnel through the opposite half planet Earth. That's roughly 3,958 miles(6,780 km) of molten metal and rock off from you head.
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