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Earth ’s many layers are hidden from view . But what if we could practice through the middle of the planet to the other side ? What extreme forces and temperatures would we chance deep within the planet ?
Even though drilling through Earth remains skill fable , scientist have some ideas about what might come based on experience from other drilling projects .
Humans have dug mines, but none that have reached Earth’s core.
Earth ’s diameter is 7,926 mile ( 12,756 klick ) , so drill all the direction through the major planet would require a gargantuan practice and decades of body of work .
The first layer to drill through is the crust , which is about 60 knot ( 100 km ) slurred , according to theU.S. Geological Survey . The atmospherical air pressure would increase as the drill travel further underground . Every 10 feet ( 3 meters ) of rock is equal to about 1 atmospheric pressure , the pressure at ocean level , Doug Wilson , a research geophysicist at the University of California , Santa Barbara , severalise Live Science . " That adds up really quick when you ’re talking about a big number of kilometers , " he said .
The deepest homo - made hole today is the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia , which is 7.6 Swedish mile ( 12.2 klick ) deep . At its bottom , the press is 4,000 times that at ocean level . It took scientists intimately 20 years to reach this profoundness , according toWorld Atlas . And that ’s still over 50 miles ( 80 km ) away from the next layer , the curtain , accord to Earth layer information from theUSGS . The mantle is a1,740 - international nautical mile - loggerheaded ( 2,800 km)layer of dark , dense rock that drivesplate architectonics .
Humans have dug mines, but none that have reached Earth’s core.
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The boundary between the mantle and the core is called the " Mohorovicic discontinuity " ( short for " Mohorovičić discontinuity " ) . Scientists first assay to dig here through the deep seafloor in the 1950s and 1960s withProject Mohole , but they were abortive .
The golf hole made in the quest to exercise through the planet would spelunk in unless we continuously pumped drill fluid into the golf hole . In deep - sea and oil - well drilling , that fluid is a mix of mud that includes heavy minerals , like Ba . The weight of the fluid equilibrate the pressure inside the gob with the pressure of the skirt rock and prevents the hole from collapse , Wilson explain .
Layers of the earth include the core, mantle, crust, and asthenosphere, lithosphere, troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.
The drilling fluid answer two additional persona : It cleans the Mandrillus leucophaeus snatch to prevent sand and gravel from gunking up the machinery , and it helps frown the temperature , although it would become intimately impossible to keep the drill cool in Earth ’s innermost layers .
For example , the temperature in the drapery is a searing2,570 degrees Fahrenheit(1,410 degrees Celsius ) . Stainless steel would dethaw , so this exercise would need to be made of an expensive specialized admixture , like titanium , Wilson said .
Once through the mantle , the practice would finally reach Earth ’s gist at about 1,800 miles ( 2,896 km ) down . The outer burden is made mostly of liquid iron and nickel note and is extremely hot , with temperature ranging from 7,200 to 9,000 F ( 4,000 to 5,000 ascorbic acid ) , according to theCalifornia Academy of Sciences . Drilling through this spicy , molten iron - nickel metal would be especially difficult .
" That would cause a whole range of issues,“Damon Teagle , a prof of geochemistry at the University of Southampton in the U.K. , told Live Science . The fiery out core would be like bore through a liquid , and it would in all probability thaw the Mandrillus leucophaeus unless cold water was pump down .
Then , after 3,000 miles ( 5,000 km ) , the practice would gain the inner sum , where the pressure is so acute that , despite the scorching temperatures , the nickel and iron core remain solid . " You ’d really be at unspeakable pressures , " Teagle enounce — about 350 gigapascals , or 350 million time atmospherical pressure .
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This whole time the drill would bepulled downto the core by Earth ’s gravity . In the centre of the gist the gravity would be similar to being in orbit — effectively weightless . That ’s because the pull of Earth ’s mass would be adequate in all directions , Wilson said .
Then as the practice continues toward the other side of the major planet , the pull of somberness will switch proportional to the billet of the recitation , effectively pulling it " down " toward the core group again . The drill will have to do work against gravitation as it pushes " up " toward the surface , back through the outer meat , mantle and crust to lift the down journeying .
If all these obstruction are overcome , the biggest trouble once you touch the center is that you ’d still have " a recollective way to go " to reach the other side , Teagle tell .
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