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What If You Drilled Straight Through the Earth?

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What's the longest trip you could ever take? Not around the world. Straight DOWN. Dr. PX bolts a drill onto his rocket and digs from one side of the planet to the other. On the way: why nobody has ever done it (the Soviet Kola hole, Project Mohole, Germany's KTB), how deep our deepest hole really is, what's inside the Earth, what happens at the very center, and whether you'd flip upside down after passing it.

Honest note: nobody can do this today. The heat and pressure inside the Earth would destroy any machine we have. But the physics is real, and it's wild.

Chapters

  1. 0:00 The longest trip (opens in a new tab)
  2. 0:26 Honest moment: nobody can do this (opens in a new tab)
  3. 0:39 1970: the Kola hole (opens in a new tab)
  4. 1:15 The USA and Germany tried too (opens in a new tab)
  5. 1:30 If the Earth were an apple (opens in a new tab)
  6. 1:43 How deep is deep? (opens in a new tab)
  7. 2:00 Two monsters: heat and pressure (opens in a new tab)
  8. 2:19 Let's go! (opens in a new tab)
  9. 2:28 The crust (opens in a new tab)
  10. 2:44 The mantle (and diamonds) (opens in a new tab)
  11. 3:04 The outer core and the magnetic field (opens in a new tab)
  12. 3:25 Three million times the pressure (opens in a new tab)
  13. 3:38 The inner core (opens in a new tab)
  14. 4:01 The center of the Earth: floating! (opens in a new tab)
  15. 4:18 Do you flip upside down? (opens in a new tab)
  16. 4:43 Like a ball in a valley (opens in a new tab)
  17. 5:07 38 minutes to anywhere (opens in a new tab)
  18. 5:27 Daylight! (opens in a new tab)
  19. 5:48 Your turn (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  • Kola Superdeep Borehole (1970–1992, 12,262 m, ~180 °C): Scientific American; Wikipedia "Kola Superdeep Borehole"
  • "Through the apple's skin" comparison: Let's Talk Science; EarthDate
  • Project Mohole (1961–1966): Earth Magazine; Wikipedia "Project Mohole"
  • KTB borehole, Germany (9,101 m): GFZ Potsdam
  • Challenger Deep (~10,935 m): NOAA. Earth's radius 6,371 km: USGS
  • Earth's layers, flowing mantle, where diamonds form: USGS; Shirey et al. (2019)
  • Outer core and the magnetic field: National Geographic; GFZ
  • Inner core temperature and pressure: National Geographic; California Academy of Sciences
  • Gravity tunnel (~38 minutes, any chord about the same): Klotz, American Journal of Physics 83 (2015)
  • Antipodes (only ~4% of land is opposite land): Wikipedia "Antipodes"

Spotted a mistake or have a question? Ask Dr. PX

Credits

Animation: PXReality. Music: YouTube Audio Library. Sound effects: original. Narration: AI-generated voice.