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An Actual Trip To The Center Of The Earth

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SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#1: Mar 31st 2011 at 8:56:05 PM

What sort of available technology could one use to make it to the center of the planet and to the other side? And what sort of unexpected dangers could one face as they make their journey?

AtomJames I need a drink Since: Apr, 2010
I need a drink
#2: Mar 31st 2011 at 10:54:19 PM

I dont think there are any current technologies that could survive that to tell you the truth, and I think the only thing your going to find is magma. Red hot, molten magma.

But, since I assume this is to be a fantasy/sci-fi story, I guess you could argue that creatures such as dinosaurs or megafauna could have possibly found a route to the Cot E, only to have that route disappear over time. These creatures could've evolved as time passed.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.
Clarste One Winged Egret Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
One Winged Egret
#3: Mar 31st 2011 at 10:59:22 PM

Well, you'd get molten rock and a shitload of pressure. Moreso the latter, because with enough pressure the superheated rock can't even melt. At the center of the earth you quite literally have the weight of the world crushing you, and you'd need some sort of material that could withstand that. That's complete superscience though, so I don't think there's much we have today that could offer much insight.

AtomJames I need a drink Since: Apr, 2010
I need a drink
#4: Mar 31st 2011 at 11:02:10 PM

Then again, perhaps if you told us more about what your planning to do, we could offer some insight. Is this a fantastical "Trip to Hell" or *shudder* a fan sequel to The Core?

Gosh I need a shower after that thought!!

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.
LoniJay from Australia Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
#5: Mar 31st 2011 at 11:08:27 PM

I don't think you're going to have that much that's 'unexpected' in the centre of a planet. Molten rock, molten metal, currents in said molten rock and metal, intense pressure, that's about it.

edited 31st Mar '11 11:12:23 PM by LoniJay

Be not afraid...
WackyMeetsPractical My teacher's a panda from Texas Since: Oct, 2009
My teacher's a panda
#6: Mar 31st 2011 at 11:12:57 PM

You're definitely going to need some sort of vehicle. I don't think anybody is going to want to walk that journey, nor any animals either. It would have to be some sort of automated boring machine, one that can withstand a ton of heat and pressure.

Once you get to the center, it's hard to tell. We assume that there's a ton of magma right at the core of the Earth, but is it solid or liquid? It would be best to equip your machine with swimming capabilities just to be safe.

One thing to definitely keep in mind is figuring out where on the other side you're going to be popping back up. You don't want to pop up into some city, overturning cars, running over people, or knocking down buildings. You'd also want to avoid things like sewer lines and power lines either direction you go. You should probably make sure you don't end up in an ocean either, but then again, if you gave your machine fins, it probably wouldn't matter. But you might be concerned about draining out the entire ocean. That would be bad.

Edit: ^If you knew of the unexpected dangers, they wouldn't be unexpected, now would they?

edited 31st Mar '11 11:14:17 PM by WackyMeetsPractical

LoniJay from Australia Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
#7: Mar 31st 2011 at 11:19:37 PM

Well, we already know about the consistency. It comes in layers - a liquid mantle and outer core and solid inner core, I believe.

Be not afraid...
SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#8: Apr 1st 2011 at 12:08:58 AM

For context, the story starts off with this little girl who is helping her mother in their garden. As she makes the first strike with her little trowel, she declares that "One day, I'll get to the other side of the world!" This grows when the rest of her family get in on the act and use it as a bonding activity. Eventually, the the neighbors help dig deeper, and then the rest of the town. A news crew catches word of this colossal project and cover it. The story is picked up by some MIT students who get corporate sponsoring to fund for a massive drilling apparatus to assist the girl (who is now in high-school). With the drilling machine in action, the project picks up the pace causing people to start placing bids on where the girl will come out on the other side and how long it will take her.

By the time the girl has reached the center of the world, she has become a college student and has fallen in love with one of her new friends. They get married just as they hit the middle of the inner core. While on the way out, the young woman has become a mother and gives birth to two children, a girl and a boy. As the machine breaks the surface on the other side of the world, the woman greeted by cheering crowds who congratulate her on her accomplishment. But it's a bittersweet victory as she learns that her parents have become gravely ill. using the new elevator shaft that gets installed in the hole the girl drilled, she races home and to her parents. unfortunately, they only have time left in the world to tell her how proud they are of her before passing on.

After her parents' death, the girl becomes a teacher at the new college at the center of the world.

CommandoDude Since: Jun, 2010
#9: Apr 1st 2011 at 12:15:40 AM

No such technology would ever exist. Least of all now.

Want to ask for a trip through the sun next?

SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#10: Apr 1st 2011 at 12:23:34 AM

I've already thought of the sun one and it involved a large rock, some rubber bands, and three monkeys. As for the trip to the middle of the world, it's just a fantastical story. And I specifically had the trip take place over many years for the development of new technologies that don't exist now.

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#11: Apr 1st 2011 at 11:04:19 AM

There's no currently conceivable technology that could come close to managing it. It would practically require new laws of physics to be discovered.

Think of it this way: There's no way in heck that MIT students are designing the boring machine. The machine will be designed by a planet-wide super AI 200 years in the future.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#12: Apr 1st 2011 at 11:07:43 AM

Actually, it's plain impossible: the inner core of the Earth is solid iron.

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#13: Apr 1st 2011 at 11:16:28 AM

It doesn't sound like it's meant to be a super-hard scifi story, guys.

Just go with it.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#14: Apr 1st 2011 at 2:11:46 PM

Yeah I don't think the idea of piping down cool water for the drilling machine to spray around itself and then placing concrete walls on the tunnel would hold up very well in Real Life. But for the sake of brainstorming, would melting a path through the iron core and piping the slag up towards the surface to help reinforce the walls around the tunnel sound at least believable?

Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#15: Apr 1st 2011 at 2:17:28 PM

It'd be believable, but it wouldn't work. The reason the core's solid is because of the pressure, not a lack of heat. It's about 6000C down there.

SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#16: Apr 1st 2011 at 2:49:50 PM

So if someone were to poke a hole through the earth all the way to the iron core molten metal would shoot to the surface as if through a high pressure hose?

MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#17: Apr 1st 2011 at 3:00:52 PM

No, but you'd get a mega-volcano before you were 10 miles into the mantle.

SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#18: Apr 1st 2011 at 3:08:07 PM

Which is why the tunneler is installing walls around itself as is it goes deeper. The tunnel itself is built wide enough so that the immense pressure can compress its diameter to the proper size.

MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#19: Apr 1st 2011 at 5:16:53 PM

the tunneler would be slag before you could get more than 10 miles into the mantle.

jasonwill2 True art is Angsty from West Virginia Since: Mar, 2011
#20: Apr 2nd 2011 at 1:59:59 AM

On the real end, everything would melt... or be crushed. That is, it's completely impossible.

On the fantasy end, it doesn't matter, its fantasy.

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly
AtomJames I need a drink Since: Apr, 2010
I need a drink
#21: Apr 2nd 2011 at 2:10:52 AM

Ok as much as I would hate to revisit The Core, you could take something away from that. The movie featured a submersible boring machine constructed from Unobotanium, an element whose molecular integrity increased the greater pressure and heat was placed on it. You could use something to that effect.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.
doorhandle Since: Oct, 2010
#22: Apr 6th 2011 at 12:18:24 AM

Good point, my Mc Noobish friend.

Also, while the core of the earth is magma, there could be stuff swimming in it. Like Silicate-based life, who would find the insanely hot conditions ideal to power their otherwise really slow metabolism.

edited 6th Apr '11 12:18:36 AM by doorhandle

SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#23: Apr 6th 2011 at 1:43:18 PM

I'd rather not have creatures swimming around but I have heard that there are storms that take place within the mantle.

LoniJay from Australia Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
#24: Apr 6th 2011 at 11:25:57 PM

Not exactly storms, I don't think. You get currents and 'turbulence' though.

Be not afraid...
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