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But we're using a lot of the crust. No one will be mining under Atlanta. There are plenty of places we aren't using, but the crust is also thick. A mile down so
by jfoutz 10y ago
But we're using a lot of the crust. No one will be mining under Atlanta. There are plenty of places we aren't using, but the crust is also thick. A mile down sounds really deep, much less 20 miles.
I mostly agree with you, but it might wind up easier to nab an asteroid than dig a mile under the ocean.
- bryanlarsen 10y ago"But we're using a lot of the crust." 39% of the surface area is used by agriculture, and 3% by urban areas. That excludes oceans & Antartica. Including those, the number drops to less than 10%. Mining takes up less than 0.05% of the surface area of the earth. I think we're good.
- jfoutz 10y agoBecause it's easy. Digging a hole even a mile deep is hard. It might be worth it, but again, it might be easier to just grab an asteroid.
- echelon 10y agoIs Atlanta rich in rare earth minerals or something, or are you just using a random city as an example? I'm aware of various granite mines around the city (such as where they filmed Walking Dead and Stranger Things), but I wouldn't have imagined Georgia to have disproportionately more minerals than other states in the Southeast.