4 ms·
What if you dig down deep enough to molten rock? Then you're aren't limited by heat conduction of the solid rock, but the heat convection of the magma
by kuprel 4y ago
What if you dig down deep enough to molten rock? Then you're aren't limited by heat conduction of the solid rock, but the heat convection of the magma
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ncmncm 4y agoHow would you keep the hole open? But most places that is way, way deeper than 20km.
- hypertele-Xii 4y agoWikipedia says the Earth's crust is on average 15-20km thick. Soviets drilled 12km deep with 1980's tech. It's difficult for sure, but might be doable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole
- ncmncm 4y ago"Doable" is very different from "economically justifiable". The thickness of the Earth's crust is strongly bimodal, making "average" meaningless: thinner under oceans, thicker on continents. Much thicker. Most of the planet is, of course, sea floor, so mostly thinner. But drilling the sea floor is unpleasant and expensive, and at the end, the hole is all the way down there.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoFrom what I understand, most of the earth's mantle is not molten and you can only find molten rock, magma, in some specific places like mid-ocean rifts and volcanic hotspots. The mantle has convection currents, but those flow on geological timescales. The Earth's outer core is liquid, but that's almost three thousand kilometers below the surface.