4 ms·

If only there were a decent way to mine the earth's core directly. There's more usable material already on Earth than the entire asteroid belt. It's just all me

If only there were a decent way to mine the earth's core directly. There's more usable material already on Earth than the entire asteroid belt. It's just all melted together, molten and buried under thousands of miles of dirt.

vatys 4y ago
If we started mining the earth’s core, it would seem infinite at first. Can we be trusted to only take a little bit and not eventually hollow it out?
- cossatot 4y ago
  If we took the entire core to the surface (without collapsing the Earth which is impossible) we would cover the Earth with iron and nickel to a depth of hundreds of km.
- notfed 4y ago
  If at some point we become anywhere advanced enough to do so, surely we could switch to mining other planets/objects.
kelseyfrog 4y ago
Exactly! Plugging this into Wolfram Alpha reveals that Earth's core is worth $3.268×10^19 (US dollars)[1]. For comparison total global wealth is merely US$431T. 1. thirty-two quintillion six hundred eighty quadrillion dollars
- willis936 4y ago
  I bet it's worth more than that in usable electricity if we ran it through a heat exchanger + steam turbine.
  - willis936 4y ago
    Also, I finally got a workable link. Wolfram really fought me on this one and it shows the dimensionality incorrectly, but the number is correct. 32 trillion trillion dollars (3.2E25). So a hundred times more. Of course no market would hold a price when flooded with supply, but I bet our appetite for usable energy is higher than iron. That's a harder crystal ball estimation to quantify though. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28specific%20heat%20of%20iron%29%20%2A%20%284%2F3%2Api%2A%285100%20km%29%5E3%20%2A%20%28earth%27s%20core%2C%20density%29%20%2A%20%28%28earth%27s%20core%2C%20temperature%29%20-%20%28boiling%20point%20of%20water%29%29%20%2A0.3%20%2A%20%28price%20of%20electricity%20in%20%24%2FJ%29 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28specific%20heat%20of... Hard coded number sanity check: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%280.44%20J%20%2F%20%28g%20%2A%20K%29%29%20%2A%20%284%2F3%2Api%2A%285100%20km%29%5E3%20%2A%20%2810%20million%20g%20%2F%20m%5E3%29%20%2A%20%286000%20C%20-%20100%20C%29%20%2A0.3%20%2A%20%287.4E-6%20%24%2FJ%29 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%280.44%20J%20%2F%20%28...
- barelyauser 4y ago
  These calculations are always bogus. Once mining starts, the price of iron will plummet. The exact same reason some reserves are seldom explored, as the decline in price will render the effort pointless.
mkl 4y ago
In case you're serious, there isn't thousands of miles of dirt, but just metres to tens of metres. Then there's rock, which we do mine.

vatys 4y ago

If we started mining the earth’s core, it would seem infinite at first. Can we be trusted to only take a little bit and not eventually hollow it out?

cossatot 4y ago
If we took the entire core to the surface (without collapsing the Earth which is impossible) we would cover the Earth with iron and nickel to a depth of hundreds of km.
notfed 4y ago
If at some point we become anywhere advanced enough to do so, surely we could switch to mining other planets/objects.

kelseyfrog 4y ago

Exactly! Plugging this into Wolfram Alpha reveals that Earth's core is worth $3.268×10^19 (US dollars)[1]. For comparison total global wealth is merely US$431T. 1. thirty-two quintillion six hundred eighty quadrillion dollars

willis936 4y ago
I bet it's worth more than that in usable electricity if we ran it through a heat exchanger + steam turbine.
- willis936 4y ago
  Also, I finally got a workable link. Wolfram really fought me on this one and it shows the dimensionality incorrectly, but the number is correct. 32 trillion trillion dollars (3.2E25). So a hundred times more. Of course no market would hold a price when flooded with supply, but I bet our appetite for usable energy is higher than iron. That's a harder crystal ball estimation to quantify though. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28specific%20heat%20of%20iron%29%20%2A%20%284%2F3%2Api%2A%285100%20km%29%5E3%20%2A%20%28earth%27s%20core%2C%20density%29%20%2A%20%28%28earth%27s%20core%2C%20temperature%29%20-%20%28boiling%20point%20of%20water%29%29%20%2A0.3%20%2A%20%28price%20of%20electricity%20in%20%24%2FJ%29 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28specific%20heat%20of... Hard coded number sanity check: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%280.44%20J%20%2F%20%28g%20%2A%20K%29%29%20%2A%20%284%2F3%2Api%2A%285100%20km%29%5E3%20%2A%20%2810%20million%20g%20%2F%20m%5E3%29%20%2A%20%286000%20C%20-%20100%20C%29%20%2A0.3%20%2A%20%287.4E-6%20%24%2FJ%29 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%280.44%20J%20%2F%20%28...
barelyauser 4y ago
These calculations are always bogus. Once mining starts, the price of iron will plummet. The exact same reason some reserves are seldom explored, as the decline in price will render the effort pointless.

mkl 4y ago

In case you're serious, there isn't thousands of miles of dirt, but just metres to tens of metres. Then there's rock, which we do mine.