Drilling to the core of our planet

[Jorge Rios]

An international group of scientists say they plan to be the first group to drill successfully into the Earth's mantle, the planet's interior, which lies just beneath the outer crust.

Drilling into the core of our planet, raises the question, could the core be the heart? certainly and by logic is in the center of our planet, the element that keeps earth together,

What do you think it will happen if they reach the center, and for sure, will be to exploit further our planet. Do You agree on such research, or believe to be a big mistake! 

[bison]

Welcome to the forum, Jorge Rios.

They propose to penetrate down about 11 kilometers, in all, through 4 km of ocean depths, 6 km through the Earth's crust, and a kilometer, or so into the mantle. It's about 6400 kilometers to the center of the Earth, so they won't come anywhere near that, nor even the outer parts of the Earth's core, which is some 2900 km deep. 

I very much doubt that any harm will come of this project. They'll very probably learn some new things about the Earth in the process.

Please find a link, below, to an article on this project, with further details:

https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/asia/japan-drill-mantle/index.html 

Edited May 30, 2018 by bison
added information

[Kenemet]

The mantle is only a thin crust on top of the Earth.  

A good way to imagine it is to think of the thin layer of chocolate on a dip ice cream cone.  The mantle's about that thick.  The core would be at the bottom of the ice cream cone.

Also... the size of the well compared to the Earth is about the size of a pore on your own skin (or a grain of salt compared to Mount Everest.  The drill bore isn't even as large around as a human.  https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070721080542AAS0tcA

[Likely Guy]

So, this is just Jules Verne stuff.

[+Hammerclaw]

[moonman]

Even if they could get to the center of the planet (which is NOT happening anytime soon), what's to exploit? Anything we could take from it would be like taking a grain of sand out of a bucket full of it. 

[psyche101]

Much deeper then Kola then. 

[toast]

8 hours ago, Jorge Rios said:

An international group of scientists say they plan to be the first group to drill successfully into the Earth's mantle, the planet's interior, which lies just beneath the outer crust.

It seems that you have misunderstood the projects`s target, which is to reach the mantle but not the core.

Quote

What do you think it will happen if they reach the center, and for sure, will be to exploit further our planet. Do You agree on such research, or believe to be a big mistake! 

There is no such research and there will not be such research, by scientists, so there is nothing to agree on or to disagree with. 

[Old Ugh]

As a matter of interest, is gravity stronger the further we drill down?

For example do miners at the bottom of deep mine workings weigh a bit more than the rest of us on the surface?

[DarkHunter]

6 minutes ago, Old Ugh said:

As a matter of interest, is gravity stronger the further we drill down?

For example do miners at the bottom of deep mine workings weigh a bit more than the rest of us on the surface?

The deeper you go down the less force do to gravity you feel and at the dead center of the planet you wouldn't feel any.  

Basically gravitational force is the attraction two masses feel towards each other, the deeper you go the less mass pulling you down and the more forces pulling up and to the sides.  In the dead center all of the forces pulling it all directions would cancel out causing you to feel no force.  That is assuming uniform density which isn't realistic so you would probably have a slight pull to areas of higher density, assuming at the dead center of the planet, but it would be so minor it might not even be detectable with modern scientific instruments.

[Emma_Acid]

On 07/06/2018 at 7:13 PM, DarkHunter said:

The deeper you go down the less force do to gravity you feel and at the dead center of the planet you wouldn't feel any.  

Basically gravitational force is the attraction two masses feel towards each other, the deeper you go the less mass pulling you down and the more forces pulling up and to the sides.  In the dead center all of the forces pulling it all directions would cancel out causing you to feel no force.  That is assuming uniform density which isn't realistic so you would probably have a slight pull to areas of higher density, assuming at the dead center of the planet, but it would be so minor it might not even be detectable with modern scientific instruments.

This is correct. However, the pressure and temperature would be crushing at that depth.

[Wes83]

Pressure is what first came to my mind, drilling into high pressure areas couldnt cause any problems? Explosions, eruptions, lava displacement, etc? I dont know, just curious.

I think its amazing we have so many various combustibles naturally occurring all over the place, yet here we are. Lets poke a stick in it.

[+Not A Rockstar]

I think it would be a good thing if we used this sort of effort to make more geothermal power plants and start moving away from nuclear. I'd think there would be plenty of heat for it and not that terribly far down either.

[Nnicolette]

On 6/7/2018 at 11:00 AM, Old Ugh said:

As a matter of interest, is gravity stronger the further we drill down?

For example do miners at the bottom of deep mine workings weigh a bit more than the rest of us on the surface?

Yes. There is already some variation based on your location and elevation so there would have to be.

[danydandan]

On 7/6/2018 at 7:00 PM, Old Ugh said:

As a matter of interest, is gravity stronger the further we drill down?

For example do miners at the bottom of deep mine workings weigh a bit more than the rest of us on the surface?

Depends on what gravitional effect your asking about. There is a gravitional net force and a gravitional well, type of force but not really.

If you take the net force, you need to look at Newton's Shell Therom which, without being long winded, shows at the centre of a sphere you feel no gravitional effect because your being pulled in each direction exactly the same amount. But this Therom is done using constant density which isn't true in real life, but the outcome kinda remains the same. So in Newton's world gravitional effect at the centre is null and increases as one moves out from that centre.

When you look at it from Einsteins world, or a gravitional well then the effect is that yes gravitional effect will be stronger at the centre. Basically at the centre the gravitional well is at maximum depth, this means at the centre clocks move slower than they do on the surface. It's fun to think that the centre of the Earth has experienced less time than the surface.

So your answer is yes and no. Typical science eh.

[qxcontinuum]

It's a mistake that can cause catastrophic events sinkholes that end up swallowing a continent or absorbe all the water from the surface of the earth. 

Edited June 13, 2018 by qxcontinuum