Drilling and Digging
But is the Earth actually solid? Most scientists agree it is and is composed of a crust, mantle, outer core and inner core. But there are some that say it only seems solid because there is a small dense star heating the center but there are many hollow areas inside as you head for that center. There have even been rumors stating the ancient Mayans had discovered tunnels that went down into the Earth. This has never been proven but some say some ancient structures that led to the tunnels have blocked them off. At this point this is only speculation but the stories persist. An article in the Harvard Gazette dated September 26, 2002 entitled "New region discovered at Earth's center" discusses a previously unknown sphere that was found to be inside the Earth and has a diameter of about 360 miles. The sphere was found by a Harvard professor and a graduate student who was working with him. Earthquake waves were examined from the previous 30 years, these waves had passed through the center of the planet. "Its origin remains unknown, but its presence could change our basic ideas about the origin and history of the planet." This sphere might be from when the Earth was formed. It’s a mystery region of the Earth. About the deepest anyone or any drill can go into the Earth is about 14km. The reason for this as stated before is both temperature and pressure. The temperature at this point is about 1,000 degrees C, there the pressure is an amazing 1000 atmospheres or 50,000 pounds per square inch. We mentioned a few people believe a sun is at the center of our Earth but most believe Inge Lehmann was right when she said that the Earth had a solid iron core. A new school of thought has arisen and that is, that there may be a core inside the core something like the makeup of a peach pit. There is a speculation that a large asteroid hit the Earth shortly after if formed, causing much of the Earth to melt and that a chunk of Earth might have flown off and made the Moon. There is also the theory at the center of the Earth lies a core of nickel and silicon and inside that, is a small ball of uranium and this is where the heat comes from in the Earth's center. As you can see there are several theories on why the Earth is so hot once you break through the crust. The last theory is very interesting because it would mean the center of the Earth is essentially a nuclear reactor, a reactor that has been burning for billions of years without going out. A NASA Geophysicist working out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California has theorized the Earth's center shifted during an earthquake that caused the tsunami. He also states this caused the Earth to spin 3 microseconds faster and tilted the Earth about an inch on its axis. One huge tectonic plate that is under the Indian Ocean went under another plate. "it had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster," stated the geophysicist. Could this be the reason for the recent weather changes in some parts of the world? Our world is a strange place. We think we understand it's makeup but we keep finding out that we don't know as much about this world as we think. It seems one large event anywhere in the world will cause another somewhere else and that everything is related. The Earth is a fragile place and we have to remember that. Just because the earth has certain attributes when we dig into it doesn’t mean the same would be true for other bodies in space. Scientists are not fully in agreement about the sun. Some believe it had a solid core when it formed but others do not agree with this estimation. If the sun was not constructed the way it was you might be able theoretically to drill into it, but the way things stand now most scientists believe there is nothing solid on the sun. On the other hand, some people believe the moon is the ideal place to drill right to the center. There are those however who think there is heat inside the moon which would stop I drilling operation at a certain point. No one seems to be mentioning the fact when we crashed a test rocket into the moon it proved it was hollow. How big the hollow spot is I wouldn’t know but it is said the moon rang like a bell for over an hour. One thing we can be sure of is when we go to new planets we surely will be drilling at some point. It might be for water or for other reasons, but drill we will. We have been drilling on Mars for years, but we don’t go down very deep. When we drill or dig on earth there are certain consequences such as releasing material which is holding the land at a certain level and when this material is removed the land sinks and if it is near the ocean, or the water table is very high, the land could go underwater which has happened at some ancient sites. We should first think of the consequences of our actions before drilling or digging very deep holes into our planet. It might turn out the consequences might be so severe they would out way the rewards.
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