# Could I drain the center of the Earth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737 "2008-07-08T19:25:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737/21 "2011-12-19T23:39:10Z")
> [@MstrPBK](#): > > My question is sort of the reverse; and it is intended to be quite serious.. > > One has a block of carbon; It passes through the upper crust of the Earth … > IT becomes a diamond … It keeps sinking … > I know that magma will not melt a diamond … I do know that the Earths Core probably has the temperature to melt it. > > **My question is thus** : Is there any evidence that a block of carbon COULD go from surface to Core and back to the surface again? The Temperature of the core is nearly 10,000°F. This is far above the melting point of Carbon, so, no. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737/22 "2011-12-20T00:09:13Z")
Also, diamond is a lot less dense than magma, so it would float rather than sink. Also, if a human being fell into a lake of lava, they wouldn’t sink either, since humans are less dense than lava. You’d float well above the surface, at least until you get turned into mostly CO2 and H2O. Lava is a lot denser than water, so objects in lava don’t react the way we expect. Also note that there have been [flood basalts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_basalt) in the past where vast areas are covered with lava that just poured out of the earth. The Siberian Traps covered over a million square kilometers. However, all that lava didn’t pour out at once, it probably took hundreds of thousands of years to cover that area. Nobody’s really sure what causes these, aliens with super-magical bulldozers is a new hypothesis. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737/23 "2011-12-20T13:04:52Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > As you go deeper within the earth, everything is under a tremendous amount of pressure. If you drilled into it and the hole didn’t fill in, wouldn’t all that pressure squeeze stuff up through the hole? > > A volcano, the closest thing we really have for an example, doesn’t go anywhere near as deep as we are talking here. A volcano is just a hole in the crust created when a bubble of magma makes it’s way up through convection. A volcano would be somewhat like watching a bubble make it’s way up a glass of water. Once it gets to the top, it bursts. > > What we are talking about would be more like sticking a straw into a juice box, but our juice box is being squeezed really really hard. > > Uh.. right? Barring things like impacting continental plates, most of that “squeeze” below the surface of the earth just comes from all the weight of the stuff directly above it. So your juice box analogy is fine, but there’s no external squeeze. The only thing providing pressure is the weight of the juice. If you insert a straw in the juice box , even though there’s pressure at the bottom, its only enough to push juice in the straw back up to the level of the rest of the juice (Funny how that works). ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737/24 "2011-12-20T14:59:37Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > The Temperature of the core is nearly 10,000°F. This is far above the melting point of Carbon, so, no. Depends on the pressure, too, don’t forget. It’s possible for planets to have diamond cores with temperatures far in excess of 10k °F. Just requires a considerable amount of pressure. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737/25 "2011-12-21T11:17:55Z")
The Daleks tried it in the [22nd century](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dalek_Invasion_of_Earth), didn’t work out too well for them. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737/26 "2011-12-22T14:50:44Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > You failed to notice that the OP proposed using a “super-duper, magic machine.” I saw one in the Acme store recently, and I do believe it could get the job done. Sure, but assuming my penis is not available, how _else_ would you accomplish this? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737/27 "2011-12-23T13:55:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Could I drain the center of the Earth? WARNING! Do not attempt to drain the center of the earth! The drilling machine you use would be destroyed, as would the planet itself. Any data collected from the experiment would be lost. And who would be crazy enough to fund you? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drain-the-center-of-the-earth/455737.md?page=1)