# Deepest hole **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2000, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841 "2000-01-04T03:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/1 "2000-01-04T03:10:00Z")
What is the deepest hole anyone has ever drilled in the ground and how do we know positively for sure what’s at the center of the earth? Anyone ever been there? Seems like no matter how good we are at predicting what is there, it is still pure speculation isn’t it?..Don’t matter what we think is there… ie molten lava, solid metal or incredible heat…fact is…ain’t know body been there. If we have please set me straight. … “Ward, you’re upsetting the beaver.” Barbara Billingsley ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/2 "2000-01-04T03:17:00Z")
Right here. [http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html](http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html) Peace, mangeorge * * * Wow, 00, I made it! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![coosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@coosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coosa)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/3 "2000-01-04T03:18:00Z")
Boy, don’t any of you people ever read the Weekly World News? The Russians drilled all the way to hell a few years ago - they could hear the cries of the damned rising up through the drill casing! Can’t remember if that was before or after they discovered that a lot of the US Congresspersons were aliens. * * * Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/4 "2000-01-04T03:18:00Z")
There was a book about it, I think. _Journey to the Center of the Earth_ or something like that. That may help answer your questions. ---
**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/5 "2000-01-04T04:30:00Z")
You might want to look into what they’re up to at Lake Vostok in Antarctica. It’s not quite the same thing, since they’re only drilling through a whole bunch of ice instead of into the actual soft and gooey bits of the Earth, but I think it’s more interesting. [http://abcnews.go.com/abc2000/abc2000science/antarctic0326.html](http://abcnews.go.com/abc2000/abc2000science/antarctic0326.html) Basically, they’ve drilled down to a lake covered for millions of years in ice, and have found a bunch of microbial life. And you know how nothing gets scientists going like microbial life… ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/6 "2000-01-04T11:41:00Z")
We can “see” what is in the center of the Earth the same way we can “see” the unborn baby in the womb with a sonogram. When an earthquake occurs or an underground nuclear blast is set off sound waves penetrate the earth and can be measured as they pass through the body of the planet. These waves work just like a sonogram scan of an unborn baby, it gives a crude but useful picture of the structures and composition of the Earth’s interior. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/7 "2000-01-04T17:07:00Z")
I thought that the Russians had drilled somewhere near Finland, and this was considered the deepest drillshaft in the world. * * * “I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/8 "2000-01-05T00:50:00Z")
Grrr… [http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html](http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html) [http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html](http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html) [http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html](http://dogbert.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html) Sheesh Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/9 "2000-01-05T00:57:00Z")
That was a wonderful exercise **mangeorge** , but why? They all ended up at the same place the other one did. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/10 "2000-01-05T03:32:00Z")
Sorry, I just felt like I was being ignored. It’s not often that I get to be 1st with a link that answers the OP’s question. Now I’m embarrassed. 😉 Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/11 "2000-01-05T04:03:00Z")
you done good mangeorge! … “Ward, you’re upsetting the beaver.” Barbara Billingsley ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/12 "2000-01-05T04:37:00Z")
Hey, I went to each link just to make sure you didn’t change something, even though the link said the same thing and the browser said the same thing, I checked anyway. Now I’m embarrassed 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/13 "2000-01-05T19:23:00Z")
FYI - Center of the Earth The lava gives scientists a good hint, too! Along the lines of this discussion, it is worthy to note the question: “What if one were to drill a hole through the earth (along a diameter)?” Well, if one were to jump in said hole, one would oscillate back and forth in a simple harmonic motion-like fashion. Why? Applying Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation, one can show that the law of gravity behaves differently inside the Earth. The pull is weaker and weaker until you pass the center where the pull is zero. Again, the pull increases as you move passed the center. Inside the sphere, it can be shown that the pull between you and the earth is totally cancelled at the center…slightly cancelled when off-center but still below the surface. The math I’ve been shown assumes the earth is a perfect sphere, and I believe it may even assume the earth has to be hollow, too. (Don’t try digging in your backyard just to prove it, now!) * * * I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy - Hawkeye 4077th ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/14 "2000-01-06T00:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, if one were to jump in said hole, one would oscillate back and forth in a simple harmonic motion-like fashion. Why? Applying Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation, one can show that the law of gravity behaves differently inside the Earth. The pull is weaker and weaker until you pass the center where the pull is zero. Again, the pull increases as you move passed the center. > > Inside the sphere, it can be shown that the pull between you and the earth is totally cancelled at the center…slightly cancelled when off-center but still below the surface. > > The math I’ve been shown assumes the earth is a perfect sphere, and I believe it may even assume the earth has to be hollow, too. > > (Don’t try digging in your backyard just to prove it, now!) You are ignoring, of course, the effects of gravity on the atmosphere! As you approached the center of the earth flying through the hole, you would be going through ever thickening atmosphere, and possibly burn up or be stopped due to increasing wind resistance of the thickening atmosphere. * * * **FixedBack** “Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity.”~~_G.K.Chesterton 1908_ ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/15 "2000-01-06T02:35:00Z")
mangeorge, I’ne noted this in the past; you can post a link with the answer to the question, but that doesn’t do the trick when the board is full of **non-clickers**. I think what you need to do is post something like a one sentence summary and then say “to read more about it, **click here** (the bold being a url link).” ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepest-hole/5841/16 "2000-01-06T14:19:00Z")
Well, yes Fixedback, it’s assuming an aweful lot! Besides, the EPA or DoD would get a court order to stop your project just prior to you having the pleasure of jumping in the hole! This is the big thanks you receive for your back-breaking effort! (You’d probably be too tired to jump in if you didn’t already lose interest in the midst of digging, anyway!) * * * I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy - Hawkeye 4077th