# how far down do you own your land? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 28, 2000, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914 "2000-09-28T19:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2000, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/21 "2000-09-29T13:14:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Engineer Don \* > \*\*Where would you put the dirt? Even if you only went a small portion of the way into the earth, maybe 10% of the radius, the amount of dirt would be phenomonal. You would have to own a huge portion of the continental U.S. to put the dirt on and keep digging. \*\* ``` Don? <Grin City> Of course, one would simply deposit the aforementioned dirt in the airspace above one's hole...... Cartooniverse ``` ---
**Author:** ![Skribbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Skribbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skribbler)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2000, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/22 "2000-09-29T14:48:14Z")
**Who cares where the 'dig thru to China** started? We all know it’s a euphemism. Kind of like ‘kicking someone’s butt up around their shoulders’ is just a bit impossible. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/23 "2000-09-29T17:06:53Z")
If you own a 10,000 square foot lot, that corresponds to a volume of roughly 2 cubic kilometers. Have you thought about how much the metals in that much volume of the Earth is worth? Not to mention any gems that may be there. Many times the price you paid for your house, I’ll bet. Talk about a windfall profit. Imagine the taxes you owe! Why don’t you just hang a big “Come take my house and land, IRS” sign in your front window? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2000, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/24 "2000-09-29T17:38:43Z")
Ah, but the IRS can’t take your land if you’ve dug it all up and hidden it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2000, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/25 "2000-09-29T17:55:45Z")
If I go around and take a thousand dollars from a hundred people and give it to someone else, it doesn’t increase spending and wealth because, of course, the people from whom I take the cash would have spent it on other things. So the net effect is nil. And, of course, a rule of economics is, the more you subsidize something (in this case, poverty) the more of it you’ll have. You might make penury so attractive that people will quit their jobs, hoping to get the free cash instead of working for it like a chump, and then our economy will suffer more. ---
**Author:** ![honkytonkwillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@honkytonkwillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/honkytonkwillie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2000, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/26 "2000-09-30T01:32:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*If I am sitting in my yard and suddenly see the earth is moving I’ll assume it’s a mole and I’ll give him a dose of lead with my 12 gauge. Now, if it turns out it was some Chinese guy who had dug his way here from China, could I be sued for manslaughter? Or would the guy just fall back into the hole all the way to China? Is it OK if I keep his shovel? Would I have to pay him if I wanted to use his tunnel to visit China? Where do I go through customs? How much wine can I bring? \*\* If you happen to live in Texas, you are allowed to use lethal force to protect life _and_ property. And it wouldn’t hurt either to say “I was fearing for my life! I thought I was gonna die!” to the authorities and all the other witnesses. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/27 "2000-09-30T05:20:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yabob \* > I believe there have been some legal cases concerning oil wells drilled at a slant into fields not under the land the well sat on. IIRC, this was one justification Saddam Hussein used for invading Kuwait (and is still using to justify his periodic escalations of tensions). He says that Kuwait doesn’t really have any oil, and that the rich Kuwaiti oil wells actually sit in Kuwait, but are drilled diagonally so that they pull their oil from underneath Iraq. He doesn’t seem to realize that this makes him sound even _more_ whacked out of his gourd. . . ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2000, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/28 "2000-09-30T12:52:25Z")
> [@](#): > > He doesn’t seem to realize that this makes him sound even more whacked out of his gourd. . . I wouldn’t say that. I’ve heard of the concept of slant drilling before, and yeah, it’s dishonest as hell. I don’t think Iraq’s claims are true, but if they were, I’d go so far as to say that Iraq had a legitimate reason to invade Kuwait. Of course, the rest of the world wouldn’t have helped Kuwait if Iraq’s claims were ture, we’d have just made a few token speeches about human rights and then proptly forgot that Kuwait ever existed. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2000, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914/29 "2000-09-30T14:04:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Check the fine print on your deed. Alot of snakes put “seller retains all mineral rights”. It’s really not a matter of “snakes” ripping off the sheep; if you buy land and want to include the mineral rights, you buy the mineral rights as well. It’ll cost more, or, alternatively, if you don’t foresee yourself pursuing exploitation of mineral resources, you can get the land at less cost without the mineral rights. > [@](#): > > I’ve heard of the concept of slant drilling before, and yeah, it’s dishonest as hell. I know **Diceman** meant it’s dishonest _if you don’t have the mineral rights_. Slant, or directional, drilling is quite common - we’re drilling such a well now that would have required a location in a wetlands area to drill vertically. Offshore wells nowadays are probably more often directionally drilled than not. Part of Saddam’s noise about Kuwait included claims (hardly justifying his actions) that the Rumaylah oil field on the Iraq-Kuwait border was being unfairly exploited by Kuwait. Note that it doesn’t require any directional drilling for disputes to arise over stewardship of a reservoir where there’s more than one operator involved. Think about poppin’ a couple of straws in a milkshake and sharing it with your big sister - whoever sucks the hardest and fastest gets the most (and there I was, blowin’ bubbles). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-down-do-you-own-your-land/34914.md?page=1)