Is it possible to tunnel to the centre of the earth?

[Ayahuasca]

Get a Channel Tunnel boring machine, point it downwards and send it off...

Imagine the benefits of a tunnel drilled all the way through - unlimited free energy from the earth's molten iron core and unlimited free molten iron.

What's stopping us?

[thegman]

Reality

[ewenm]

Lots of molten rock - difficult to drill through a liquid even if it doesn't melt the drill. Apart from that, nothing

[st_files]

Erm, I'm no geophysicist but I'm guessing, nature?

[DrTre]

We'd fly around the solar system like a burst balloon, like, dur.

ETA although the farting noise would be funny

Edited by DrTre on Tuesday 22 December 13:41

[Neil H]

Extreme temperatures.

[HOGEPH]

The trains would never run.

[esselte]

ewenm said:

Lots of molten rock - difficult to drill through a liquid even if it doesn't melt the drill. Apart from that, nothing

You don't need to drill through it,just tap it...? All that free heat/power...maybe.

[lawrence567]

How close could you get?
& how far down would that be?

[ewenm]

Aren't some deep mines uncomfortably hot for the miners and that's not even near the bottom of the crust!

[Ayahuasca]

It could be the new North Sea oil. We could even start the tunnel from Scotland (just in case, you know, it all goes horribly wrong)

[BoRED S2upid]

lawrence567 said:

How close could you get?
& how far down would that be?

Not far. Thermal springs are tapped for their natural heat all over the world. All depends how thick the crust is.

[Rollcage]

Ayahuasca said:

Get a Channel Tunnel boring machine, point it downwards and send it off...

Imagine the benefits of a tunnel drilled all the way through - unlimited free energy from the earth's molten iron core and unlimited free molten iron.

What's stopping us?

The same reasons we generally choose not to stand on the rims of erupting volcanos, I would imagine!

[f-fuxake]

All the Ozzies would sneak in at night!

[jerwatt]

BoRED S2upid said:

lawrence567 said:

How close could you get?
& how far down would that be?

Not far. Thermal springs are tapped for their natural heat all over the world. All depends how thick the crust is.

Average is 37km. Generally the thickest crust is maybe a few hundred km thick, under cratons.

[Ayahuasca]

How far would we get?

[esselte]

Rollcage said:

Ayahuasca said:

Get a Channel Tunnel boring machine, point it downwards and send it off...

Imagine the benefits of a tunnel drilled all the way through - unlimited free energy from the earth's molten iron core and unlimited free molten iron.

What's stopping us?

The same reasons we generally choose not to stand on the rims of erupting volcanos, I would imagine!

But if you built the bore then you could build mechanisms to control it...couldn't you? After all we control molten metals in foundries etc..

[Ayahuasca]

Apart from heat, what about air pressure - or could we develop valves to keep this manageable?

[_rubinho_]

f-fuxake said:

All the Ozzies would sneak in at night!

But then we'd never be short of bar staff and lifeguards!

[BoRED S2upid]

Ayahuasca said:

How far would we get?

Whos we? The collective might of PH's? probably get to the nearest bar.

Some of the worlds best engineers... Few KM's.