if you drilled a hole through the center of the earth from a land mass to the ocean what would happen?

Question

this is assuming the earth isnt filled with magma.

Answer 1

The ocean would technically drain towards the center of the Earth through the hole, and it would sit in the core with as much volume occupies it. The water would oscillate back and forth between one side of the Earth and the other before resting in the middle.

Answer 2

Good question. Let's say you drilled all but the last foot, then removed all your drilling equipment and removed the last foot with an explosive charge. You then have a pipe with a large reservoir of water at high pressure at one end. Standard fluid dynamics calculations let you calculate the flow rate, given the pressure difference and the pipe diameter and length. Water would begin to flow rapidly from the ocean into the whole, probably generating a whirlpool. Once the column of water passes the center of the earth, the pressure starts increasing as you push the column up. Inertia would cause this column to keep moving once it reached the surface, and it would squirt out for an hour or so. Not as spectacular as a geyser, since steam isn't propelling it. Eventually it would settle down to sea level, and would move up and down according to tidal forces. If the land was below sea level, you'd have a tidal lake whose rise and fall was limited by the capacity of the pipe. If the land was above sea level, then the level of water in the well would just rise and fall.

By drilling the well, you moved dense material away from the center of the earth and replaced it with less dense material. Gary is incorrect, you would actually increase the rotational moment of the earth and lengthen the day.

Answer 3

I'd have a well with ocean water at sea level elevation in it. Or I'd have a salt water lake if the well was drilled from a valley below sea level.

The more interesting question is, what happens if the sea water in the hole is subjected to the high temperatures for most of the hole's length? Water would be converted to superheated steam long before it reached the core, but since it still has mass as well as pressure, it could nevertheless fill the hole, and we'd have a continuous emission of steam from the dry land hole. It's analogous to how a rocket works, the pressure being maintained by hydraulic pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

Answer 4

Purely hypothetical question. Yet interesting. But how would you drill such a hole through a depth of 8000 miles.No body has conceived of constructing such a machine. Our existing machines go to the depth of utmost 1 or two miles. or 10000ft. Here we need to go up to 5280*8000 ft. First problem ocean's water will start filling this hole? What would happen to the marine creatures? Lot of new rocks will get uncovered. One interesting point to note what would happen if a stone falls in to this hole? It will do simple harmonic motion in the hole and never come out. The Earth's gravity will be force which is always directed towards center which causes this motion.

Answer 5

The hole would fill with water.

It would not oscillate.

It would not flood out at the other end.

This is because the forces on the water would reach a balance. It is not the same as say dropping a stone into the hole, which would whizz to the other side then back and oscillate - water is a fluid and once it reached the other side, it would find there was more water behind it to stop it flowing back.

Answer 6

The mass of the earth's oceans would descend into the hole and go closer to the center of the earth which would cause an INCREASE in the rotation rate of the earth....(due to conservation of angular momentum)...

IOW, the earth's rotation would speed up......IOW, the day would be shortened.

Answer 7

Wrong assumption. It is filled with magma.

Answer 8

you would have constructed a spring (Gravity)fed river

Answer 9

You can't so why worry about it ?

Answer 10

hmmm,do you have plumbing where you live?