Would anything happen to the Earth if you drill a hole through it?

Question

If you could drill a hole lets say 10 feet in diameter through the Earth from North Pole to South Pole would anything happen to the planet etc? If you dropped a brick into it would it come out the other side? I know it is impossible, but I was just thinking what would happen if you could?

Answer 1

Most of the Earth is liquid or semi-solid molten material, so it would fill in the hole pretty quickly. Some of it would flow up the hole into the crust, but it would solidify into a plug, blocking the hole.

Assuming you could keep the hole open right the way through, if you dropped a brick into it it would fall down to the centre and keep going. After it passed the centre it would decelerate, eventually come to a stop, and fall back again. It would probably hit the side a few times, because the Earth is rotating around it, so the direction of the hole would be changing. It would oscillate around the centre of the Earth until air resistance and collisions with the sides finally stopped it, then it would sit suspended at the centre of the Earth.

If there was no air in the hole and you could stop it hitting the sides, then your brick would oscillate for ever. Every so often it would appear at one end of the hole or the other, then start falling back again.

Answer 2

This is an interesting Q. Of course it would be impossible to do this using current technology. The Earth's core is very dense, and for the last few 1000 kilometres you would be drilling uphill, unless you drilled the hole from either side. If you dropped a brick down the hole, it would fall to the centre of the Earth, and then overshoot, it would yo yo up and down for a while, and finally be suspended at the centre of the Earth because that is where gravity originates. Some people might say that drilling though the Earth's crust would create a volcano. This is not necessarily true. Must of the mantle of the Earth is made of very viscous magma, and would not flow easily to the surface, although it would be very hot.

Answer 3

No! We are still here!

Answer 4

the brick wouldn't make it .... so throw it down instead!

To make it easier to get all the way through, start from North Pole on about Feb 20th.

That is end of winter in north when the ice has built up the most, and end  of summer in South when ice is packed most in South, so it would be a bit more like throwing from the top os a cliff to a valley on the other side.

PS. Would you rather be on the throwing end or the catching end?

Answer 5

Nothing would happen the hole would close itself and that would be the end of it. Nothing would come out if you dropped it in. the Gravity would cause a damping effect that would eventually settle the object at the center.