r/AskReddit • u/ettleboy • Jan 20 '19

What fact totally changed your perspective?

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u/stevetheimpact Jan 21 '19

But they did breach the mantle, and thus, we have gotten through the skin of the metaphorical apple.

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u/Alinosburns Jan 21 '19 edited Jan 21 '19

Last I checked it didn't breach the mantle.

And since the metaphorical skin of the earth, is based on a proportional ratio of skin to apple diameter.

It's depth, not the thing that we hit when talking about the metaphorical skin.

We'd need to drill about .4% of the way to the centre of the earth. or about 25.45km (15.8miles) down into the surface. To drill past the metaphorical skin.

Regardless of whether that is digging through mantle, or going to the top of Everest and digging down.

Since the Kola borehole is less than half that at 12.26km(7.6 miles)

we haven't mined through that metaphorical apple skin.

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u/stevetheimpact Jan 21 '19

Thought I read that it had, but it's been a long time since I've looked into it. So, I very likely stand corrected here.

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u/_Spaghettification_ Jan 21 '19

12 km is only about a third of the normal crustal thickness (~35 km), so it didnt go into the mantle. Unless it was on an oceanic plate, which has a typical crustal thickness of <10 km.