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fox-mcleod t1_j6ew9lr wrote

Reply to comment by r2k-in-the-vortex in Eli5....can you dig a well anywhere and hit water...and how did the early ranchers in the West know where to dig for water. Especially in the really dry areas? by pinkshrinkrn

And if you do hit bedrock, just keep going. Almost all landmass is opposite an ocean on the other side. There’s only something like 1000 square kilometers of land overlapping with land on the other side of the earth.

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notsowisemonk t1_j6futpu wrote

No, don’t dig after bedrock or you’ll fall under the map brainiac

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BSixe t1_j6g2xhd wrote

“Brainiac” haha haven’t heard that in forever I love it

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Unkindlake t1_j6gia6s wrote

And if you dig deep enough you can jump in the hole and the momentum will carry you into the air in China, then you fall back though over and over again until someone slides a trampoline over the hole when you pop out

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yoshhash t1_j6i8nbw wrote

Technically you would not pop out the other end. You would have just enough momentum to barely reach that point, even less due to air resistance, so you would need something to grab you out.

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milkytrizzle93 t1_j6eyid8 wrote

You realise that Earth's oceans simply sit on top of the planet? The whole planet isn't made of water with land floating on top of it. If you dig down through the earth, unless you're on top of a cave system or underground reservoir you will keep digging through solid material until you reach the mantle. At that point you would be long dead from heat exposure from the core of the planet which is a molten hot compressed ball of iron

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fox-mcleod t1_j6eyqd0 wrote

> You realise that Earth's oceans simply sit on top of the planet? The whole planet isn't made of water with land floating on top of it.

Yes? Maybe you don’t get what I’m saying.

> If you dig down through the earth, unless you're on top of a cave system or underground reservoir you will keep digging through solid material until you reach the mantle.

And then? What will happen if you keep going?

> At that point you would be long dead from heat exposure from the core of the planet which is a molten hot compressed ball of iron

Lol. Yeah. This is an r/whoosh

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milkytrizzle93 t1_j6eyxdr wrote

I'm autistic, I heavily rely on the /s lol

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Kind_Profession4988 t1_j6fqqx3 wrote

FYI, I'm not autistic and typically have a pretty dry sense of humor, and I still had no clue that was a joke.

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SGrumpy t1_j6hws5y wrote

If your sense of humour is that dry, maybe you should keep digging for water.

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fox-mcleod t1_j6ezqm4 wrote

Ah I see!

Well that makes sense. Yes, I was saying this “tongue in cheek” — stating the amusing fact that almost all of the earth’s land is opposite an ocean while making light of the humorous idea of digging a well through the entirety of the earth’s crust.

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legendofthegreendude t1_j6f2n65 wrote

You got to admit, that would be one hell of a well if you pulled it off

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milkytrizzle93 t1_j6fbute wrote

You'd definitely be well supplied with water

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n1nj4zftw t1_j6fe7b2 wrote

Well done.

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big_sugi t1_j6fj0pv wrote

After that geothermal energy cooks you, you’d definitely be well done

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Bowlboy1914 t1_j6fmcbl wrote

You guys are really driving this thing into the dirt, its getting boring. Oh well.

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CyberneticPanda t1_j6glvc2 wrote

The guy you are responding to is joking, but the whole planet is kind of made of water with land floating on it. It's not just water though; it's rock that is saturated with water. There is a lot of water in the crust, then the upper mantle is pretty dry, but 400 km deep there is a lot of water, possibly more than in all the oceans combined. It's the boundary between the outer mantle and the inner mantle. That transition zone is about 7% of the Earth's mass and probably between 1 and 3% of it is water. That puts it at 1.5 to 4.5 times as much water as there is in the crust.

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Maximum-Mixture6158 t1_j6gs965 wrote

That just up and stops periodically, like last week. Stanley Tucci to the rescue!

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Saint_D420 t1_j6eywy0 wrote

I’m from rural country land and everyone’s has well water there, pretty rare your in an area where you can’t hit water

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Roobar76 t1_j6g4tb9 wrote

There’s a bit of confirmation bias there. Rural areas developed where there was water and didn’t where there wasn’t. So where there is a long farming history there is generally surface or ground water, and the bits that ended up in national parks/reserves it’s either deeper or not there.

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CyberneticPanda t1_j6gm8w7 wrote

Not really true. In the 19th century people in Congress believe that" rain followed the plow" and God would bring rain to the west if people turned it into farms. They let people homestead places like Arizona and it went terribly for the homesteaders. Later they spent lots of money on water projects to bring water to the places that needed it. But by that time the holdings have been consolidated and the homesteaders who survived had sold their holdings for next to nothing.

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milkytrizzle93 t1_j6ez51e wrote

The comment I replied to was (jokingly) insinuating you could take water from the ocean on the other side of the planet. I understand ground water is plentiful

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JDTexas84 t1_j6g2td3 wrote

The deepest anyone has ever been able to dig is about 8 miles. Every team that has tried has hit an impenetrable barrier keeping them from digging beyond this.

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blanchasaur t1_j6g7k5u wrote

It's not so much an impenetrable barrier but it just gets way too hot down that far. The rock starts acting more like a liquid at higher temperatures and fills in the hole. The drill breaks down faster too.

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ManyCarrots t1_j6h0vck wrote

Please tell me you dont actually think there is an impenetrable barrier

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