The farthest mankind has been able to drill down into the earth is 40,230 feet or 7.6 miles. This was the Kola Superdeep Borehole on the Kola Peninsula, Russia. That is the furthest we’ve been able to drill. Drill bits begin to melt because the earth gets hotter as you get closer to the mantle and the core – but 7.6 miles? That’s barely into Earth’s mantle and once you pass through the crust on which we live, things get more complex. And you’d still have another 3,952 miles to go before you reached the center of the Earth.
If you reduced the size of Earth to a beachball and then dipped it in lacquer, the thin lacquer coating would represent the thickness of the crust. And that includes Mount Everest down to the bottoms of the deepest oceans (about 7 miles), all in that lacquer coating, just to provide some scale to visualize how thin our crust really is.
All the oil wells we’ve ever dug, all the coal we’ve ever mined or the natural gas deposits we’ve searched for lie embedded in the Earth’s crust.
We all learned in grammar school that our planet has a crust, mantle and core. Believe it or not, the core’s temperature at its center reaches “10,800 degrees fahrenheit – as hot as the surface of the sun”, according to National Geographic. It is composed of 85% iron and 15% nickel that swirls around like a soupy mix. And this is highly radioactive which produces two things – more internal heat that radiates outward, thus warming our planet; and electromagnetism which produces the planet’s magnetic field so that airline pilots and birds can more accurately navigate the globe.
The mantle, in between the core and the crust, is the largest section: it represents 84% of the planet’s volume and 68% of its mass. The core is much smaller but because of the intense pressure and its composition of the heavy elements iron and nickel, it represents only 15% of Earth’s volume but a disproportionate 31% of the weight, according to lumenlearning.com/geophysical. That leaves the crust where we reside:
Volume Mass
Core 15% 31%
Mantle 84 68
Crust 1 1
Total 100 100
That is why I am concerned about global warming. As we raise the temperature of the planet through the exhaust, fumes and gases we produce get trapped in our atmosphere, something’s got to give.
The ozone hole that worried scientists back in the mid-20th century appears to have gotten smaller as Mother Earth tries to repair damages from our relentless progress. One day, will the entire atmosphere become so damaged that it sloughs off into deep space? What then? No oxygen to breathe, no carbon dioxide for trees and plants to produce new oxygen.
An Earth is a delicate balance and many natural processes occurred to shape and reshape the planet as it is today. But those took place gradually over the millennia. And now we are throwing too much change at it. I am 100% for progress and I love driving my car so I am not suggesting we ban automobiles and trucks. But why is everyone so angry when we talk about helping our planet? Anyone who owns a house knows you need to take care of it, make some repairs, insulate it from the elements. The same goes for the house we all live on. It shouldn’t be a battle or an argument to make some repairs or make some adjustments to how we damage the planet and its atmosphere.
You look at the photographs taken from space of the Earth hanging all alone in its orbit around the Sun and it is amazing to see how delicate and beautiful it is. It’s gorgeous! Our treatment of it is not. Every citizen on Earth, every politician should agree. We don’t need to assess blame and point fingers. That’s over. Let’s just improve our manufacturing and other processes and get it done. It’s the biggest infrastructure improvement we can ever make.
And it creates new jobs and new industries. Ford has already announced it wants to hire and train 11,000 displaced coal miners to man the new Electric Vehicle manufacturing plants they are building in a new deal announced with the governments of Tennessee and Kentucky. That’s a win-win. Coal is just never going to be in high demand again. If you are a former coal miner, Ford is calling your number, get on the bandwagon; Bill Ford is providing you a huge gift.
Tons of jobs are being created in alternate energy fields. Those new fields and industries are also creating tons of opportunities for all sorts of contractors, many of whom plan on making a fortune by staying abreast of the trends. Anyone who feels trapped in an “old line” industry has never had more opportunity to retrain and become adept at emerging companies, industries and services. States are providing free programs designed to help their citizens train for the changing economy. It makes sense: a citizen who is employed pays a lot more in state taxes than an unemployed citizen. Another win-win.
Chris Ebel
10/14/21
Image credit: @digitalemu