⛏️ How long would it take to dig a tunnel through the center of the Earth?
How long would it take to dig a tunnel through the center of the Earth?
About 1,200 years with a shovel
1,200 years
📐 The Calculation
Earth's diameter is 7,918 miles (12,742 km). An experienced digger can excavate about 1 cubic meter per hour in soft soil. The tunnel (1m × 1m) through solid rock would require drilling at perhaps 6 inches per hour through granite. At that rate: 12,742,000 meters / 0.15 meters per hour = 84.9 million hours = 9,700 years. With modern tunnel boring machines (15m/day): about 2.3 years — ignoring the 10,000°F core.
Assumptions:
- • Earth diameter: 7,918 miles
- • Manual digging in rock: ~6 inches/hour
- • Ignoring the molten iron core at 10,000°F
- • Ignoring pressure that would crush any known material
🤯 For Perspective...
The Great Wall of China took about 2,000 years to build
Longer than the entire Medieval period
The Kola Superdeep Borehole took 20 years for just 7.6 miles
💡 Fun Facts
The deepest hole ever dug (Kola Superdeep Borehole) took 20 years and only reached 7.6 miles — 0.1% of the way through
The pressure at Earth's center is 3.6 million atmospheres
If you dropped a ball through the tunnel, it would take 42 minutes to fall through (gravity oscillation)
⚙️ What If Calculator
What if you could go faster?
At 2× speed
600 years
At 10× speed
120 years
At 1000× speed
1 years
More Absurd Calculations
How long would it take to walk to the Moon?
About 9 years of non-stop walking
How long would it take to count to one million out loud?
About 11.5 days of non-stop counting
How long would it take to count to one billion out loud?
About 31 years of non-stop counting
How long would it take to fill an Olympic swimming pool with tears?
About 7.6 million years of continuous crying
How long would it take to read every book ever published?
About 480,000 years at average reading speed
How long would it take to drive to the Sun?
About 177 years at highway speed