Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2015 April 25

= April 25 =

Drilling holes and magma
If you drill into the Earth deep enough, will you eventually hit magma? Will this work anywhere on the planet? Malamockq (talk) 18:43, 25 April 2015 (UTC)


 * One issue is that if you drill toward very hot material, the drill bit stops working - see Kola Superdeep Borehole. Another issue is that rock in the mantle (geology) is not really liquid but "plastic" in nature, and only becomes magma when it moves up enough for the pressure on it to be relieved.  In theory, an open borehole would relieve the pressure, so does that make it magma?  But you couldn't make an open borehole because the "plastic" rock would push in on it too much to keep it open, I think. (ought to research that further)  But if you use "your mind's eye" to scout for "true liquid" under the ground, then there's nothing guaranteed short of the outer core, which is molten iron and hence not really magma either. Wnt (talk) 18:55, 25 April 2015 (UTC)


 * If you could drill such a hole, then the magma would cool, thicken, slow, and finally solidify, as it rose through cooler surrounding rock, so I don't think you'd get a volcano, if that's what you meant. A volcano requires a large magma chamber close to the surface, from which it can then erupt. StuRat (talk) 19:07, 25 April 2015 (UTC)


 * A practical method is described here. Count Iblis (talk) 19:39, 25 April 2015 (UTC)


 * See previous discussion that discussed the challenges of drilling into shallow magma chambers beneath volcanoes. Mikenorton (talk) 21:39, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

Soooo, the answers to the actual questions are yes and yes, in case that wasn't obvious from the above verbiage. I am assuming what the OP really wants to know is is there molten rock under us no matter where we are on earth. See Magma (magma comes from the mantle or crust of earth). Richard-of-Earth (talk) 20:22, 26 April 2015 (UTC)