Is The Earth Really Hollow?

By | April 13, 2019

test article image
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008). Source: (youtube.com)

At some point during grade school, most likely elementary school, students are taught that the earth is made up of four layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. The crust is the part we live on and consists of dirt and rock. The mantle is part solid rock and part liquid. The outer core is liquid metal and the inner core is iron and nickel. Students are taught this and most of them accept it, even though no one has ever actually seen any of these layers except for the crust. But, throughout history, there have been people - scientists even - who were convinced that the earth is actually hollow.

Not only did they believe it is hollow, but they believed it to be inhabited. The ancient Greeks believed it to be the location of the Underworld, where the souls of the dead spent eternity. Similarly, while the Christian bible does not specify the location of hell, it is often referred to as “down there” indicating that it is far beneath our feet. There was enough association with this idea for several news networks to spread the hoax that the 1970 drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest borehole in the world at over seven miles deep, had ceased after microphones picked up the sound of human screams coming from the center of the earth.

test article image
The underworld from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Source: (riordan.wikia.com)

But Christians and ancient Greeks weren’t the only ones to believe in a hollow earth. In the 17th century, Edmond Halley, the scientist who discovered Halley’s comet, first proposed the Hollow Earth Theory to explain abnormal compass readings. According to his theory, the earth is a series of spherical shells spinning in alternate directions around a central core. Between each shell, he believed there to be an atmosphere capable of sustaining life. He also believed his theory to account for the Aurora Borealis.