Hollow Earth Theory
From RationalWiki
| B U L L "The universe is a strange and wondrous place. The truth is quite odd enough to need no help from pseudoscientific charlatans." |
Hollow Earth Theory is a pseudoscience and conspiracy theory stating that the Earth is hollow. Theories include that the inhabitants of the "Inner Earth" walk around the inside feet-up, or that a smaller sphere is inside the larger (sometimes it is stated this object works like a sun for the inner earth denizens), which is more in line with the theory of gravity, though not geology.
The conspiracy aspect supposedly relates to a large hole providing access to the underworld, which is located somewhere in the arctic or Antarctic regions, and the attempts to keep it quiet made by the superpowers in conjunction with whatever the Grand Theory du jour is, be it reptilians, tibetan masters, Atlanteans and/or aliens. These theories are also associated with apocryphal stories of apparently bottomless holes in various locations, such as Mel's Hole in Washington, USA.
It's not clear what supports the surface of the Earth according to the Hollow Earth Theory, since the surface of the earth we can see would most likely collapse under the force of gravity without a substrate (liquid, in the case of the mantle and outer core, solid in the instance of the inner core).
The inhabitants of the inside of the sphere of Earth would experience no gravity whatsoever. This is because the gravitational downward pull of the ground beneath their feet would be canceled out by the gravitational upward pull of that from the ground on all other parts of the sphere.[1]
