Is the earth getting fatter.

[stewpot54]

I wonder how much the circumference of the earth has expanded.

We mine for coal a mile under the earthcrust but how far down is the earliest vegetation.

A daft thought but is amazing what goes through one's head while dozing in the sun.

[Karis]

It is pretty interesting, actually

 

The Earth is actually fatter around the equator, but as the diameter of the earth is almost 8000 miles, we've (literally) barely scratched the surface and made no real impact of the state of the planet!

[tab1]

We are getting bombarded by thousands of tonnes of cosmic dust every year, so yes technically if more dust is added to the surface of the planet then it is getting fatter.

[YouFo666]

We are getting bombarded by thousands of tonnes of cosmic dust every year, so yes technically if more dust is added to the surface of the planet then it is getting fatter.

 

Is that Racist dust per se ??

[billo]

We are getting bombarded by thousands of tonnes of cosmic dust every year, so yes technically if more dust is added to the surface of the planet then it is getting fatter.

 

Most of that dust burns up before it hits the ground.

[Karis]

OK, particles are hitting the earth, thus increasing its mass, but it's so utterly negligible, it's barely worth mentioning.

 

Now, if we were hit by the Moon, that'd be another story entirely...

[HeadingNorth]

To address the original post, I don't think you can conclude, just because we mine for coal a mile underground, that the earth has expanded by one mile. I think that has a lot more to do with tectonic plate activity, which raises some parts of the surface and lowers others but doesn't necessarily alter the overall, average diameter of the Earth.

 

However, as pointed out, the collection of cosmic rubbish by the Earth continues fairly steadily at a rate estimated to be about 10,000 tons a day. That seems to us like a huge amount, but if we assume that rate has been constant for the last four thousand million years, it still only amounts to about one thousandth of one per cent of the original size. In short, it's utterly insignificant in any imaginable context. In terms of diameter, it might have added two inches to an original diameter of about eight thousand miles.

[satman2222]

So where has that mile of material come from that is on top of the coal if cosmic dust only accounts for 2 inches?

[HeadingNorth]

So where has that mile of material come from that is on top of the coal if cosmic dust only accounts for 2 inches?

 

Rocks get moved around; old mountains are worn down, and new ones built up; rivers take sediment away from one place and drop it somewhere else. The overall appearance of the Earth changes a lot over time (the Himalayan mountains didn't exist at the time of the dinosaurs...)

 

I couldn't tell you exactly what geological manoeuvres led to the coal deposits ending up the thick end of a mile below ground, but I'm fairly certain that, were we to go and read up on the subject, we'd find it was geological manoeuvres.

[Twiglet]

So where has that mile of material come from that is on top of the coal if cosmic dust only accounts for 2 inches?

 

Hey presto - the rock cycle