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The Earth is actually hollow. Beneath our feet is a world of supernatural monsters and heroes and magic and mystery. If you dig deep enough you'll hit their tunnels and start seeing lots of weird things.

The stronger lizard people and other supernatural races want to conceal the supernatural and prevent people from discovering this. Can they stop people doing so?

They have access to a few tens of thousands of people with mind control powers, a few million people with supernatural abilities like super strength or shapeshifting, and extensive infiltration of governments and celebrities. The public scientific picture of the earth with a mantle and core and such is obviously wildly inaccurate, and they want to prevent the general public from being aware that monsters lurk beneath their feet and that the earth is actually filled with tunnels from one end to another.

Can they stop the average person from discovering this? There's a few obvious steps they could take, like replacing deeper mine workers with in the know supernaturals, and mind controlling geologists with access to seismographs, but I dunno if other methods would easily reveal that the earth is actually hollow. Could a random person without access to professional training prove that the earth is hollow and stream it on youtube?

The question is whether a supernatural hollow earth could be concealed from the general public.

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  • $\begingroup$ Do you need an actually hollow earth or is it sufficient to have some extensive tunnels say 5 to 10km below the surface and the rest of the earth is approximately the way public science says it is? $\endgroup$
    – quarague
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 10:33
  • $\begingroup$ An actual hollow earth, though supernaturally reinforced so it's not gonna cave in or whatever, and with the normal phenomenon expected like volcanoes still ongoing via supernatural means. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 10:36
  • $\begingroup$ If the crust is at least seven miles thick, sure. Kola Superdeep Borehole - But not if there's anywhere with access to the surface, so it's not really a working plot point. Also, streaming crap on YouTube is not how we "prove" things. $\endgroup$
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 11:07
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    $\begingroup$ "To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well is that no transition from granite to basalt was found at the depth of about seven kilometres (4.3 mi), where the velocity of seismic waves has a discontinuity." - we were wrong about what the seismic readings were telling us, so yeah: plausible. $\endgroup$
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 11:11
  • $\begingroup$ Going to have to explain why ULF doesn't penetrate the Earth at the speed of light and is instead acting like it's traveling on a curve 40km below the surface... Or rather, why it doesn't work in the first place. $\endgroup$
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 11:18

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The Earth is very thick, and even the deepest mines we have barely scratch the surface. There would likely be no need to replace mine-workers, unless your hollow Earth is extremely close to the surface.

That said, we know astoundingly little about what goes on deep beneath our feet besides some broad strokes--and I don't think there's anything an uneducated layperson could do to prove (or disprove) the hollow Earth, short of stumbling across one of the places/tunnels/gateways that the supernaturals use to access the hollow Earth.

That said, off the top of my head, if someone wanted to prove this hollow Earth, they'd need to become so knowledgeable about geology that they wouldn't be a complete layperson anymore, and even if they can "prove" it, their livestream would be rather boring for people not invested in the topic. The simplest experiment I can think of would go something like this:

  1. Become knowledgeable on geology/geophysics/geodesy
  2. Acquire explosives
  3. Build or buy some decently accurate digital seismographs
  4. Find an open area where nobody cares about you setting off big explosions
  5. Set up seismographs
  6. Detonate!
  7. Using the data, you should be able to identify the hollow-earth

Here is a quick sketch of this experiment:

Determining hollow earth

The question is, is such an experiment "live stream-able?" Nerds and other people interested in the topic would probably find it really cool that we are able to observe this secondary reflected shockwave echo, but to most people it would just be a line graph with two spikes on it.

If I were part of the conspiracy, stopping people from performing experiments like this would probably be easiest by getting professional scientists to the discredit these amateur experiments by suggesting that there is a very dense underground layer that causes this reflected shock wave or something similar, as restricting access to seismographs isn't feasible when anyone can basically bury an audio-microphone and get a rudimentary one.

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  • $\begingroup$ Behold, a dense underground layer that reflects shock waves! (Well, refracts them, actually. But it's not like your geology conspiracy is going to be falling over itself to explain the difference.) $\endgroup$
    – Cadence
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 12:30
  • $\begingroup$ Would you need a lot of explosives? Small explosions are hard to stop, but larger explosions generally need licensing, which means the government could track them. Also, thanks for the awesome drawing. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 12:49
  • $\begingroup$ @NepeneNep large explosions kinda happen in various places anyway, and other things that generate suitable compression waves (like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, etc). Listen for long enough and you'll probably get the signal you need. $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 14:02
  • $\begingroup$ @NepeneNep How much explosive you need would depend on the accuracy of the seismographs you have available. I suspect that to pick up the explosion shockwave echo/reflection on homemade devices, you'd need something hefty, but still well within what a civilian could get (eg ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb or similar). Also, you don't strictly need explosives: dropping a multi-ton weight down a well shaft or similar great height could also be picked up by sufficiently good seismographs $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ @Cadence It seems like the hollow-earth-conspiracy cover-up department is already hard at work! $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Commented Dec 14, 2022 at 14:56
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Ten thousand people against 8 billion, it's going to be hard to keep it secret.

It doesn't take much to make a rudimental experiment by detonating an explosive underground and listening to the echo of the explosion. When the experiment will show that there is a strongly reflective interface not so deep underground, questions will start to rise.

Rather than actively stopping people from trying, which based on the numbers I listed above is going to be an overwhelming task, those ten thousand can better work on influencing social opinion, by having all those who talk about a hollow earth being labeled as wackos, discredited and laughed after.

And if anybody tries to drill down to actually see what happens, it's easy to assign one to wrap the drilling tip into hot gooified rock to convince them that something else than hollow is down there.

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The observable mass of the Earth is a problem

You have to make the mass of the Earth consistent with the public story. If it isn't, some undergraduate physics or astronomy student will re-do the calculations for the force of gravity, and/or the Moon's orbit, and find that they're inconsistent with basic observations.

You can't just publish a false value for the gravitational constant, "Big G", because that will mean that calculations for other easily observable orbits, such as Jupiter's four large moons, will come out wrong.

This means that having quite a lot of tunnels and caves is no problem, but a hollow space thousands of kilometres across inside the Earth makes things quite hard. For that case, you would need some extremely dense substance to make up the mass of the Earth, because its core (according to the conventional model) is the densest part of it, but in a hollow earth, is replaced with air.

If it's just tunnels in the crust, that should not make a detectable difference. However, if you happen to have any mostly-hollow mountains and you're unfortunate enough to have geophysics students repeat the Schiehallion experiment on them, that would be a problem.

There's also the problem of what keeps tunnels from collapsing when they're under tens of kilometres of crust. The pressure down there is really quite high.

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  • $\begingroup$ I was assuming mostly tunnels, not the entire earth being hollow. As such while the gravity would deviate, it wouldn't be that bad. Would small deviations be detectable by an undergrad student? $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 2:27
  • $\begingroup$ You were a bit unclear: "The public scientific picture of the earth with a mantle and core and such is obviously wildly inaccurate" rather implies a genuinely hollow earth. Tunnels in the crust should not make a detectable difference to the Earth's overall density, but see my edit to my answer. $\endgroup$
    – John Dallman
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 17:50
  • $\begingroup$ "Beneath our feet is a world of supernatural monsters and heroes and magic and mystery. If you dig deep enough you'll hit their tunnels and start seeing lots of weird things." I did say it was tunnels. The normal model of the earth doesn't include tunnels with supernatural creatures in it going through the place where the core and mantle should be. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 18:18
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Maybe it can, but would be very hard.

Eg. effect of tidal forces (mostly because of Moon) on Earth's crust would ruin it easily.

Even now, Earth surface can move up and down some 40 cm (16 inches) within period of 6 hours [source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43420600]. Hollow Earth would be deformed even more, and not even a little bit more, of course depending on how big the hollow is, but nonetheless probably so badly that it would be impossible to ignore.

It is also probable that hollow Earth would become tidally locked to the Moon; such deformation of Moon and its consequences are the reason why it is tidally locked to the Earth (ie. we always see the same side of the the Moon). (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking)

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  • $\begingroup$ They don't have any issue mind controlling scientists to say the expansion of the earth is whatever, so scientific papers shouldn't be an issue. Would tidal flexing be detectable by your average person? $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 2:21
  • $\begingroup$ @NepeneNep I am afraid it would become noticeable if the interior was mostly gaseous instead of the very viscous molten stuff it is now. There would be nothing to dissipate the energy that tidal forces exert on the crust, so the crust would be free to deform much much more. Compare it to two balls, one hollow, one solid. If you press them, there is significant difference how they react: the hollow one gives in a lot more. However, if they were capable of mind controlling the scientist, this phenomenon could also be an interesting thing for them to explain away. $\endgroup$
    – Jani Miettinen
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 12:47
  • $\begingroup$ As I noted, the inside is supernatural, and doesn't flex easily. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 13:36
  • $\begingroup$ @NepeneNep in that case it should be ok. Same goes for lack of magnetic field, and other factors that might reveal its existence: it can emulate every aspect of non-hollow Earth by supernatural means. $\endgroup$
    – Jani Miettinen
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 13:42
  • $\begingroup$ The supernatural isn't intentionally concealing its existence, it's just supernaturally tough. It basically has super strength and shapeshifting, like the monsters mentioned in the post. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Commented Dec 18, 2022 at 14:13
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Dilution is the solution to pollution.

https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/11/27/247220595/probing-extraterrestrial-abduction

According to Villas Boas, he was plowing fields with his tractor when he was taken against his will by a group of ETs measuring about 5 feet tall. On their spaceship he was put in a room where he saw some kind of gas come out of the walls, making him sick. Then a very attractive female, naked, with long platinum-blonde hair, fire-red pubic hair and deep-blue cat eyes, came to him and forced him to have intercourse. (I imagine he didn't resist much.)

According to Villas Boas, her intentions were quite clear: to produce a human-alien hybrid that she would raise on her planet. After he got back, Villas Boas noted he had burns on his body. A doctor from a reputable medical center diagnosed them as radiation burns.

There are a lot of zany stories about the hollow earth. Funny, sexy, outrageous stories. Some are started by people interested in the cover up. A lot of them arise organically. They come back years later with different outfits. If a story seems to have the ring of truth about the hollow earth, it is embellished with the addition of salaciously sexy lizard people, cattle mutilations, religious visions, 1 kilometer long sea serpents, demon worshipping ceremonies involving celebrities (dead and alive!) and the like. Also perpetual motion machines. Then the story is passed along. The embellishments often happen on their own. Hollow earth stories crossbreed in the wild.

People talk about the hollow earth. It is fun stuff. If someone has a serious story he or she is mocked into silence. Or possibly goes on talk shows, in the company of Bigfoot worshippers, Breatharians and people who can do interesting tricks with their body parts.

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