The Real Reason Why We Don't Explore Underground | Unveiled

The Real Reason Why We Don’t Explore Underground

The modern world now plays host to so many iconic city skylines. Over the last one hundred years, we’ve seen buildings, skyscrapers and towers shoot up, as human beings have sought to live closer and closer to the sky. But why have we never thought to build in the opposite direction with quite so much enthusiasm?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re uncovering the real reason why we don’t explore underground.

Often, when we imagine a post-apocalypse world, we picture humans fleeing underground in a bid to survive. There’s an apparent safety to be found below the Earth’s surface, be that in subway stations, cave systems, or just by cowering in the basement and hoping that the disaster above (whatever it is) will soon come to pass. It’s a little surprising, then, that in the real world… we’ve barely begun to discover what’s lurking beneath our feet.

From a purely scientific point of view, we of course know quite a lot about what’s going on down below. The cross section of the Earth is well known, with its inner and outer core, followed by the mantle, followed by the Earth’s crust. We know that the crust, the outermost of all these layers, is the only one we could ever hope to “explore”, as the others are molten rock, with incredibly high temperatures and high pressure. But the crust can still be up to forty miles deep, so there’s potentially plenty of room to maneuver.

That said, it’s not as though life underground could ever be comparable to life above it. Head just a few feet below the surface for any reason, and you soon realize that it gets hotter, stuffier, and the air gets just that little bit more difficult to breathe. First and foremost, that’s one reason why we don’t explore it further… underground spaces can feel uncomfortable. And that’s before we even begin to get into the various levels of psychology at play, with the underground being where things are buried, where things decay, and where - in various mythologies - realms of the dead are said to be found.

But, of course, head to high enough altitudes above ground, and it’s not exactly plain sailing, either. Mountainous regions offer so-called “thin” air with less pressure and less oxygen, and they’re generally much colder than places at surface level, too. But that hasn’t stopped humankind from climbing the tallest mountains on Earth, walking all across them, nor setting up towns and cities in high altitude settings. We seem much more willing to adapt to high places, despite the (in many ways) similar problems that they pose. Even skyscrapers and tall buildings raise certain issues, such as how not to topple down during a strong enough storm… it’s just that engineers have found solutions so that there’s nothing to worry about. But, again, there’s never been quite so much of a desire to head underground, so the exploration and engineering breakthroughs to make it easier… have never really materialized. Not on a mass scale, at least.

While they perhaps aren’t quite as famous or iconic as tall buildings like the Burj Khalifa or the Empire State Building, however, there are various impressive underground, subterranean structures out there. Perhaps the most famous is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which is more than 500 feet beneath the border of France and Switzerland. Other, less well-known locations, though, include the Sanford Lab in South Dakota, USA, and Vivos Europa One in Germany. The Sanford Lab is a massive research facility built into what was once the deepest goldmine in North America, called the Homestake Mine. It’s around 5,000 feet under the ground and is used (amongst other things) for experiments into dark matter. Vivos Europa One, on the other hand, is a massive and privately owned underground bunker. It has an area of more than 250,000 square feet and is said to be able to hold up to 1,000 people (plus animals and supplies) in the event of an extinction disaster. Getting a spot in Vivos Europa One is extremely pricey, though, leading to it earning a reputation as something of a “billionaire’s bolthole”, should the worst ever happen.

But why, in the modern world, should that be the case? Above ground, on surface level, there are all kinds of shelters, houses, and homes. You don’t have to be a billionaire to live with a roof over your head. So, why haven’t we seen an influx of similar, less extravagant, more affordable, and more universal underground buildings? While there’s no doubt that living solely underground (if disaster were to strike) would require a purpose-built facility like Vivos Europa One, if underground living were more of an everyday thing, then mightn’t we live in a world where everyone was doing it? More so than just for the odd subway ride.

There are some more immediate differences between building upwards (from earth) and downwards (into earth). There’s no claustrophobia when building on the surface, while some report a feeling of entrapment while underground. A building on the surface can have just one door in and out of it, but there isn’t quite the same sense of anxiety that the same “one door” setup can generate in a below ground, windowless room. On a larger scale, it’s perhaps similar to attitudes that humans seemingly have toward space travel versus ocean exploration. While space travel is usually deemed exciting and often worthwhile (which is why so much money is spent on it), the prospect of heading below the waves to learn more about Earth’s deepest points never quite rouses the same level of enthusiasm (which is why so much of the ocean remains unexplored).

There are various technological barriers to overcome, as well, of course. How best to dig out the ground from beneath our feet? How to ensure that everything at surface level remains stable? How far down is too far down? But if we’ve solved these issues for the various underground facilities that do exist, then why should they stand in our way for more? Life underground is hot and sweltering. True, but it wouldn’t have to be, were we to prioritize developing the tech to make it bearable.

What’s perhaps strangest of all, however, is that if (in the modern world) we were to suddenly head below the surface, it seemingly wouldn’t be the first time that humans had done so. There are actual underground cities already on Earth, leftover from ancient times, including beneath the Cappadocia region in Turkey, where some tunnels date to almost three thousand years ago… as well as other massive underground systems, including the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the city of Orvieto in Central Italy, and the famed Paris Catacombs beneath the French capital. Indeed, many of the older major cities across Europe do already feature a hidden, subterranean world, to some degree.

Perhaps, in the old days, then, we did explore underground, but weren’t particularly enthusiastic about what we found… and that’s why there’s no great push to go further in the twenty-first century. Today, we’re much more inclined toward constructing taller buildings and getting to know whole other planets than we are toward getting our hands dirty and figuring out the rock and mud of our own. But, still, might we be missing a trick? And much like with our attitudes toward the ocean, if we were to carve out more of an existence below the surface… might we get to know Earth better than ever before?

Thanks to contemporary science, we know that some of our earlier theories on what lies beneath our feet can be dismissed. We know, for example, that no matter how bizarre and exciting the idea might be to a sci-fi fan, the Earth isn’t hollow… and there isn’t a whole new world filled with dinosaurs and other creatures, just waiting for us to discover it. That, unfortunately, is not the reason why we stay on the surface.

Instead, the modern mind knows two things: 1) being under the ground is usually in some way uncomfortable. It’s either hot, or cramped, or there’s a feeling as though your trapped (although there doesn’t need to be). But also 2) building upwards and outwards, instead, gets us closer to the sky, and space, and a feeling of freedom from even the very planet we’re bound to. That’s exciting. And, while underground getaways would be pretty exciting, too, if we ever needed them thanks to the apocalypse… they just haven’t (apparently) tugged at our emotions enough to warrant more investment or focus. And that’s the real reason why we don’t fully explore underground.