How far do countries go down?

Submitted by XYU on October 20, 2025
Have you ever wondered how far beneath the ground a country goes down for?

If you dug a few feet down into the earth, for instance, let's say in France, I'm sure we would all agree that the material forming the bottom of the hole would still be "France". How far does that extend for, though?

If we took the borders right down, slicing all the way to the core of the Earth, would all the countries meet at a single point? So Australia would touch Iceland?

4 Comments
+3
Level 83
Oct 20, 2025
I was actually discussing the other day about which country is closest to the earth's center, my guess was Russia, cause of the Kola borehole.

Obviously going by your logic it's all of them, but I'm going by somewhere you could theoretically stand at, not that standing there would be particularly comfortable.

Others brought up whatever country is closest to the waters of the Mariana Trench, but I'm not sure if that's right, probably depends on whatever arbitrary method you go by.

+7
Level ∞
Oct 20, 2025
The Earth is 13 km larger at the equator then at the poles.

My guess that the country with territory closest to the center of the Earth would be one of the countries on the Arctic Circle, on the sea floor within territorial waters.

The furthest point from the center of the Earth is the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.

+1
Level 52
Oct 21, 2025
I would say, whichever country dug the hole would own the land where the hole is. If it’s dug on a border, then each country would get the side of the hole that they dug.
+1
Level 78
Oct 22, 2025
Borders and countries are man made constructs, and no one’s ever bothered to define how far down a country would go, but it’s a fun interesting question!