What is on the other side of the world?

My previous post about the time it would take to travel between two places on the globe got me wondering about what exactly would be on the other side of any given location on Earth.

It turns out that zefrank has a Google Maps mashup that can answer this question.

Sorry to break it to ya, but if you dig a hole directly straight down at any location within the United States, you would be taking in lots of water because you’re likely to end up in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

There’s another similar Google Maps mashup here showing where you’d be if you dug a hole into the ground and came out on the other side of the Earth.

If I dug a hole from Melbourne straight to the other side of the world, I’d be in the Atlantic Ocean.