Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - As weird as the following may be, it is absolutely true. American physicist Brooks Agnew is mounting an expedition that will send a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker to the North Pole to look for a porthole to the centre of the earth.

"Everest has been climbed a hundred times, the Titanic has been scanned from stem to stern. But this is the first and only expedition to the North Pole opening ever attempted," said Agnew.

And for $20,000 you too can join the journey but with this caveat posted on the expedition's website.

"There are no guarantees that this expedition will reach Inner Earth," reads ourhollowearth.com. "The expedition will make a good faith effort to locate the North Polar Opening and enter therein, but worst case scenario is that we visit the geographic North Pole, explore the region, and continue on to the New Siberian Islands."

During the New Siberian Islands portion of the adventure, expedition members will check out fossil remains thought, by "hollow earth researchers," to be of animals of "inner earth origin."

English astronomer Sir Edmond Halley, was one of the first notable individuals to suggest the centre of the Earth is hollow. That was back in the 17th century. Today, the story has made a comeback due, in part, to a 2006 book called Hollow Earth: The long and curious history of imagining strange lands, fantastical creatures, advanced civilization, and marvelous machines below the Earth's surface.