What if the Earth became 46 times its volume?

Either Everyone Dies™ or Everyone Dies™, depending on how you interpret this one.

Ain’t life grand?

OK, so first option: Earth is suddenly 46 times bigger but not heavier. The density of Earth is now 1/10th that of water and is nothing more than a loose cloud of material. But it still contains all of its original mass, albeit in a more diffuse arrangement. The gravity of our world would pull all of it back together into an Earth-sized ball.

Of course, if you were standing on the surface of this “ball” while it happened, you’d be given the literal ride of your life. You’d plummet toward the center of the Earth at surprising speed though the bombardment you’d take from giant chunks of rock bouncing off one another and into you would make this a brief experience. In addition, you’ve taken a planet in a high-energy state and lowered its overall energy rather significantly. Mother Nature won’t tolerate thieves – that energy must go somewhere. The somewhere, in this case, is heat – all of what was once solid ground is heated to melting and beyond. This actually happened in our early days as a planet. As Earth coalesced from the surrounding rock, metal, dust, gas, and debris, it heated up, forming the molten hellish ball that was Earth during the appropriately-named Hadean era. Hellish indeed. Everyone Dies™.

On the other hand, perhaps we increased the mass along with the volume. In this case, Earth is now roughly midway between the masses of Neptune and Saturn and has a surface gravity of roughly 3.5g. This means every thing on Earth suddenly weighs 3.5 times what it did a moment ago. Humans are immediately crushed under their own weight (I’m now a svelte 600 pounds). Our hearts cannot take the strain, and humanity dies in short order. Again, this is a good thing, because all that gravity is going to crush the rocks and soil right under our feet. Earth contracts in, though not as much as in the first example. The resulting fall increases the density and gravity of our planet pretty significantly – it’s quite possibly 5 or 6g on the surface. Again, a huge release of heat follows, melting the planet and sterilizing our previously lovely world. Everyone Dies™.