Earth isn’t round. Centrifugal force pushes outwards at Earth’s equator giving it a slight waste-line.
Standing on that equator you would be spinning around Earth’s center at 1000 miles per hour. At the poles, however, you would be standing still (and turning in a circle)
You would still be hurling through space at 67000 miles per hour though
The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth’s surface was 136 degrees F or 57.8 degrees C in El Azizia, Libya recorded in 1922.
The coldest spot was Antarctica’s vostok station that recorded a bonechilling minus 128.6 degrees fahrenheit (minus 89.2 degrees C)
On that note, Antarctica contains about 70 percent of Earth’s fresh water and 90 percent of its ice
Earth’s magnetic north pole is moving northward at a rate of 10 miles per year
Eventually, our magnetic poles will switch.
Scientists believe Earth may have had two moons at one point in time.
Although earthquakes are no fun, they are not the only quakes that affect the earth. Moon quakes can actually make a difference in the tides.
As cool as moon rocks are, on Earth rocks can walk. Or at least slide. In Death Valley rocks weighing hundreds of pounds slide across the desert floor leaving trails in their wake. Scientists believe wind and ice are the culprits.
The longest mountain range on Earth is actually underwater. It is called the mid ocean ridge system. It stretches for 80,000 km all around the world and is nearly 20 times longer than the longest range on the surface, the Andes Mountains. Not only that, the whole thing is completely volcanic.
On the topic of volcanoes, the most active erupter on Earth is actually the Stromboli Volcano in southern Italy. For the past 2,000 years it has been erupting almost continuously which has earned it the nickname “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.
Volcanoes aren’t the only things that explode gas and magma. Lakes do that too. In Africa, on the borders of Cameroon, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo there are several lakes that sit above volcanic earth which results in large pockets of dangerous gas being trapped beneath them. If they were to explode they would asphyxiate any passersby.
70 percent of the planet is covered in ocean but humans have only explored 5 percent of it.
That’s strange considering the fact that the ocean holds nearly 20 million tons of gold. Granted, most of the gold is diluted. Each liter of seawater contains about 13 billionths of a gram. There is enough undissolved gold on the sea floor though to put 9 pounds in every pocket on Earth.
The deepest spot on Earth is the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. It is nearly 11 km below the surface of the ocean (~7 miles) and only 3 people have ever ventured there
Constructed from millions of tiny polyps, coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth, some even visible from space.
They also contain the highest density of life on the planet, even more than rainforests.
Everyday nearly 100 tons of interplanetary material falls down onto Earth’s surface primarily from the ice of comets as it vaporizes near the sun.
And one more thing. The largest single living thing (apart from reefs constructed of multiople polyps) was a mushroom fungus in Oregon that grew to 2,200 acres. Good luck sleeping tonight.
