50 Amazing Facts About The Earth
1. What is the hottest place on Earth?
Count one wrong if you thought of the Death Valley in California. Many days is really so, but the September 13, 1922 were recorded in El Azizia (Libya) temperature of 136 Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) – when the highest temperature ever measured in Death Valley was 134 ° F ( 56,6º C), registered on 10 July 1913.
2. And what it is the coldest place on the planet?
By far the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89º C) at Vostok, Antarctica, on 21 July 1983.
3. What generates thunder?
If you thought, “Lightning!” Then I take my hat off. But I had an answer more “enlightened” in mind. The air around a lightning This sudden heating causes an expansion of the faster air is greatly heated up nearly five times the temperature of the sun. The speed of sound, which compresses the air and forms a shock wave we hear as thunder.
4. Can rocks float?
In a volcanic eruption, the violent separation of gas from lava produces a “frothy” rock called pumice, loaded with gas bubbles. According to geologists some of these can float.I’ve never seen this phenomenon, and I am grateful that so.
Translator ‘s Note : It seems that the pumice stones in the US are not as common as in Spain.
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5. Can rocks grow?
Yes, but observe this process is more boring than watching paint dry. Certain rocks called ferro-manganese crusts grow on mountains under the sea. The shells are formed by the slow precipitation of suspended material in sea water, and grow about 1 millimeter every million years. The nails of her fingers grow at this rate approximately every two weeks.
6. How much space dust falls to Earth each year?
Estimates vary, but the USGS says at least 1,000 million grams, or approximately 1,000 tons of material entering the atmosphere each year and manage to reach the surface of the Earth. Some scientists say also that microbes rain down from space, and that extraterrestrial organisms are responsible for flu epidemics. The latter has not been tested, and I’m not holding my breath.
7. What distances can blow in the wind common dust?
In 1999 a study showed that African dust is able to reach the coast of Florida and can contribute to the air in the state exceeds the minimum quality level required by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States. The powder is driven by powerful winds from North Africa and transported to an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), where it is captured by transoceanic winds. Similarly powder China also finds its way to North America.
8. Where are the highest waterfalls in the world?
Angel Falls in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).
9. What two major cities in North America are destined to merge?
The San Andreas fault, which runs from north to south, is slipping at a rate of 2 inches (five centimeters) per year, causing the movement of Los Angeles to San Francisco. Scientists predict that LA will be a suburb of the city of Bay within 15 million years.
10. Is Earth a sphere?
Due to the rotation of the Earth as our planet is much more flexible than one might imagine, it bulges in the midsection, creating a sort of training pumpkin. For centuries, the flattening would reduce, but now suddenly growing, as a recent study has shown. The blame for this increase in the equatorial circumference is attributed to accelerated land glaciers thaw.
11. How a person would weigh 100 pounds (45.36 kg.) On Mars?
Gravity on Mars is 38% that of Earth at sea level. So a person who weighed 100 pounds (45.36 kg.) On Earth would weigh 38 pounds (17.24 kg.) On Mars. However, based on current plans NASA, it’ll be decades before this assumption can be proved by direct observation.
Translator ‘s Note . It goes without saying that 100 Kgs on Earth equivalent to 38 Kgs on Mars.
12. How long is a Martian year?
Lasts a full year if you’re on Mars. For an Earthman, it would last almost two. The red planet takes 687 Earth days to circle the sun – compared to the 365 days it takes the Earth. Given the different rotational period (see # 13 below) calendars on Mars would cover 670 Martian days, plus a few extra days in leap years to balance its accuracy. Please if you find a Martian calendar, enviádmelo. I’m curious to see how they represent the months, given that there are two moons.
13. How long on average Martian day?
A Martian can sleep (or work) and extra half hour daily when compared with vd. Day on Mars lasts 24 hours and 37 minutes, compared with our 23 hours and 56 minutes land.The length of a day on any planet in our solar system, is determined by measuring the time it takes for each world in turn completely around its axis, causing the sun to appear at dawn and at dusk hide.
14. What it is the world’s largest volcano?
Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii holds the title here on Earth. more than 50,000 feet (9.5 miles or 15.2 kilometers) above its base, which sits under the sea surface rises. But that’s all volcanic chump. Olympus Mons on Mars rises 16 miles (26 kilometers) into the Martian sky. Its base would almost cover the entire surface of Arizona.
Translator ‘s Note : Figures (I limit myself to be translated) on Mauna Loa seem to me wrong, because I understand that this volcano is situated just 9 kilometers above the ocean floor, and 4 km on the sea level..
15. What was the deadliest known earthquake?
The most devastating earthquake ever recorded occurred in 1557 in central China. It struck a region where most of the locals lived in caves dug into soft rock. These dwellings collapsed, killing an estimated 830,000 people. In 1976 another terrible earthquake hit Tangshan, China. Killed more than 250,000 people.
16. What has been the strongest earthquake in recent times?
In 1960 a Chilean earthquake, which occurred off the coast, had a magnitude of 9.6 and broke a fault more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km.) In length. An earthquake like that to happen in a major city would challenge the best construction techniques.
17. Which earthquake was more catastrophic: Kobe, Japan or Northridge, California?
The 1994 Northridge earthquake had a magnitude of 6.7 and caused about 60 deaths, 9,000 injuries and estimated at 40.000 billion dollars in damage. The 1995 Kobe earthquake was of magnitude 6.8 and killed 5,530 people. There were 37,000 injuries and economic losses amounted to 100,000 million.
18. How far is the center of the Earth?
The distance from the surface of the Earth to its center is about 3,963 miles (6,378 kilometers). Much of the Earth is liquid. Most of the solid cover the planet has a width of only 41 miles (66 kilometers). Relatively speaking, it is thinner than the skin of an apple.
19. What it is the highest mountain?
Climbers who challenge the Everest in Nepal-Tibet section of the Himalayas, reaching a height of 29,035 feet (nearly 9 kilometers) above sea level. In 1999 and through the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS), altitude was revised upward by 7 feet (2.13 meters).
20. Has the Moon always been so close?
It was much closer !. 1,000 million years ago, the Moon orbited much closer to us, so it only took 20 days to go around our planet, shortening the month. An Earth Day then lasted only 18 hours. The Moon is still moving away – about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) per year. Meanwhile, the rotation of the Earth decreases, lengthening our days. In the distant future, a day will last 960 hours. You want to know why?
21. What is the lowest point on Earth?
Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea in the Middle East is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) below sea level. Even second is Bad Water, a great distance, in Death Valley, California, just 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level.
22. Good thing California will not sink more right?
Actually some parts do, which is so interesting that I decided to add this statement to the list of questions. In repeated in other parts of USA problem, pumping natural groundwater reserves is causing in some places the ground to sink up to 4 inches (11 centimeters) per year. Water and waste treatment systems may soon come to be threatened.
23. What is the longest river?
The Nile River in Africa measures 4,160 miles (6,695 kilometers).
24. Which US states are more prone to earthquakes?
Alaska experience earthquakes of magnitude 7 almost every year, and of magnitude 8 or higher each about 14 years. Florida and North Dakota have the lowest rate of US seismic, even smaller than New York.
25. What is the driest place on Earth?
A place called Arica, in Chile, gets just 0.03 inches (0.76 mm) of rain per year. At that rate it would take a century to fill a cup of coffee.
26. What causes landslides?
The whirlwinds of intense water falls in a very short period of time can cause rapid movements of debris and mud flows shallow. Precipitation, paused and constant, can cause slow landslides at greater depths for long periods of time. Similarly, not all materials behave in the same way. Landslides in damage annually produce 2,000 million in the United States. In January 1982 a storm caused Guinness record in the area of San Francisco about 18,000 landslides in one night. Damage to property was estimated at 66 million, and 25 people died.
27. How fast can flow the mud?
Landslides and flash floods mud can move at speeds above 100 mph (160 km / h.)
28. things flow inside the Earth?
You can bet that if. In fact, scientists discovered in 1999 that molten inside and around the core of the Earth moves material forming vortices, swirls bags whose dynamics are similar to tornadoes and hurricanes. And, as later learn in this list, the planetary core also moves in other strangest ways. 29. What it is the wettest place on Earth?
I cry in Colombia has an average rainfall of 523.6 inches annually, ie more than 40 feet (13 meters). That’s about 10 times more than the average in any major European or American city.
30. Spend Earth in phases, like the moon?
From Mars, Earth is passing through different stages (as we see happening with the phases of Venus). Earth’s orbit is concentric to Mars, and as both planets revolve around the sun, the angle at which sunlight strikes the planet varies throughout the year. The phases of the Earth can be seen in recent pictures taken by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express European probe.
31. What is the longest canyon?
The Grand Canyon is considered the system of the world’s largest canyons. Its main branch measured 227 miles (446 kilometers). But let’s make a comparison. Valles Marineris on Mars extends over 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers). If superpusiéramos stretched over a map of the United States, would join New York City to Los Angeles. Some parts of this vast scar on the surface of Mars, reaching depths of 5 miles (8 kilometers).
32. What is the deepest canyon in the United States?
For eons, the Snake River has dug Hells Canyon (Hell’s Canyon) along the border between the states of Idaho and Oregon. It has more than 8,000 feet (2.4 km.) Deep. However, the Grand Canyon is less than 6,000 feet, just over a mile (1,830 meters.).
33. Is Earth the solar system’s largest rocky planet?
Yes, but just barely! The diameter of the Earth in its Ecuador is 7,926 miles (12,756 km.).The width of Venus is 7,521 miles (12,104 km.). Mercury and Mars, the other two inner rocky planets are much smaller. Pluto is rocky, but is comparatively tiny (and some say not even a planet).
34. How many volcanoes on Earth is no historical record of having erupted?
540 terrestrial volcanic eruptions are known. No one knows how many underwater eruptions have occurred throughout history.
35. Is oxygen air for the most part?
In fact the earth’s atmosphere comprises nitrogen by 80%. Most of the remaining 20% oxygen, although there are trace amounts of other gases in suspension.
36. What is the highest waterfall in the United States?
Yosemite Falls in California, 2,425 feet (739 meters).
37. What percentage of the planet’s water is in the oceans?
About 97 percent. Oceans cover about two thirds of the surface of the Earth, which means that when the next asteroid striking the planet, chances are that a dip.
38. Which of the land masses contains the largest reserve of fresh water on the planet?
Nearly 70 percent of freshwater reserves on Earth are trapped in the ice of Antarctica and Greenland. The rest is in the atmosphere, streams, lakes and underground aquifers, and only count as 1 percent of total Earth.
39. What is the largest ocean on Earth?
The Pacific Ocean comprising 64 million square miles (165 million km2). It is more than twice as large as the Atlantic Ocean. Its average depth is 2.4 miles (3.9 km.).
40. Why no craters on the surface of the Earth compared to the “acne” Moon?
Earth is more active, both in geological terms as weather. Much of the geological history of our planet long ago retreated inland. Some of it is regurgitated to the surface in volcanic eruptions, but the results are very difficult to study. Even some newer and still evident on the surface (craters that may have an age of a few million years) events are covered by vegetation, windswept and rain, and modified by earthquakes and landslides.The moon, meanwhile, is still geologically and suffers almost no weather changes, its craters tell us their story of catastrophic over billions of years collisions. It is interesting to say that some of the oldest rocks on Earth may be waiting to be discovered on the moon .. !, since billions of years ago could be dragged there by itself the asteroid impact that caused both desgajasen worlds.
41. What area covers the surface of the Earth?
An area of 196,950,711 square miles (510.1 million square kilometers).
42. What is the world’s largest lake?
For its size and volume: the Caspian Sea, located between southeast Europe and western Asia.
43. What area of the Earth occur most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?
Most it happens along the edges of the dozen major tectonic plates that float on the surface of the Earth. One of the most active “border areas” where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent, for example, existing around the huge Pacific plate, popularly known as the Pacific Ring of Fire known. And feeds it causes tremors and volcanic activity hitting Japan, Alaska and South America.
44. What temperature is inside the planet?
The temperature of the Earth about 36 ° F (20 ° C) increases for each kilometer (0.62 miles) to go down. Near the center, it is believed that reaches a temperature of 7.000º F (3.870º C).
45. What three countries lead the historical ranking of volcanic activity?
Coparían the podium as Indonesia, Japan and the United States, in descending order of activity.
46. How many people in the world are in danger from volcanoes?
For the year 2000, USGS scientists estimated that volcanoes put at a risk of tangible danger at least 500 million people. This is comparable to the total population of the planet in the early seventeenth century!
47. Which of the following flow volume stores the world’s largest freshwater stream: lakes, rivers or underground aquifers?
Aquifers comprise a 30 times larger than the volume of freshwater lakes, and over 3,000 times the volume of river flows, regardless of time or season. Groundwater is housed in natural underground aquifers, where water normally flows around and through rocks and other materials.
48. Which earthquake was larger, San Francisco in 1906 or Anchorage (Alaska) in 1964?
Anchorage earthquake was magnitude 9.2, while San Francisco was 7.8. This difference in magnitude implies that the energy released in an earthquake in 1964 was 125 times that of 1906, which explains why the Anchorage earthquake was felt in an area of nearly 500,000 square miles (1,295,000 square kilometers).
49. Which earthquake was more destructive in terms of loss of life and economic damage estimate, the 1906 San Francisco or 1964 in Anchorage? In this category the 1906 San Francisco takes the lead. He was responsible for 700 deaths against 114 caused by Anchorage. Damage to property in San Francisco were likewise higher, in relative terms, due to the destructive fires that destroyed most of the structures of wood typical of their time.
50. Is the solid core of the Earth? It is believed that the innermost part of the core is solid.But the outside of it appears melted. Although we have never been there, so scientists are not sure of their exact composition. A radical idea, Hollywood – style, has been recently proposed suggesting crack open the planet and send a probe down there to learn more about this topic. An interesting set of recent evidence shows that the core of Mars can be equally fluffy.
