How many facts about the Earth do you know? Do you think it’s important to know a few things about the planet we call home? I do! I think there are some basic things that we probably learnt in geography but facts about the Earth are among many things we simply forget over time. So how about we check out a few interesting tidbits? Come with me, fact finder.
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1. You Are Never Stood Still
One of the great facts about the Earth is that you are never stood still whilst you are on it. Not forgetting the fact that the Earth is orbiting the sun at a million miles a day, there is also the fact that the Earth is spinning at 1000 miles per hour. Even if you stand exactly on the poles, you are still turning round and round. And, even though you do not know it, the tectonic plate beneath your feet is moving at the same speed that your fingernails grow.
2. The Earth is Hard to Destroy
There is not much on this planet that could kill all life on Earth, although it could be done with a batch of man-made viruses, but then technically a virus is life, so it still would not work. It is also hard to destroy the Earth in the same way that Darth Vader destroys planets on Star Wars. To destroy the Earth, his gun would have had to fire a beam that had 200 million trillion trillion joules of energy in it.
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3. The Earth is Hotter at the Core for Some Reason
One of the facts the Earth that has people puzzled is why it is hot in the middle. It is such an odd thing if you consider how the Earth is created. And, until we see evidence of such phenomena on other planets then we may never know why. Some think it is because of the massive amounts of radiation down there, others think it is because the tectonic plates keep moving around and cause friction heat.
4. The Earth is 70 Times Bigger than Pluto
The planet Pluto is so small that it is no longer classified as a planet (size matters). This is a fact about the Earth that may make it seem rather large, but Pluto is now known as an orbiting asteroid, so seventy of them to make one Planet Earth does not sound like so much.
5. Things Are Not as They Seem
Continents themselves move around 2cm per year, and tectonic plates on the planet move at the speed of a growing toenail. Basically, the world is moving and shifting all the time so that you would not recognize it if you were able to see the future in 300 years. It is one of those weird facts about the Earth, in the same way that it is weird how the biggest pyramid in the world is in Mexico and not Egypt.
6. Everest is the Tallest Mountain but Not the Biggest
You have probably heard the riddle of which mountain was the tallest before Everest was discovered, where the reply is, “Mount Everest.” Though, it really should not have taken human kind very long to discover it, since it is pretty big and hard to miss. It does reach higher than any other mountain on the planet, but it is not the tallest mountain. The tallest mountain is a Hawaiian volcano called Mauna Kea and it is 10,314 meters from top to bottom. Everest is just over 8000 meters tall, but the Hawaiian mountain is set very low down and partly under the sea, and so does not reach as high up into the sky as Mount Everest.
7. We Are Just Babies on This Planet
The Earth is currently 4.54 billion years old. This is quite old if you consider the fact that upright walking humans have only been around for 200,000 years, and we only started living in buildings of our own construction around 50,000 years ago.
Do you feel more informed with these facts about the Earth? Look out for more articles on geography, science, biology and the world around us all coming up regularly. Are there any subjects you’d like to know more about?
Sources: blogs.discovermagazine.com, livescience.com