70 fantastic curiosities you didn't know about the Earth

Even though you live your whole life on this wonderful planet, have you ever wondered how much you really know about it?

Have you ever wondered what it is made of? Or how much it weighs? Or why does a leap year exist? Do you know how thunder is created? Do you know which is the largest island in the world? How many lightning strikes in the world every second? What is the highest, driest and coldest place on Earth?

For all of you who are curious, or who want to know something new, Vox News brings you 70 interesting facts about our planet.

1- Is the Earth really round?

The Earth is a sphere, but because of its gravitational forces it is not a perfect circle. In fact, there is a bulge around the equator. Earth's polar radius is 3,949.99 miles, while its equatorial radius is 3,963.34 miles.

2- Where does the name Earth come from?

Every other planet in our solar system is named after a Greek or Roman God, with the exception of our planet. The word Earth comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Erda. Ironically, the planet is covered by 71% water. The only planet that has this liquid state.

3- Does the day really have 24 hours?

People often say that 24 hours a day is not enough, and they are right. The time it takes the planet to rotate around its axis is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This is what is called a stellar day. The solar day is the time it takes for the sun to return to the same place on the meridian.

4- Are the oceans explored?

Humans have been to the Moon and Mars, but they have failed to discover most of the things that lie in the depths of our great oceans. In fact, less than 10% of the deep blue seas have been studied. The ocean contains 97% water and 99% of it is inhabited by living things. While we have identified only 212,906 marine species.

5- What is the hottest place on Earth?

You've probably heard it's Death Valley in California. True on many days, but El Azizia in Libya recorded a temperature of 57.8 degrees Celsius on September 13, 1922, the highest temperature ever recorded. Death Valley hit 57 degrees Celsius on June 10, 1913.

6- What about the coldest place?

Far from here, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89 degrees Celsius in Vostok, Antarctica, on June 21, 1983.

7- What is the highest point on Earth?

Everest is one of the most famous high points known in the world with a height of 8800 meters above sea level. However, knowing that the Earth is not round, a point near the equator is slightly closer to the stars. Which means that even though Mount Chimbozrazo in Ecuador is only 6100 meters above sea level. But that part of the earth is above.

8- How many tectonic plates does the Earth have?

Scientists believe that the Earth is made up of 7 large "crust" plates, which move in different directions up to 4 inches per year. When they fall on each other, mountains are born; where they break down we have the east of the valleys. Their collision causes earthquakes and volcanoes.

9- Does Earth have twin planets?

Scientists now believe that we were not alone in our orbit around the Sun. We had a twin planet called Theia that was the size of Mars. One afternoon 4500 billion years ago, Theia collided with the Earth, most of the planet was absorbed by the Earth, while a part exploded and combined with material from our planet to create the Moon.

10- How is thunder created?

The air during a lightning gets extremely hot, almost five times the temperature of the Sun. This sudden heating causes the air to expand faster than the speed of sound, which compresses the air and forms a shock wave; this is what we call thunder.

11- Can rocks pop?

During a volcanic eruption, the violent separation of gas from the lava produces a "light" rock called foam, filled with gas bubbles. "Some of them may overflow", say the geologists. Few people have seen them, but we better feel lucky about that.

12- Can rocks grow?

Yes, but observing the process is less interesting than watching paint dry on fabric. Rocks called "iron-manganese crust" grow in seamounts. The crust collects material from the water, growing by 1 millimeter every million years. Nails can grow that much every two weeks.

13- How much space dust falls to earth every year?

Estimates vary, but scientists say that at least 1,000 million grams, or rather 1,000 tons of material enters the atmosphere every year and passes to the Earth's surface. A group of scientists say that germs rain down from space and that extraterrestrial organisms are responsible for flu epidemics. There is no evidence for this assumption, so don't hold your breath.

14- How far does the wind drag ordinary dust?

A 1999 study showed that African dust traveled as far as Florida. The dust is blown up by strong North African winds and flies up to 6,100 meters high. There it is included in other winds and transported across the sea. Likewise, the dust of China reaches North America.

15- Where is the highest waterfall in the world?

The waters of Angel Falls in Venezuela fall from a height of 979 meters.

16- Who is the biggest volcano?

Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii holds the title on Earth. It rises more than 15.2 kilometers above its base, which is located above the surface of the sea. "Olympus Mons" on Mars rises 26 kilometers into the Martian sky. His base would cover the entire state of Arizona.

17- What is the most terrible earthquake ever known?

The earthquake that caused the most casualties occurred in 1557 in central China. It struck a province where most of the people lived in caves made of soft rock. Shelters collapsed, killing more than 830,000 people. In 1976, another earthquake struck Tangshan, China. More than 250 thousand people lost their lives.

18- What was the strongest earthquake in modern times?

In 1960, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.6 struck off the coast of Chile and caused a landslide 1,600 kilometers long. Such an earthquake under a large city would challenge even the best construction techniques.

19- How far is the center of the Earth?

The distance from the Earth's surface to its center is 6378 kilometers. Most of the earth is liquid. The solid part of the planet is 66 kilometers thick, so thinner than the skin of an apple, if we were to make comparisons.

20- Has the moon always been so close?

It used to be closer! A billion years ago, the Moon was closer in orbit and Earth needed only 20 days to complete the month. A day on Earth was then 18 hours long. The moon is still moving away, about 4 centimeters a year. Meanwhile, the Earth's rotation is slowing down, lengthening our days. In the high future a day will be 960 hours!

21- Where is the lowest dry point on Earth?

The shores of the Dead Sea in the Middle East are 400 meters (1,300 feet) below sea level. Next to it is Bad Water in California's Death Valley, at 282 feet below sea level.

22- Which is the longest river?

The Nile River in Africa is 6,695 kilometers long.

23- What is the driest place on Earth?

In a place called Arika, in Chile, 0.76 millimeters of rain fall per year. At this rate, the coffee cup would be filled for a century.

24- How fast does mud move?

Landslides, like mud avalanches, can move at speeds of 160 kilometers per hour.

25- Do things flow inside the Earth?

That's for sure. In fact, scientists discovered in 1999 that molten materials in and around the Earth's crust move in eddies, forming pockets whose dynamics are similar to tornadoes and hurricanes. As you'll read below, the planet's crust moves in strange ways.

26- What is the wettest place on Earth?

Lloro, Colombia, averages 13 meters of rain per year. This amount is 10 times higher than in the most humid cities in Europe or the United States.

27- Does the Earth also have phases, like the Moon?

From Mars, Earth appears to go through distinct phases (just as we see Venus change phases. Earth orbits Mars, and as the two planets orbit the Sun, sunlight creates different impressions from different angles throughout the year The phases of the Earth are distinguished from photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor and the European Mars Express.

28- Is Earth the largest rocky planet in the solar system?

Hard! The Earth's diameter in Ecuador is 12,756 kilometers. Venus is 12,104 kilometers wide. Mercury and Mars, the other two rocky planets, are much smaller. Pluto is also rocky, but it is very small (some say it is not a planet at all)

29- Does the air have more oxygen?

The Earth's atmosphere consists of 80 percent nitrogen. The rest of it is nitrogen, with small amounts of other elements.

30- How much percent of the Earth is water?

About 70 percent. Of the 70% of water that covers the Earth, only 3% of it is fresh, 97% of it is salt water. Oceans make up two-thirds of the Earth's surface, which means that when the next asteroid hits Earth, it will splatter space.

31- What are the two land masses that contain most of the fresh water on Earth?

Nearly 70 percent of the fresh water on Earth is in the glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland. The rest of the water exists in the atmosphere, streams, rivers or underground and all of these make up 1 percent of the Earth's total.

32- Which of the Earth's oceans is the largest?

The Pacific Ocean covers 165 square kilometers. It is more than twice the mass of the Atlantic. It has an average depth of 3.9 kilometers.

33- Why does the Earth not have as many craters as the Moon?

The earth is more active, geologically or weather-wise. Most of the geologic history of our planet happened a long time ago. Most of it has been emptied by volcanoes, but the results are hardly studied. Even more recent events on the surface, craters that may be a million years old, are covered by vegetation, flattened by wind and rain, and modified by earthquakes and landslides. As for the Moon, it is geologically quiet and has no weather.

34- What is the surface of the Earth?

The surface that the Earth covers is 510,100,000 square kilometers.

35- Which is the biggest lake in the world?

In terms of mass and volume, it is the Caspian Sea, located between southern Europe and western Asia.

36- How hot are the interiors of the planets?

The Earth's temperature rises by 20 degrees Celsius for every kilometer underground. Near the center, it is thought to be 3,870 degrees Celsius.

37- What are the three countries that have the largest number of active volcanoes?

The top three countries are Indonesia, Japan and the United States in descending order.

38- Which of the following sources holds the largest volume of fresh water in the world: lakes, rivers or groundwater?

Underwater water comprises a volume 30 times greater than all fresh water lakes and occupies 3 thousand times more volume than rivers and lakes on earth. Groundwater is held in natural underground aquifers, in which water flows around and through rock and other materials.

39- Is the Earth's crust strong?

The interior of the earth's crust is thought to be solid. But the outside of the crust looks soft. While no one has been there, scientists are unsure of the exact composition. The Hollywood-born idea is to send a probe there to find out more.

40- Does the Earth rotate at the same rate?

The hard inner crust, a mass of iron comparable to the mass of the Moon, rotates faster than the outer part of the iron crust, which is liquid. A 1996 study shows that over the past century, the speed has caused the inner crust to gain a quarter of a turn in the entirety of the planet. Great pressure keeps it solid.

41- Does an earthquake cause a tsunami?

If the earthquake originates under the ocean, then yes. Near the epicenter of the earthquake, the sea level rises and falls, pushing all the water above it up and down. This movement creates a wave that travels outward in all directions. A tsunami can be massive, but remains low in height when the water is deep. When it gets close to the coast, it gets stronger and reaches the height of tall buildings. One was triggered in 1964 and covered the small Californian town of Crescent City, during which cars moved for miles and many people lost their lives. Even asteroids cause tsunamis.

42- How much of the Earth's surface is occupied by deserts?

About a third.

43- What is the deepest place in the ocean?

The greatest known depth is 11 kilometers, in the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan near the Mariana Islands.

44- What is the fastest wind ever recorded on the surface?

The fastest "regular" wind has had a speed of 372 kilometers per hour, and was recorded on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, on April 12, 1934. But during a tornado in May 1999, in Oklahoma, scientists have recorded a wind speed of 513 kilometers per hour. By comparison, Neptune's winds can reach speeds of 1,448 kilometers.

45- How old is the Earth?

Our planet is more than 4.5 billion years old, slightly younger than the Sun. Recent evidence has shown that the Earth formed much earlier than previously believed, only 10 million years after the birth of the Sun, a solar event that occurred 4.6 billion years ago, although the evidence is not certain. .

46- What is the largest desert in the world?

The Sahara Desert in South Africa is more than 23 times the size of the Mojave Desert in southern California.

47- What is the deepest lake in the world?

Lake Baikal in south-central Siberia is 1.7 kilometers deep. It is about 20 million years old and holds 20 percent of the Earth's fresh water.

48- How many minerals are known to exist?

Almost 4 thousand minerals are known in the world, although only 200 are very important. Nearly 50-100 minerals are described each year.

49- What is the largest island in the world?

Greenland covers 2,176,000 square kilometers. Continents are usually defined as large masses of low-density rock floating on molten material beneath it. Greenland fits this definition, but is only one-third the size of Australia. Some scientists call Greenland an island, others say it is a continent.

50- How many lightning strikes in the world every second?

Average around 100. But this figure is only for those that hit the ground. During every minute, more than a thousand thunderstorms occur around the Earth, causing 6 thousand lightning strikes. Most of them go from cloud to cloud.

51- Are rivers alive?

Not in the traditional sense. But like all living creatures, rivers have a lifespan. They are born, grow in size and grow old. They may even die out over the span of geologic time.

52- How much would the seas rise if the Antarctic ice melted?

The Antarctic ice sheet holds nearly 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of its fresh water. If all the ice melted, sea level would rise 220 feet, or reach the height of a 20-story building. Scientists know that the melting process has begun. The United Nations says the worst that could happen, depending on rising global air temperatures, is for seas to rise by 1 meter by 2100.

53- Is ice a mineral?

Yes, ice is a mineral and is formally described as such in the Dana System of Mineralogy.

54- What is the softest mineral?

Talc is the softest mineral. Used to use talcum powder.

55- What is the strongest mineral?

One that has no emotional value left after a divorce, even though it retains monetary value.

56- Does Earth have the worst weather in the solar system?

By far, it is the worst weather that humans have experienced. But the universe has even worse weather. Hurricanes four times the size of Texas can form on Mars. Dust storms on the red planet can cloud the entire globe! Jupiter has a hurricane twice the mass of our planet and lasted for at least three centuries (another storm on Jupiter is even bigger). Venus is a veritable hell, and Pluto is more frozen than the coldest place on Earth (although one day that may change, and Pluto may become the last oasis for life).

57- Where are the highest tides?

At Burntcoat Head, Minas Basin, part of the Nova Scotian Bay of Fundy, tides can reach 11.7 meters in height. The bay is funnel-shaped, the bottom widening upward from the mouth of the ocean. The result is a "tidal channel".

58- How much gold has been discovered in the whole world?

More than 193,000 metric tons. If we were to put them all together, then we would form a seven-story cube that would resemble one of Donald Trump's buildings. But first you need to find all those rings that fell in the sink :)

59- What are the two countries that produce the most gold?

South Africa produces 5,300 metric tons per year, and the United States produces more than 3,200 metric tons per year.

60- On average, how much water per day is consumed throughout the world?

The answer is 400 billion gallons.

61- What is the highest, driest and coldest continent on Earth?

The answer would be Antarctica.

62- Have the continents always existed?

Not as we know them today. Many scientists say that Earth began as a large, bone-dry continent. Water came as comets, the assumptions go, and so the oceans developed. More recently, the world's land masses were amassed into a supercontinent named Pangaea. The continent began to break up 225 million years ago, and eventually fragmented into the continents we know today.

63- Why is Earth called the blue planet?

Because 70% of the Earth's surface is completely covered with water. Of the 70% of water that covers the Earth, only 3% of it is fresh, 97% of it is salt water. Of this 3% more than 2% resides in ice and glaciers, which means less than 1% is in lakes and rivers.

64- Why is the Earth seen in space?

Because of the amount of water that covers Earth, it is one of the brightest planets in the galaxy and can be seen from a very long distance, all because of the reflection of sunlight.

65- Which person owns more land?

The Queen of Great Britain is the legal owner of one sixth of the Earth's surface!

66- When did life begin on Earth?

Life on Earth (as we know it) has existed for 150-200,000,000 years, but the Earth itself is almost 5 billion years old!

67- Will the continents ever unite?

Of the parts that make up the entire Earth mass, Panagea is the only land mass that has not changed. Meanwhile, all other continental formations follow a cyclical change. Thus, it is thought that after 250 million years, Africa will join the Americas leading to the disappearance of the Atlantic Ocean.

68- How many people have lived on Earth?

Every day 200,000 people are born, 2 people die every second.

106 billion people are thought to have lived on Earth so far. By 2050 there will be 9.2 billion people on Earth.

69- Some quick curiosities

-Almost 2 million years have passed since a drop of water fell on the world's driest place in Antarctica.

- The continents move every year by 2 centimeters;

-75 percent of all animal species will be exterminated during the next 300 years;

- It is estimated that only 14 percent of all species have been identified on Earth;

70- Will the Earth always be here?

Astronomers think that in a few billion years, the Sun will swell so much that it will cover the Earth. If we are here again, we will probably fry and the planet will evaporate. However, there is a possibility that a changing mass of the Sun will cause the Earth to move into a more distant and favorable orbit. A mathematical calculation shows that it is theoretically possible for people to concoct such a move before it is too late.