Scientific facts about the earth that you did not know. Incredible facts about planet Earth (9 photos)
The Earth is not just a giant spinning blue-green ball that happens to be our home. Earth is perhaps the most amazing and unique planet in the entire Universe. We present to your attention 5 interesting facts that concern every earthling.
1. The earth is not round
And not flat, of course, either. The most appropriate name is sphere, since gravitational forces prevent it from achieving the shape of a perfect ball. The equator of our planet is surrounded by protrusions that can be compared to “ears” on the waist of a sweet tooth. If you trust only numbers, then they are as follows: the polar radius of the Earth is 6357 km, and the equatorial radius is 6378 km, that is, the latter is 21 km longer.
2. The oceans are only 10% explored
Man has walked on the Moon and launched a satellite to Mars, but you know what? Our native territories have not been fully explored, to put it mildly. More than 90% of the Earth's sea and ocean depths still remain a closed book. According to experts, the dark waters hide about 25 million living creatures that have not been described in any way by science. To date, we know only 212,906 species.
3. Cold record: -89.2 degrees Celsius
Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth, so it is not surprising that the coldest record was recorded there. On July 21, 1983, the thermometers of the Russian Vostok scientific station dropped to 89 degrees below zero. It was a cool summer!
Well, the record for the highest temperature was broken on September 13, 1922 in Al-Azizia, a city in northwestern Libya. That day, people literally went crazy from the 58-degree (!) heat.
4. The highest point on Earth is not Everest
Reaching 8848 meters above sea level, Everest is rightfully considered a giant among mountain peaks. But now we know that the Earth is not round (see point 1), and therefore any object located near the equator will be a little closer to the stars. And although the “height” of the extinct volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador is “only” 6268 meters, being on a “mound” makes it technically further from the center of the Earth and thus higher than Everest by 2.4 kilometers.
5. A few words about the Moon
Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are. “Girlfriend” (scientifically - the only natural satellite) The Earth's Moon has a mysterious appearance. For example, the Moon is covered in dust that smells like gunpowder but is not even remotely gunpowder. Expression " dark side Moon" appeared not on empty space. The Earth's gravitational force slows down the satellite's motion, so it makes a full revolution once a month, and we always see only one side of it. There were some interesting coincidences: the Sun is 400 times bigger than the moon and 400 times further from Earth, so these two planets seem to us to be the same in size.
Based on materials from Oddee.com
Earth is the most unique planet in our galaxy (at least it will remain so until we find another planet that has life). In fact, it is so unique that people throughout human history have studied it and still do not fully understand all of its processes. However, what we know about our planet is that it can pleasantly surprise us. From the absurd number of lightning strikes per day to the varying strengths of gravity in different parts of the Earth, the twenty-five facts about Earth that we share below may really surprise you:
25. The driest place on Earth is the McMurdo Dry Valleys. It hasn't rained there for the last two million years.
24. Every year the wind carries 40 million tons of dust from the Sahara to the Amazon.
23. The temperature of the Earth's core is 5500 degrees Celsius and is equal to the temperature of the surface of the Sun.
22. 99 percent of the Earth is in its core.
21. Earth is the only planet in the solar system that experiences plate tectonics. Without her carbon dioxide would not be processed and the planet would overheat, like Venus.
20. 90 percent of volcanoes on planet Earth are underwater.
19. 1 liter of salt water contains 13 billionths of a gram of gold.
18. Salty water makes up 97 percent of all the Earth's water.
17. 70 percent of the remaining 3 percent is in the form of polar ice caps.
16. Most of the remaining water is either soil moisture or located deep underground in inaccessible aquifers.
15. 1/5 small share fresh water, which is actually found in lakes and rivers, is located in one place - Lake Baikal in Russia.
14. Every day there are 8.6 million lightning strikes on Earth.
13. C long distance Earth would be the brightest planet because sunlight reflects off its water surface.
12. At an altitude of 19 kilometers we encounter a phenomenon known as the Armstrong Limit. It is from this height that a person must be in a spacesuit, because due to low pressure water boils at body temperature.
11. The Earth's orbit is polluted by 38,000 man-made objects.
10. The size of 22,000 of them exceeds 10 meters.
9. Every day at least one of these objects falls to Earth.
8. To be precise, there are not 24 hours in a day. It takes only 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds for the Earth to rotate on its axis. This concept is known as sidereal day.
7. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Chinese wall not visible from space. However, air pollution in China can be seen from space. In addition, you can see the Great Barrier Reef from space.
6. The most distant photograph was taken from a distance of 6 billion kilometers from Earth. It is called “Pale Blue Dot”, which means “pale blue dot”.
5. The ozone hole is actually shrinking and reached its peak in 2012 smallest size over the last decade.
4. Plastic makes up 90 percent of the trash in the world's oceans.
3. The Earth is not a perfect sphere; due to the force of rotation, the Earth is actually convex at the equator.
2. Because of this anomaly, some regions have more or less gravity than others. One such place is Hudson Bay in Canada. However, the difference is very small and amounts to only 0.005 percent.
1. We know more about our Universe than about the oceans or the Earth's core. In fact, we have not yet explored 95 percent of the world's oceans.
This is the only planet on which life exists. The globe is so large and vast that scientists are still studying it and are constantly discovering new ones. impressive facts. Perhaps many of the facts were already familiar with them from school, but they had already forgotten how wonderful our planet is and how many surprises it gives us.
- 8 planets of ours solar system named after Roman and greek gods. The word “Earth” (9th planet in the solar system) comes from the ancient Slavic root “zem”, which is translated as “bottom”, “floor”, and is in no way connected with myths Ancient Greece. In other languages, the word "Earth" means "soil". But the irony is that water occupies 72% of the Earth's area;
- It turns out that there are not 24 hours in a full day. Many of us always complain that there are not enough hours in the day. And it really is! In fact, the Earth rotates on its axis in 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds.
- Planetologists believe that there was previously another planet in Earth’s orbit, Earth’s twin sister. The planet was similar in size to Mars. About four and a half billion years ago, this planet crashed into the Earth, as a result of which huge pieces were thrown off from both planets, from which the Moon was formed. Yes, that sounds like it beautiful fairy tale. But why then do scientists believe in this, since nothing has been scientifically proven? The fact is that the Moon is too large satellite for our planet, moreover, it has isotopes that are very similar to those on Earth.
- The Earth's oceans still remain 90% unexplored. New technologies and various scientific discoveries allowed man to visit both the Moon and Mars. But, at the same time, the very depths of the oceans remain unexplored. On this moment man has studied only 10% of the ocean, its life and the life of marine inhabitants. Currently, there are about 212,906 officially recorded species of sea creatures, and it is possible that there are three or four times more.
- Mount Everest (also known as Chomolungma) is not the highest point on the planet. Yes, this is the most famous mountain in the world and reaches 8848 meters above sea level, but if you take into account the fact that the Earth has a deformed spherical shape, then it turns out that any point on the equator becomes closer to the stars. Therefore, it turns out that the Chimborazo volcano (the highest point of Ecuador) is located further from the center of the Earth, and accordingly higher.
- Earth is the only planet on which water is found in a liquid state.
- The earth rotates both around its axis and around the sun. Its rotation speed around the sun remains shocking for humans - 107,826 kilometers per hour.
- The earth is already 4 billion years old. This is such an old lady! Scientists came to this conclusion when they examined the oldest rocks on the surface of the Earth.
- Those who say that the Earth has no edge are mistaken. The end of the Earth, geographically speaking, is Antarctica. Moreover, it is on this continent that the largest reserves of fresh water and ice are located.
1. Such different colors sky
The aurora occurs when charged particles that come from the Sun reach magnetic field our planet and are destroyed in upper layers atmosphere near the poles. The particles become more active during the period of maximum solar activity, which occurs cyclically every 11 years. Near the South Pole, people are less likely to observe the aurora due to the fact that they rarely appear off the coast of Antarctica.
2. There are other planets like ours
Scientists suggest that there are many planets similar to ours in the Universe. Evidence has been found that Earth-like planets orbit distant stars. For example, a planet called Kepler 22-b orbits a star at the same distance from it as our planet is from the Sun, indicating that this planet may have favorable conditions for life. Although whether there is life on these planets is still a matter of debate in the scientific world.
3. Who got to the south pole?
The first person to successfully cross the Antarctic desert to reach the South Pole was the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. He and 4 other people, using a sled pulled by dogs, reached the Pole in December 1911. Amundsen said that his luck was due to careful planning.
4. Driest place
The driest place on the planet where humans sometimes appear is the Atacama Desert in Chile and Peru. There are places in the center of this desert where rain has never been recorded. Although in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica there has been no rain for millions of years.
5. Open spaces
People who sometimes like to be alone are advised to go to Greenland. This island has the lowest population density on Earth. So in 2010, only 56,534 people lived on an area of 2,166,086 square kilometers. Most of Greenland's inhabitants can be found along the coast.
6. Most populous city
Don't like densely populated cities? Then we do not advise you to go to Manila. This city, the capital of the Philippines, is the most densely populated city on the planet, where most of the country's population is forced to huddle on a relatively small piece of land. According to the 2007 census, 38.55 square kilometers contained 1,660,714 people!
7. The tiniest mammal
Lives on Earth a large number of tiny creatures, some of which consist of only one cell. But the smallest mammal animal can be called the pig-nosed bat. This vulnerable species of bat lives in South-East Asia. The mouse reaches a length of about 3–3.3 centimeters and weighs about 2 grams. This bat can compete with the dwarf shrew, which is approximately the same size.
8. The largest organisms
The largest organisms on the planet can be called, oddly enough, mushrooms. Most of the fungal organism is hidden underground. In 1992, scientists reported in the journal Nature that honey fungus in Oregon covered an area of 0.89 hectares.
9. Breathing Giants
When we try to think of the largest living creatures on the planet, whales and elephants come to mind. The giant sequoia "General Sherman" is the largest tree on the planet by volume, growing in national park Sequoia, California. A tree trunk contains 1486.6 cubic meters material.
10. The largest pool
The largest ocean basin on the planet is considered to be Pacific Ocean, which covers an area of 155 million square kilometers and contains more than half of all the water on Earth. It is so big that all the continents could fit in the same area.
11. Populated coastlines
Coastlines make up just 20 percent of the U.S., not including Alaska, and are home to more than 50 percent of Americans, meaning the majority choose to live by the sea.
12. The most powerful volcanic eruption
The most powerful eruption witnessed by man occurred in April 1815 at Mount Tambora, in Indonesia. On the VEI scale, this eruption reached 7 points, with the highest point of the scale being number 8. According to eyewitnesses, the eruption was so powerful that the sounds of the roaring volcano could be heard even on the island of Sumatra, 1930 kilometers away. The eruption claimed the lives of about 71 thousand people; clouds of black smoke could be seen on islands located quite far from the volcano.
13. Most active
The most active volcano can be called the Stromboli volcano, which is located on a volcanic island in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Italy. Over the past 20 thousand years, the volcano has erupted almost constantly. In the dark, thanks to the illumination of the lava, the volcano can be seen from the sea, which is why it is sometimes called the “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean”.
14. Formation of mountains
Although the shifting layers of rock, called tectonic plates, are hidden from our eyes, we can see the results of their movement on the surface of the planet. Between India and Tibet are the Himalayas, which stretch over a distance of 2,900 kilometers. This long mountain range was formed approximately between 40 and 50 million years ago when plate movements brought India and Eurasia together.
15. Supercontinent
It is believed that over the 4.5 billion years of our planet's existence, the continents of the Earth once joined to become a single continent, and then separated again. The most recent single continent was Pangea, which began to split into its component parts approximately 200 million years ago. Scientists suggest that in the future the continents will come together again.
16. Formation of the Moon
Many researchers believe that some large objects collided with the Earth a long time ago, as a result of which a fragment broke off from the planet, from which it later formed. It is not yet clear whether the object was another planet, an asteroid or a comet, but some scientists suggest that the culprit was the planet Theia, similar in size to Mars.
17. Distance to a star
The Earth is approximately 150 million kilometers from the Sun. In order to reach the surface of our planet, sunlight 8 minutes 19 seconds are needed.
18. Space dust
Every day, rain falls on the surface of our planet. cosmic dust: approximately 100 tons of interplanetary material (mostly dust). The smallest particles are released by comets when their ice begins to evaporate as they approach the Sun.
19. The riches of our planet
The largest seas on the planet contain more than 20 million tons of gold, but getting it is not so easy. Gold is so dissolved in sea water, that on average only 13 billionths of a gram of gold can be found in each liter. Gold in undissolved form is hidden deep in the depths of the rock, at the bottom of the ocean, so it is not yet possible to extract it. But if this happened, every person on the planet could potentially own 4.5 kilograms of the precious metal, but would it still be precious?
20. Water world
Oceans cover about 70 percent of the earth's surface, but humans have only explored 5 percent so far. The remaining 95 percent of the ocean has never been seen by humans.
21. Natural electricity
Thunder and lightning are among the most terrible phenomena of nature. Just one lightning strike can heat the air to about 30 thousand degrees Celsius, which causes the air to expand greatly and create a blast wave, as well as a strong rumble, which we call thunder.
22. She was purple
The Earth was once purple, but today it is green, suggests hil DasSarma, a microbial geneticist at the University of Maryland. Ancient microbes, he says, could have used molecules other than chlorophyll to curb Sun rays. Such molecules could give them a purple tint.
Dassarma believes that chlorophyll came after another light-sensitive molecule called retinal, which already existed on the young planet. Retinal can now be found on the plum-colored membranes of the photosynthetic microbe Halobacter; it absorbs green light and reflects red and purple, and when they mix, violet light appears.
23. Measuring the age of glaciers
People leave their marks on the planet different ways. For example, tests nuclear weapons in the 1950s resulted in the release of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which eventually fell in rain and snow. These sediments settled in glaciers, where they formed layers from which scientists are trying to determine the age of the ice.
24. Loss of water
With climate change, glaciers are losing ice, causing global sea levels to rise. It turns out that if one single glacier melts, it will increase the amount of meltwater by 10 percent. The Canadian glacier has already lost a lot of ice between 2004 and 2009, turning it into water equal to 75 percent of Lake Erie.
25. Lake Explosion
Lakes can also explode. In Cameroon, on the border with Rwana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are 3 threatening lakes: Nyos, Monoun and Kivu. All these lakes are crater lakes, they are located on the top of the volcano. The magma beneath their surface releases carbon dioxide, which accumulates in the layers under the lake bed. If carbon dioxide escapes, anyone nearby will have trouble breathing.
26. Lowest point on land
The lowest point on land can be easily reached. This is the Dead Sea, located between Jordan and Israel. The water level is 423 meters below sea level and continues to fall by about 1 meter per year.
27. Deepest point
How deep into the bowels of the Earth can a person reach? The deepest point on the planet is Mariana Trench, the depth of which is 10916 meters below sea level. The deepest point on the planet not covered by an ocean is 2,555 meters below sea level, but it is barely accessible. This is the Bentley Deep in Antarctica, which is filled with a thick layer of ice.
28. The richest ecosystems
Coral reefs attract the largest number of living creatures per unit area than any other ecosystem on the planet. They can only compete with rainforests. Reefs are made up of tiny coral polyps that build calcareous structures. They are the largest living structures on the planet, which can be seen even from space. Unfortunately, due to deteriorating ecology and climate change, coral reefs are dying faster.
29. Longest mountain range
If you wanted to see the longest mountain range, you would have to go deep underwater. The underwater chains extend over a distance of 65 thousand kilometers - this is a chain of underwater volcanoes that encircles the Earth. Lava erupts at the bottom of the oceans, forming seamounts.
30. Conquering peaks
On May 8, 1978, Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, together with Peter Habeler, conquered the summit of Everest, climbing the highest point on the planet without using oxygen.
31. Stones can walk
Rocks can move on the surface of the planet, at least on the surface of the dry lake Racetrack Playa, in Death Valley, California. Sometimes the wind can move stones weighing tens or even hundreds of kilograms. Most likely, the clay surface of the plateau becomes more slippery when snow melts in the nearby mountains. This allows the wind to push and move rocks across the surface.
32. The Earth may have another Moon
Some scientists claim that the Earth has another satellite besides the Moon. According to research published late last year in the journal ICARUS, cosmic body at least 1 meter in size orbits the Earth at any time. That is, it is not always the same body, but the so-called “temporary moons,” scientists say. According to their theory, the Earth's gravitational field can capture asteroids that fly close to our planet while revolving around the Sun. When such an asteroid approaches the Earth, it begins to revolve around it and makes 3 revolutions, remaining in orbit for about 9 months, and then moves away again.
33. Two Moons?
Once upon a time the Earth had two large satellites - two moons. The second satellite, with a diameter of about 1,200 kilometers, according to scientists, revolved around our planet until it collided with the Moon. This catastrophe may explain why the two sides of the modern Moon are so different from each other.
34. Changing the direction of the magnetic field
Over the past 20 million years, on our planet every 200–300 thousand years there has been a change in the direction of the magnetic field, although this process does not have any particular periodicity. Change cannot happen overnight. This process takes hundreds and thousands of years.
35. The highest mountains
Mount Everest or, as it is also called, Chomolungma, is the highest mountain. Its peak is located at an altitude of 8848 meters above sea level. However, if you measure the mountain from its very base to the top, it reaches 17,170 meters.
36. Magnetic field
The Earth has a magnetic field thanks to an ocean of hot and liquid metal that is concentrated around its solid iron core. This thread liquid metal creates electricity, which in turn forms a magnetic field. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the northern magnetic pole The Earth has moved north by 1,100 kilometers, according to NASA researchers. The speed of movement is increasing, with the North Pole currently moving at a speed of 64 kilometers per year. In the 20th century it moved at a speed of 16 km/year.
37. Strange gravity
Due to the fact that our planet is not a perfect sphere, its mass is distributed unevenly. Fluctuations in mass cause fluctuations in gravity. One example of anomalous gravity is Hudson Bay in Canada. In this area, gravity is lower than in other places on the planet. In 2007, scientists discovered that melted glaciers were to blame. Ice, which during the last ice age covered this area, melted, but the planet did not have time to recover from this burden.
38. Largest stalagmite
The world's largest stalagmite was found in Cuba. This formation has a height of 67.2 meters.
39. Extreme continent
The southernmost continent - Antarctica is the very edge of the Earth. The Antarctic ice cap contains 70 percent of the planet's fresh water and 90 percent of the world's ice.
40. Coldest point
It won't be a big surprise to learn that the coldest place on the planet is in Antarctica. However, the thermometer there drops to an unprecedented amount. In winter, temperatures can reach minus 73 degrees Celsius. But the most extreme low temperature was recorded on July 21, 1983 at the Russian Vostok station and amounted to minus 89.2 degrees Celsius.
41. The hottest place
The hottest place on the planet is Libya, where the thermometer showed 57.8 degrees Celsius above zero in September 1922. It is possible that there are hotter spots somewhere in the desert, but they are located outside the observation stations.
42. The strongest earthquake
The most powerful earthquake that was observed in the United States was a 9.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Alaska on March 28, 1964. But the strongest earthquake recorded by modern seismologists is considered to be the earthquake in Chile, which occurred on May 22, 1960. Its power was 9.5 points.
43. Moonquakes
Moonquakes, or “earthquakes on the Moon,” also sometimes occur, but not as often and not with the same intensity as on Earth. Scientists believe that moonquakes are associated with the tidal forces of the Sun and Earth, as well as some other reasons. Moonquakes can occur at great depths between the surface of the Moon and its center.
44. Age of the Earth
Scientists have calculated the age of the Earth by examining the oldest rocks and meteorites that have been discovered on the planet. Meteorites and the Earth were formed around the same time as the formation of the solar system. According to scientists, the Earth is already 4.54 billion years old.
45. Movement of rocks
The earth we walk on is made from recycled materials. During certain cycles, volcanic rocks turn into sedimentary rocks, and then metamorphic rocks, and all over again. This cycle is not perfect: magma from the depths of the earth rises and cools and turns into volcanic rock. Tectonic processes lift rock to the surface, where erosion breaks it down. The tiny fragments are folded together and the pressure compresses them and turns them into sedimentary rock, such as sandstone. If sedimentary rocks accumulate even deeper, they can turn into metamorphic rocks under greater pressure and high temperature. During the process, sedimentary rocks can be destroyed and metamorphic rocks can rise higher. But if metamorphic rocks move deeper along fractures as one layer is pushed by another, those rocks will eventually become magma again and the process will repeat.
46. Journey around the Sun
The Earth rotates around its axis and also moves around the Sun at a crazy, by our standards, speed - 107,826 kilometers per hour.
47. On the Move
It seems to you that you are standing motionless, but in fact you are moving very quickly. Depending on what part of the Earth you are in, you will move in at different speeds. People who are located at the equator move the fastest.
48. The planet has a waist
Mother Earth has a waist - its circumference is 40,075 kilometers.
49. Flattened shape
The earth has irregular shape. During the rotation process, gravity is directed towards the center of the planet, and centrifugal force goes to the side. Due to rotation, a bulge is created at the planet's equator, so the equatorial diameter is 43 kilometers larger than the diameter between the poles.
50. Third planet
Our home planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only planet in the solar system where conditions exist, an atmosphere with free oxygen is maintained, there are oceans of liquid water on the surface and, most importantly, where there is life.
Earth is the third planet from the Sun. The age of the Earth, according to astronomers, is 4.54 billion years.
The Earth moves around the Sun at a speed of 30 kilometers per second. People taking part in this movement do not feel it at all. In order for our planet to fly away from the solar system and travel in infinite space, it needs to be given a speed of just over 42 kilometers per second. This difference of 12 kilometers per second protects the Earth from a catastrophe that could befall it.
Around the Sun, the Earth moves in an orbit that looks like a somewhat flattened circle - an ellipse. The Earth in summer (for the Northern Hemisphere) is located at a distance of 152 million kilometers from the Sun, and in winter - up to 147 million kilometers. We are closer to the Sun at noon from January to July, and vice versa from July to January.
The earth consists of a metallic core (its inner part solid, and the outer one is liquid), viscous mantle and earth's crust. The mantle makes up 67% of the Earth's total mass and about 83% of the Earth's total volume. The thickness of the crust ranges from 6 km under the ocean to 30-50 km on the continents.
Earth is far from absolute solid. Its surface, like the ocean, ebbs and flows under the influence of the Sun and Moon. Various parts of the planet are in motion: they rise, fall, and even “travel” in the horizontal direction.
With its gravity, the Earth maintains an atmosphere around itself, which consists mainly of nitrogen, oxygen, and a small amount of impurities (hydrogen, carbon dioxide, etc.). Characteristic feature our planet is abundant in water. Seas and oceans make up approximately 70% of the earth's surface. Water and water vapor play an important role in the occurrence of geophysical and biological processes on Earth. Liquid water, so necessary for the existence of life forms known to us, is no longer found on any planet in the solar system.
The earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that acts as a trap for electrically charged particles coming from outer space. Far beyond the atmosphere, our planet is surrounded by clouds of high-energy particles that form radiation fields that protect Earth from cruel cosmic rays, destructive to all living things.
Planets with the same illumination, temperature and approximately the same size as our Earth are rare in the Universe. But the Universe is so huge that, according to conservative estimates, in our Galaxy alone there are 10 thousand planets resembling Earth. Scientists do not exclude the possibility that life exists on some of them.