Interesting facts about Earth

planet earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun.

The Earth was formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago and is the only known planet to support life.

Earth isn’t round. Centrifugal force pushes outwards at Earth’s equator giving it a slight waistline.

It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for light to travel from the sun to the earth.

1.3 million Earths could fit inside the sun, an average-sized star.

The Earth’s core is about as hot as the sun.

inside the earth

One-third of Earth’s land surface is partially or totally desert.

desert

Oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface.

Antarctica contains about 70% of Earth’s fresh water and 90% of its ice.

20% of the Earth’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest.

The earth’s deepest known point equals to 24.5 Empire State Buildings end to end.

Earth is the only place in the Solar System where water can be present in its three states: solid, liquid and vapor.

Water constitutes only 0.07% of the earth by mass or 0.4% of the earth by volume.

The highest place on Earth, and closest to space, is Mount Chimborazo in the Andes. Because Chimborazo is a bump on a bigger part of the bulge, it is 2,400 meters (1.5 miles) higher than Everest!

If you drilled a tunnel straight through the Earth and jumped in, it would take you about 42 minutes to get to the other side.

Before trees were common, the Earth was covered with giant mushrooms.

giant mushrooms

Rain has never been recorded in parts of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth.

The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth’s surface was 57.8°C (136°F) in El Azizia, Libya recorded in 1922.

The coldest place on Earth is a high ridge in Antarctica where temperatures can dip below -93.2°C (-133°F).

Earth’s magnetic north pole is moving northward at a rate of 16 kilometers (10 miles) per year.

The Soviets drilled the world’s deepest hole into the earth for 14 years: it’s 12,262 meters (40,230 feet) deep.

worlds deepest hole

The Earth is the only planet in our solar system not to be named after a Greek or Roman deity.

The Queen of the United Kingdom is the legal owner of one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface.

There are about 22,000 man made objects orbiting around planet Earth.

There are no 24 hours in a day. It has 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds, the time it takes the earth to rotate on its axis.

If the Sun were the size of a beach ball in Space, then Jupiter would be the size of a golf ball and the Earth would be as small as a pea.

Each day, up to 4 billion meteoroids fall to Earth.

Between 100 and 300 tons of cosmic dust enter the Earth’s atmosphere every day.

There are more living organisms in a teaspoonful of soil than there are people on earth.

soil

There are about 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year. 100,000 of those can be felt, and 100 of them cause damage.

There is enough gold in Earth’s core to coat its entire surface to a depth of 45cm (1.5ft).

Krubera Cave, the deepest known cave on Earth, has depth of 2,197 m (7,208 ft).

krubera cave

Large parts of Canada have less gravity than the rest of Earth. The phenomenon was discovered in the 1960s.

The Earth’s magnetic field has been steadily weakening over the past 180 years, specially around Brazil and Argentina.

Between 10 and 20 volcanoes are erupting somewhere on Earth every day.

volcano

Global warming has raised the earth’s average surface temperature about 1.5°F (0.8°C) since the Industrial Revolution.

Fossil evidence suggests that fish have been on Earth for about 530 million years.

fish fosil

Earth is the only known place where a fire can occur naturally.

If Earth’s history were condensed into 24 hours, life would’ve appeared at 4 am, land plants at 10:24 pm, dinosaur extinction at 11:41 pm and human history would’ve begun at 11:58:43 pm.