Ten Interesting Facts About Earth

Human thinking and scientific endeavor have long been engaged with questions regarding the origins and character of Earth. Various philosophers have presented dozens of ideas on the genesis of the Earth.

Earth is a dynamic environment. Earth scientists have progressed significantly in understanding the planet’s workings during the last four decades.

Scientists are developing ever-better technologies to comprehend better how Earth’s internal processes influence the planet’s surface and how life may survive for billions of years. how geological, biological, atmospheric, and oceanic phenomena combine to cause climate change

Our planet is the most fascinating on the globe. It is the only planet known to have an atmosphere with free oxygen, liquid water on the surface, and, perhaps most remarkable of all, life.

The planet has specific unique characteristics. Let’s investigate them.

1. The Duration of the Earth’s Day is Growing Longer

The day would have been around six hours long when Earth was founded 4.6 billion years ago. That had grown to 21.9 hours by 620 million years ago. The average day is now 24 hours long, but it lengthens by 1.7 milliseconds per century.

Why, though, is that? Through the tides that it helps to generate, the moon is slowing Earth’s rotation. Because of Earth’s spin, the location of its tidal ocean bulges is dragged slightly ahead of the moon-Earth axis, causing a twisting force that slows Earth’s rotation. As a result, our days are growing longer – but not long enough to make a significant impact on your hectic schedule.

2. The Earth Has Been Recycled

We’re walking on recycled Earth. The Earth’s rock cycle transforms metamorphic rocks into sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks, and igneous rocks.

Magma emerges from the Earth’s depths and solidifies into rock. Tectonic processes elevate the stone to the surface, where erosion shaves away at it.

Small fragments are deposited and buried, and pressure from above compacts them into sedimentary rocks like sandstone. According to Dorling Kindersley, sedimentary rocks “cook” into metamorphic stones if buried much more deeply.

Along the way, sediments can be re-eroded, and metamorphic rocks can be re-uplifted. If metamorphic rocks become caught in a subduction zone, where one piece of crust presses beneath another, they can be turned back to magma.

3. The Driest Spot on the Planet is Near the Ocean

The Atacama Desert, located in northern Chile, is the driest location. It is located near the Pacific Ocean, the world’s largest body of water. Arica, Chile, receives only 0.8 millimeters of rain annually. Calama city in Atacama, Chile, has gone 400 years without rain before an unexpected storm in 1972.

The Atacama Desert is cold compared to other deserts because it lacks cyanobacteria, green photosynthetic microorganisms that live on rocks or under stones in its driest areas.

NASA astrobiologists visit the Atacama Desert in search of microbes that can survive in such a harsh environment, in the hopes of learning more about how life can flourish on other worlds.

4. The Himalayas are continually rising, and Nanga Parbat will eventually surpass Everest as the world’s tallest peak

The collision of two continental plates formed the Himalayas. The Himalayas are still rising as a result of the impact. For example, Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, is increasing at a rate of around 4 millimeters every year.

However, Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth-highest mountain at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet) above sea level, is expanding faster than any other prominent location on Earth (at a rate of 7 millimeters each year).

The summit of Mount Everest is 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) above sea level. According to a simple estimate, Nanga Parbat will be the world’s tallest peak in roughly 241,000 years (only a blink of an eye on the geological scale).

5. Desert covers 90% of Libya’s land area

Libya is essentially a desert nation. Desert covers up to 90% of the land. The Libyan Desert is one of the world’s most dry and sun-drenched regions. Rainfall can go for decades in specific locations, and even in the highlands, rain is rare, occurring just once every 5-10 years.

Similarly, the temperature in the Libyan Desert may be high; on September 13, 1922, the village of ‘Aziziya, southwest of Tripoli, set a world record by recording an air temperature of 58 degrees Celsius (136.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

However, the World Meteorological Organization annulled the 58°C world record in September 2012, and Furnace Creek reclaimed the title.

6. The Great Wall of China isn’t the only Manufactured Structure Visible from Space.

The Great Wall of China is usually advertised as the only human-made landmark visible from space. However, this is a widespread Earth fallacy. Most of the time, it isn’t visible from the outside. According to NASA, seeing or photographing the Great Wall is impossible even from low Earth orbit. Only under certain conditions and with a magnifying lens can it be seen.

After astronaut Leroy Chiao captured images using a zoom lens from the International Space Station, the Great Wall of China tale was resurrected.

He took a picture of the Great Wall in Inner Mongolia, some 200 miles north of Beijing. On the other hand, Chiao stated that he couldn’t see the Wall without glasses and wasn’t sure if the photograph depicted it accurately.

From space, many more artificial buildings may be seen. For example, the pyramids of Giza are reasonably simple to identify, according to astronauts, but the most conspicuous constructions are highways or bridges across straits. Cities and certain buildings may also be seen from space due to their light, particularly noticeable at night.

7. There is Sometimes a Period of Quiet Before a Storm

There is sometimes quiet before a storm, yet there isn’t always. Warm, humid air rises to the surface during thunderstorms. Water vapor cools and condenses as it grows, forming tiny droplets that create clouds. These droplets cluster together and pile on bigger particles like dust, eventually becoming raindrops.

The rising heated air creates a partial vacuum, causing cold air from high above to be drawn in. This aids in the raindrops are falling. However, air from both sides of the storm front is drawn in by this partial vacuum. Moving air away from the partial vacuum is drawn back, resulting in calm in the storm’s immediate vicinity. As a result, there is a period of quiet preceding the storm.

Thunderstorms, on the other hand, rarely begin calmly. Because most of them are storm clusters with complicated wind patterns, this is the case the stillness before the storm never happens. Instead, it might be pretty windy before the storm!

8. A 4,000-meter (13,000-foot) Underground River Runs Beneath the Amazon

An underground river has been uncovered underneath the enormous Amazon River, kilometers below the surface.

Scientists discovered this river after analyzing data from 241 wells drilled in the Amazon region by Brazilian oil company Petrobras in the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, scientists gave the river the informal name Hamza.

The Hamza, like the Amazon, flows west to east but at a depth of around 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) beneath the Earth’s surface. The river runs vertically at about 2,000 feet (600 meters), according to computer calculations.

9. Oceans are Home to Over a Million Species

According to scientists, the ocean is home to around one million animal species. However, invertebrates without a backbone, such as jellyfish and shrimp, account for the vast majority of them (95 percent).

The ocean has some of the world’s tiniest creatures. For example, Zooplankton is a sea species that can only be seen under a microscope. Great white sharks, manta rays, and ocean sunfish swim through these waters, among other large fish.

A blue whale is the world’s most giant animal. Ocean animals include dolphins, porpoises, and sea lions.

10. Earth’s Magnetic Poles Shift.

The magnetic north pole was positioned in Canada in the twentieth century. Greenland hosted it in 2000. And now, some two decades later, the magnetic north pole is on its way to Siberia, migrating eastward at a rate of around 40 kilometers per year. As a result, the Earth’s magnetic field is prone to reversing the polarity, putting the Earth and our technologies in danger.

The Earth’s magnetic field is produced by a geodynamo, which is an electrically conducting liquid at the Earth’s core. The convection currents between the Earth’s inner and outer core move this liquid about. As it does, hot liquid iron packed with electrons rises toward the surface of the external body, cools, gets denser, and falls again. This mechanism creates the magnetic field.

However, when the globe spins, the fluid travels with it, and its viscosity contributes to the flow pattern, resulting in a tangled network of magnetic field lines. As a result, the flow is chaotic, but it travels extremely slowly; therefore, the poles shift gradually.

The Bottom Line

Science assumes that the universe’s items and occurrences follow predictable patterns that may be deduced via thorough, systematic investigation.

The study of the planet and the discovery of its breathtaking nature is not completed yet. So, maybe, the scientists will discover more fascinating things about our world and share them with us. Love the Earth till then and protect the planet.

Read More Top 10 Greenest Cities in the World