Sixty interesting Facts about Earth our home planet with Video

Sixty interesting  Facts about Earth  our home planet with Video

Following are the important and interesting facts about our planet earth, our home which we humans are destroying it slowly and steaditly.




1.   
Earth  is the third planet from the sun

2.   
The word “planet” comes from the Greek word planetai for “wanderer.

3.   
The name “Earth” comes from Old English and Old High Germanic words (eorthe and erda, respectively) for “ground” or “soil

4.   
Earth is the only planet in the Solar System not to be named after a mythical God.

5.   
Earth is called a terrestrial planet because it is made almost entirely of rock and metal.

6.   
Earth is about 4.54 billion years old.

7.   
The Sun provides our planet with warmth, light, and energy.

8.   
Earth moves around the sun in a circular type path.

9.   
Earth can be seen as living organism, it burns, it breathes, it changes color and shape and it recycles.

10.   
Earth got  water in its three states of matter: as a solid (ice), a liquid (sea, rain, etc.) and as a gas (clouds). These are all shown below

11.   
Earth was originally born as a twin to the planet Theia, which was about half as wide as Earth and roughly the size of Mars. The two planets shared an orbit for several million years until they collided. Earth absorbed Theia, and the remaining debris eventually coagulated into Earth’s moon. The mass donated by Theia gave Earth the gravity necessary to sustain a substantial atmosphere.

12.   
Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface, now they only cover 2%

13.   
In 1950, 15% of the earth's land surface was covered by rainforest, now more than 1/2 is gone forever.

14.   
The EARTH has over 1,200,000 species of animals, 300,000 species of plants & 100,000 other species

15.   
The oceans cover some 70 percent of Earth's surface

16.   
If Antarctica were to melt, the sea level would rise over 200 feet.

17.   
The Earth’s atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), argon (.93%), and carbon dioxide (0.03%).

18.   
Earth’s atmosphere divided in 5 sections from the surface: Troposhere (0-13 km), Ozone Layer (13-25 km), Stratosphere (25-50 km), Mesosphere (50-75 km), and Thermosphere (75-150 km)

19.   
Above the mesosphere is the ionosphere. It extends to about 430 miles (690 kilometers) and is so thin it's generally considered part of outer space. The International Space Station and many satellites orbit within the ionosphere.

20.   
Earth sphere is not perfect its mass is distributed unevenly. And uneven mass means slightly uneven gravity.

21.   
Earth has an oblate spheroid meaning it’s slightly flattened on the top and bottom poles.

22.   
Earth has a magnetic field because of the ocean of hot, liquid metal that sloshes around its solid iron core

23.   
Earth is composed of: iron (32%), oxygen (30%), silicon (15%), magnesium (14%), sulfur (3%), nickel (2%), calcium (1.5%), aluminum (1/4%) and the remainder made up of other elements.

24.   
Only 3% water of the earth is fresh, rest 97% salted. Of that 3%, over 2% is frozen in ice sheets and glaciers. Means less than 1% fresh water is found in lakes, rivers and underground.

25.   
Earths main tectonic plates: African plate, Antarctic plate, Indo-Australian Plate, Eurasian Plate, North American Plate, South American Plate, and the Pacific Plate.

26.   
The magnetic South Pole shifts about 5 miles (km) a year and is now located at about 66°S and 139°E on the Adélie Coast of Antarctica.

27.   
Pole Change - occur over hundreds or thousands of years in simple terms north becomes south and south become north  like this pole gets change

28.   
The Earth’s plates move just a few inches a year—about as fast as a person’s fingernails grow.h This continental pattern predicts that 250 million years from now, a new supercontinent will be born.

29.   
Scientist say that once earth got 2 moons and now we got only one moon.  Our moon is called as Luna.

30.   
Average Distance from the Earth to the Moon: 238,857 miles (384,403.1 km)

31.   
Today our earth is green but few scientist say that in earlier times earth was purple.

32.   
Blue Planet -  From outside earth that is space, earth looks blue. Because from space, the oceans combined with our atmosphere make our planet look blue.

33.   
The Largest Ocean of the World is the Pacific Ocean (155,557,000 sq km), It covers nearly one-third of the Earth's surface

34.   
Currently Only on Earth we got human life on other plants there is life but we have not discovered yet. But scientist have already found planets similar to earth

35.   
Earth waistline: At the equator, the circumference of the globe is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers).

36.   
The Earth is approximately 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun. At this distance, it takes about 8 minutes and 19 seconds for sunlight to reach our planet.

37.   
The earth’s orbital speed is 29.8 km per second.

38.   
Every day on earth dust comes from outside from other plantes.

39.   
The tiniest particles are released by comets as their ices vaporize near the sun.

40.   
The saltiest sea in the world is the Red Sea with 41 parts of salt per 1,000 parts of water.

41.   
We feel that we are standing still, but think little and you will understand everyone on this earth moves 24 hours with the earth, on some location speed will fast and on some location it will be slow, just think about big spinning ball.

42.   
Earth moves around the sun at 67,000 miles (107,826 km) per hour.

43.   
The ground on which we humans stand is also recycled one so now hope you will understand the importance of recycle.  To understand the recycle concept you will need to understand the Earth rock cycle which transforms igneous rocks to sedimentary rocks to metamorphic rocks and back again.

44.   
world's largest earthquake was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on May 22, 1960

45.   
Temperature record heat record - El Azizia, Libya, where temperature records from weather stations reveal it hit 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 degrees Celsius) on Setp. 13, 1922

46.   
Lowest Temperature – 128.5°F - Vostok, Antarctica, July 21, 1983 (-89.2°C)

47.   
Antarctica is the highest, driest, and coldest continent on Earth.

48.   
Tallest Mountain - Mount Everest or Mauna Kea. The summit of Mount Everest is higher above sea level than the summit of any other mountain, extending some 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) high. when measured from its true base to summit, Mauna Kea becomes the  tallest mountain measuring a length of about 56,000 feet (17,170 m)

49.   
Earth’s deserts are not composed entirely of sand. Much, about 85% of them, are rocks and gravel.

50.   
The deepest lake in the world is in the former USSR and it is Lake Baikal. It has a length of 400 miles, a width of roughly 30

51.   
Asia Continent is covered 30% of the total earth land area, but represent 60% of the world's population

52.   
Sunlight can penetrate clean ocean water to a depth of 240 feet.

53.   
The sunrays reached at the earth in 8 minutes & 3 seconds

54.   
Angel Falls in Venezuela is the worlds highest waterfall, The water of Falls drops 3,212 feet (979 meters)

55.   
The red planet "Mars" takes 687 Earth-days to go around the Sun, compared to 365 days for Earth.

56.   
The Nile River in Africa is the longest river (6,825 kilometers) of the earth.

57.   
14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year.

58.   
The first Earth Day was held on 22 April, 1970. The day was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson, inspired by anti-war protests and appalled at a major oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969.

59.   
The first Earth Day in Canada  was held in September 1980. It now takes place on April 22.

60.   
April 22 is also International Mother Earth Day , an observance established by the United Nations in 2009.

Watch the video   - Earth: Making of a Planet - National Geographic Channel





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Monday, May 28, 2012

Tags -  Earth Facts Go Green