15 Things You Didn’t Know About Earth

 

From lakes that actually explode to a twin planet that crashed into Earth once upona time, we count 15 facts about the little blue planet we like to call home15 – 24 Hours, • The common saying goes that there’s only24 hours in a day – but that isn’t actually true, the Earth spins on its axis for 23 hoursand 56 minutes • The reason we add an extra 4 minutes isbecause the distance in which we’ve orbited the sun is so great that it takes some extratime just for us to face the sun again • And since the Earth is spinning slowerand slower every few million years, in around 250 million years a typical day will actuallylast 1. 5 hours longer 14 – Gravity Glitch,• There is an area in Canada known as Hudson Bay with uneven mass – and where there’s unevenmass, there’s uneven gravity • Long-since melted glaciers once linedthe area, but now they’re gone and the burden of gravity remains in both the ice sheetsand underneath the Earth’s crust, leading to lower gravity here than anywhere else onEarth • Don’t get too excited though – it’s notlike you’ll be able to start moon-jumping around Canada – the difference in gravityis only a 0. 005% reduction, so minute that you can’t even feel it13 – Photo, • 65 miles above the atmosphere, the firstever photo of Earth was taken with a camera carried by a V-2 missile in 1946 – it snappeda frame every second and a half and managed to survive re-entry• The scientists who reviewed the footage were beyond ecstatic, jumping up and downwith joy that they could finally see their own world in a still image• Likewise in 1967 the first full-on, colour Earth image was taken by the DODGE satellite,which you can see on-screen here 12 – Ocean Salt,• Most of the salt in our ocean comes from rocks on the shores, mainly because rainwaterwhich is naturally acidic breaks down the rock and distributes their components intothe water • Seawater salt is so dense that if youwere to dissolve all the oceans in the world and spread the remaining salt over all theland on earth, you’d have a 500 foot thick salt layer coating EVERYTHING11 – Rocks Can Walk, • There exists a flat lakebed in Death Valleyknown as Racetrack Playa, in which rocks physically move from place to place• And it’s not just small rocks, but ones weighing tens or hundreds of pounds – thetheory goes that these ice-encrusted rocks are flooded by meltwater from the hills• This makes everything nice and slick which, along with a hard breeze, allows the rockto travel 10 – Twin Planet,• There is a well known theory that at the beginning of Earth’s development there existeda smaller twin planet known as Theia, roughly the size of mars• 4. 5 billion years ago it crashed into Earth and while most of it was absorbed intoEarth’s crust, the rest drifted off and formed that celestial body known as the Moon• The reason this theory came about is because typically planets of Earth’s size don’t havemoons quite so big, and not to mention various matters found on the Moon are somehow sharedwith Earth 9 – Heat,• Many assume the Sun to be our main source of energy, a life-giving ball of energy towhich we are utterly dependent – and that if we ever stopped receiving heat from thesun, the human race would go extinct • In reality, Earth’s core is just as hotas the surface of the Sun – between 5,000 to 7,000 degrees celcius• In the event of a catastrophe say, sun rays are permanently blocked by clouds andall land on Earth freezes, we can still harness the energy within Earth to keep us alive8 – Exploding Lakes, • Three lakes in Cameroon, near the borderof the Congo named Nyos, Monoun and Kivu – more commonly referred to as the exploding lakes• In 1984 on a small stretch of road, a gas cloud appeared and swallowed a great manylocal villagers walking on their way to work before getting swept away with the wind• 37 people were killed instantly, and they discovered the gas cloud was in fact carbondioxide released in an explosion from the lakes, which happened to be sitting abovevolcanic Earth – and continue to do so to this day7 – Unexplored Oceans, • Even though we’ve touched down on theMoon and conquered vast mountains, the truth is we’ve only explored little under 10% ofthe ocean • To this day we’ve only discovered near210,000 underwater species with an estimated 20 million yet to be seen• That means a distant fish-human hybrid may indeed have evolved somewhere deep beneaththe ocean surface, and mermaids could still be a real thing – either that, or more speciesof fungus 6 – Supercontinent,• Back a long time ago when dinosaurs first roamed the Earth, there existed a supercontinentcalled Pangaea that merged all the countries of the world together into one landmass• But did you know that another supercontinent will form in the next 250 million years?• It’s name will be Pangaea Ultima, including a subduction of the western Atlantic, thedestruction of the Atlantic and Indian basin, rejoining America with Africa and Europe – thecentre of this giant landmass effectively a semi-arad desert prone to extreme temperatures5 – Leaving a Mark, • Nuclear tests in the 1950s continuingto this day have thrown dust into the atmosphere circling our planet – most of it falls downas rain and snow, but some gets trapped in glaciers• These glaciers formed over millions of years leave timeline indicators that helpscientists date the exact time that piece of ice formed in Earth’s history• Which means when scientists of the future look at our glacier slice, they’ll no doubtshake their heads and whisper a gentle “goddamnit” • That’s IF the glaciers survive their rapidmelting from global warming – which they aren’t 4 – Earth Isn’t Round,• For a long time in Earth’s history, people have believed the world is flat and no doubtyou’ll find people tell you this even in the comment section of this video• But the Earth isn’t exactly round either – there’s a bulge inside the equator stretchingabout 20 miles outwards, which actually gives it more of a rotund appearance if you lookat it from the right angle • So while it is technically circle, likeall bodies that have eaten take away one too many times, the slight gut gives it away3 – Underwater Gold, • If you were to go exploring in the deep,vast oceans, you might discover some flakes of gold, but did you know there are more than20 million tons of gold at the bottom of the sea?• The only reason we haven’t grabbed our scuba gear and excavation equipment is becausethe gold is spread out over such a wide area, where one litre of water contains just 13billionths of a gram of gold that people don’t think it’s worth it• There currently doesn’t exist any efficient way of harvesting this gold – but if we couldmanage it, we’d have enough to give every single person on earth 9 pounds worth of gold2 – Largest Living Thing, • Most would point to the Blue Whale ifasked to identify the largest living creature on this planet, but there exists another livingorganism that could easily top it • One mushroom grows fungus which tunnelsunderground, one particular variety of honey mushroom found in Oregon was discovered tobe over 2,200 acres big, stretching all underground • Try to imagine yourself with body hairspanning over 2,000 football fields and you’re able to feel everything that comes into contactwith it – and you’ll know what it’s like to be this mushroom1 – Super-Earths • Earth has always been a curious placebecause it’s only just barely far enough away from the sun not to get burnt, but not sofar that it freezes • Scientists have been searching througha number of exoplanets, planets that orbit another star other than our sun that happento be in the habitable zone, not too hot and not too cold – just enough of both to sustainlife as we know it • Since 2012, several Super-Earths havebeen discovered considerably bigger than Earth but still in the habitable zone – we’ve evenseen a planet discovered this year that is roughly the same size, could theoreticallysustain life and orbits a red dwarf • There’s no telling if we’ll ever findanother Earth – that’s a job left to the future generations.