At the equator, the earth’s surface (due to the earth’s rotation) is traveling about 1000 miles per hour. Of course, if you’re having a problem with motion sickness you could always move to one of the poles, right?
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970401c.html
In addition, the earth is traveling about 18.55 miles per second as it wings around the sun. That would be close to 66,780 miles per hour. Wow…
http://members.aol.com/nlpjp/speed.htm
One more… our solar system is zipping around the center of our Milky Way Galaxy at around 135 miles per second. Or… right at 486,000 miles per hour. OK, that’s way too fast. I’m getting off at the next stop…
http://members.aol.com/nlpjp/speed.htm
Even though we all know the moon is not a blue color, “blue moons” have been seen from earth. This has happened mainly after a volcanic eruption as the one micron particles in the air scattered the red light so the moon appeared blue or green.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/07jul_bluemoon.htm
The setting sun may look slightly squashed or even appear to slow down as it sets simply because the light closest to the horizon is refracted upward by the larger amount of air we’re looking through at this lower level.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sun_mysteries_020716-1.html
Under special conditions – especially involving a low horizon with a long view – the sun can appear to produce a green flash just as it sets. It’s also a light refraction thing…
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sun_mysteries_020716-1.html
Contrary to the way it may appear, a rising moon or sun is not larger than when it’s more overhead. It’s exactly the same size but our brain tricks us into believing that it’s larger. One of nature’s wonderful illusions…
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/20jun_moonillusion.htm
Oceans and marginal seas cover almost 71 percent of the earth’s surface.
http://www.ody.org/newsroom/fun_facts.htm
The earth’s oceans contain about 328 million cubic miles of sea water. That’s almost 98 percent of the earth’s total water.
http://www.ody.org/newsroom/fun_facts.htm
The surface area of the Pacific Ocean is larger than that of all the land area combined.
http://www.ody.org/newsroom/fun_facts.htm
The Antarctic ice sheet is almost twice the size of the United States. We won’t be happy if it melts…
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/education_oceanographic_facts.html
The world’s tallest known iceberg (measured by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1958) was 550 high. That’s only 5 ft 6 in shorter than the Washington Monument.
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/education_oceanographic_facts.html
The highest tides in the world are in the Bay of Fundy which separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia. The difference between high and low tide can be as much as 53 feet, 6 inches.
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/education_oceanographic_facts.html
The world’s largest tsunami was 210 feet above sea level when it hit Siberia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in 1737.
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/education_oceanographic_facts.html
Alaska and California have more earthquakes – and stronger ones – than any of the other states in the U.S.
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/061120_quake_states.html
The tallest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Canaima National Park, Venezuela. It is 3,212 feet (979 m) high with a freefall drop of 2,647 feet. That’s about 15 times higher than Niagara Falls.
http://www.thelostworld.org/angel.htm
The Angel Falls of Venezuela are named after their “discoverer”, Jimmy Angel – a maverick bush pilot hired by geologist and explorer J.R. McCracken to fly to the Venezuelan outback.
http://www.thelostworld.org/angel.htm
The tallest waterfall in the U.S. is Yosemite Falls with a vertical drop of 2,425 feet.
http://geology.com/records/highest-waterfall.shtml
Estimates vary widely, but it’s possible that 40,000 tons (+/- 20,000 tons) of space (cosmic) dust get deposited on the earth each year. (That was kind of a wishy-washy fact, wasn’t it? Sorry…)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/08/29/cosmic.dust/index.html
The Nile River is the longest river in the world. It’s 4,132 miles long.
http://www.nileriver.com/nile/nileinfo/nileriver.htm
The earth’s diameter at the equator is 7,926 miles (12,756 km). It is slightly less at the poles.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/
At the equator, the earth’s surface is moving - because of rotation - at about 1,040 miles per hour. We are also whipping around the sun at a speed of 18.64 miles per second. Man, that’s moving!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/
The largest desert (defined as an area receiving less than 250mm – about 10 inches - of rain in a year) in the world is… Antarctica, covering an area of 5.5 million square miles.
http://geology.com/records/largest-desert.shtml
OK, OK… the Sahara is the largest non-polar desert with an area of 3.5 million square miles.
http://geology.com/records/largest-desert.shtml
The largest meteorite in the world – the Hoba - is estimated to weigh over 60 tons and is still laying where it landed on the Hoba farm in northern Nambia.
http://www.namibweb.com/hoba.htm
The world’s largest – and oldest – known meteorite impact site is the Vredefort Dome astrobleme southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. It measures about 380 km (236 miles) in diameter.
http://www.tvdc.co.za/whinfo.htm
At 1,373 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on the land surface of the earth. It’s also one of the saltiest and most mineral-laden bodies of water in the world.
http://www.deadsea.co.il/ENA/Fast_Facts_History/Fast_Facts.htm
The peak of the volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador is considered to be the point on the earth’s surface farthest from the center of the earth. At 6,267 m high (20,561 ft.), it’s far from being the tallest mountain but because of its location on the earth’s slightly bulging equator, its peak is consequently farther from the earth’s center.
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_chimbarozo.html
http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=8400
The largest earthquake recorded since 1900 occurred on May 22, 1960 in Chile. It registered 9.5 on the Richter Scale. The monster that hit Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 28, 1964, ranks number two at a 9.2.
http://www.infoplease.com/toptens/worldearthquakes.html
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/world/1960_05_22.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1964_03_28.php
Aconcagua, in western Argentina, is the highest peak in the western hemisphere, topping out at 22,834 ft – plus or minus a few feet depending on who you talk to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua
http://www.peakware.com/highest.html?list=7summits
The world’s highest lake at 19,000 ft. “lies inside the crater of Licancabur, a dormant volcano that straddles the border between Chile and Bolivia.” And yes, Lake Tiiticaca, at 12,536 ft., on the border of Peru and Bolivia is still the world’s highest navigable lake.
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/licancabur2_021028.html
The highest point in Florida is Britton Hill (in Walton County in the panhandle), measuring in at a whopping 345 ft above sea level.
http://www.peakware.com/highest.html?list=50states1
Mount Everest is the world’s tallest mountain, right? Nope. Measured from base to tip, Mauna Kea of Hawaii is the tallest coming in at 33.476 feet – give or take a couple of feet depending on who you talk to. Of course, about 19,680 feet of that is underwater.
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/funfacts/worldstallestmountain.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea
The deepest water on earth is found near Guam at the Marianas Trench whose bottom at the deepest point (The Challenger Deep) lies 35,797 feet (10,911 meters) below sea level. The way I figure it, that’s about 6.8 miles. Man, that is a lot of water!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_Deep
The deepest fresh water lake in the world? At 5,250 feet (1600 meters) deep, it’s Lake Baikal in Southern Siberia in Russia. It’s also the largest volume-wise, containing over 20% of the earth’s fresh water – more than the total of the Great Lakes of North America combined.
http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/baikal/
The geographical center of the U.S. – or at least the lower 48 states – was determined to be near Lebanon, Kansas by balancing a cardboard cutout of the U.S. on a point to find the center (balance) point.
http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/lotl/lotlsp99/geo.html
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/GeoCenter_USA1.pdf
There are over 500 active volcanoes (erupting, producing earthquakes or gaseous emissions) in the world. Of these, about 10 are erupting on any given day.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/volcano.htm/printable
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/
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