SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT EARTH- COMPILED BY Dr.KESIRAJU RAMPRASAD

7/30/2019 SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT EARTH- COMPILED BY Dr.KESIRAJU RAMPRASAD

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SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT EARTH

THE EARTH IS NOT ROUND

No, no I'm not a member of the Flat Earth Society. The Earth is a sphere, but due to its

gravitational forces it is not a perfect circle. In fact, there is a bulge around the equatorbecause of this. The Earth's Polar radius is 3,949.99 miles, while its Equatorial radius is

3,963.34 miles. That's right: the Earth has love handles.


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It's not a perfect sphere. As Earth spins, gravity points toward thecenter of our planet (assuming for explanation's sake that Earth is aperfect sphere), and a centrifugal force pushes outward. But sincethis gravity-opposing force acts perpendicular to the axis of Earth,and Earth's axis is tilted, centrifugal force at the equator is not exactlyopposed to gravity. This imbalance adds up at the equator, wheregravity pushes extra masses of water and earth into a bulge, or"spare tire" around our planet

THE BIG BLUE MARBLE

The earth is, in fact, not really round. It is called an ablate spheroid

meaning its slightly flattened on the top and bottom poles.


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On the Move

You may feel like you're standing still, but you're actually moving fast. Depending on where you are on the globe, you could bespinning through space at just over 1,000 miles per hour. People onthe equator move the fastest, while someone standing on the Northor South pole would be perfectly still. (Imagine a basketball spinningon your finger. A random point on the ball's equator has farther to goin a single spin as a point near your finger. Thus, the point on theequator is moving faster.)

(Photo shown here, a true-color image taken on May 5, 2000, by an

instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft, over the North Pole, withsea ice shown in white and open water in black.)


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Oh yeah, and the Earth isn't just spinning: It's also moving

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


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OLD ROCK


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It's Old

Researchers calculate the age of the Earth by dating both the oldestrocks on the planet and meteorites that have been discovered onEarth (meteorites and Earth formed at the same time, when the solarsystem was forming). Their findings? Earth is about 4.54 billion yearsold.

(Photo shown here, what may be the oldest known rocks on Earth,called the Nuvvuagittuq Belt on the coast of the Hudson Bay inNorthern Quebec,

and dating back to 4.28 billion years ago, scientists estimate.)


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Creeping Magnetic Pole

Earth has a magnetic field because of the ocean of hot,

liquid metal that sloshes around its solid iron core, or that'swhat geophysicists are pretty certain is the cause. This flowof liquid creates electric currents, which, in turn, generate themagnetic field. Since the early 19th century, Earth'smagnetic north pole has been creeping northward by morethan 600 miles (1,100 kilometers), according to NASA


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scientists. The rate of movement has increased, with thepole migrating northward at about 40 miles (64 km) per yearcurrently, compared with the 10 miles (16 km) per yearestimated in the 20th century.

Gets Recycled

The ground you're walking on is recycled. Earth's rock cycletransforms igneous rocks to sedimentary rocks to


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metamorphic rocks and back again. The cycle isnt a perfectcircle, but the basics work like this: Magma from deep in theEarth emerges and hardens into rock (that's the igneouspart). Tectonic processes uplift that rock to the surface,

where erosion shaves bits off. These tiny fragments getdeposited and buried, and the pressure from abovecompacts them into sedimentary rocks such as sandstone. Ifsedimentary rocks get buried even deeper, they "cook" intometamorphic rocks under lots of pressure and heat. Alongthe way, of course, sedimentary rocks can be re-eroded ormetamorphic rocks re-uplifted. But if metamorphic rocks getcaught in a subduction zone where one piece of crust is

pushing under another, they may find themselvestransformed back into magma.


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Pole Flip-FlopsIn fact over the past 20 million years, our planet has settled into a pattern of a pole reversal about every200,000 to 300,000 years; as of 2012, however, it has been more than twice that long since the lastreversal. These reversals aren't split-second flips, and instead occur over hundreds or thousands of years.During this lengthy stint, the magnetic poles start to wander away from the region around the spin poles (theaxis around which our planet spins), and eventually end up switched around, according to Cornell Universityastronomers


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Once a Supercontinent

The Earth's continents are thought to have collided tobecome supercontinents and broken apart again severaltimes in Earth's 4.5 billion year history. The most recentsupercontinent was Pangaea, which began to break apartabout 200 million years ago; the landmasses that comprisedPangaea eventually wandered into the current configuration


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of continents.

Every other planet in our solar system is named after a Greek or Roman God, except our

planet. The word Earth comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Erda, which means ground

or soil and is thought to be 1,000 years old. Ironically, the planet is covered by 71%water -- the only planet we know of in the entire universe to have this precious fluid in

liquid form.

They are not 24 hours in a day


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People often claim there aren't enough hours in the day and they're right not even 24.

That's right, the actual time it takes the planet to rotate on its axis is 23 hours 56 minutes

and 4 seconds. This is what's called a sidereal day. The solar day, the time it takes for thesun to return to the same spot on the meridian, varies as much as 16 minutes throughout

the year, due to the position in its orbit. (Don't ask us to explain how we figure out what

time it is, we'll leave that to the nerds in the comments section.)

Earth Is The Only Planet With Plate Tectonics


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Scientists believe the Earth is made up of 7 major plates of crust,

which move in different directions up to 4 inches per year. When they

crash into each other, the theory goes, mountains are born; where they

pull apart we have valleys. On the scary side these also cause

earthquakes and volcanoes. The good news is that all this activity allows

for carbon -- essential to our very existence -- to be recycled and

replenished, allowing life as we know it to continue.

Earth is mostly iron, oxygen and silicon

If you could separate the Earth out into piles of material,youd get 32.1 % iron, 30.1% oxygen, 15.1% silicon, and13.9% magnesium. Of course, most of this iron is actuallydown at the core of the Earth. If you could actually get downand sample the core, it would be 88% iron. 47% of theEarths crust consists of oxygen.

Earth Had a Twin Planet Called Theia


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Scientists now believe that we were once not alone in our orbit around the Sun we had a

twin planet we call Theia, which was the size of Mars and was 60 degrees either in

front or behind our Big Blue Ball. One afternoon about 4.533 billion years ago, Theia

crashed into the Earth; most of the planet was absorbed, but a large chunk blew off andcombined with materials from our planet to create the Moon. Why do we think this? It's

because our Moon is unusually large for a planet of our size and has metallic isotopes

similar to those on Earth.

The Oceans are over 90% Unexplored


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So we've (allegedly) been to the Moon and to Mars, but guess what? We have barely

begun to visit the depth of our vast oceans. In fact, less than 10% of the deep blue seas

have been explored. The ocean contains 97% of our water and 99% of the living area.While we have identified 212,906 marine species, there are possibly 25 million more that

we DON'T know about. Suddenly, the Loch Ness Monster doesn't seem so far-fetched.

Coldest Temperature: -128.6 F


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While the coldest place on Earth is Antarctica (-100 degrees F) the coldest spot wasrecorded on July 21, 1983 at Vostok Station in Russia, where sensors recorded 128.6

degrees F. (That's a cold summer!) The hottest spot recorded? On Sept. 13, 1922 El

Azizia, Libya registered 136 degrees F.


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Highest Point on Earth Is Not Mount Everest

True, it's one of the most famous mountains in the world, and at 29,035 ft. above sea

level it's pretty darn tall. However, considering we now know that the Earth is not round(see #1), anyone or anything along the equator is slightly closer to the stars. This means

that although Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is just 20,564 ft. above sea level, because it

is on this bump it is technically further away from the Earth's center (i.e. higher) thanEverest by 1.5 miles!.

The Earth Atmosphere


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The Earths atmosphere extends out to 10,000 kmThe atmosphere is thickest within the first 50 km or so, but itactually reaches out to about 10,000 km above the surfaceof the planet. This outermost layer of the atmosphere iscalled the exosphere, and starts about 500 km above thesurface of the Earth. As we said, it goes all the way up to

10,000 km above the surface. At this point, free-movingparticles can actually escape the pull of Earths gravity, andbe blown away by the Suns solar wind.But this high atmosphere is extremely thin. The bulk of theEarths atmosphere is down near the Earth itself. In fact,75% of the Earths atmosphere is contained within the first


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11 km above the planets surface.

The DESERTS

Believe it or not, most of the Earths deserts are not composed entirely

of sand. Much, about 85% of them, are rocks and gravel. The largest,the Sahara, fills about 1/3 of Africa (and it is growing constantly) whichwould nearly fill the continental United States


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The largest inland sea (or, sometimes called a lake) is the Caspian Seawhich is on the border of Iran and Russia


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Our home, Earth, is the third planet from the sun and the only world

known to support an atmosphere with free oxygen, oceans of liquidwater on the surface and the big one life.

Earth Facts The Blue Planet

Earth is referred to as the BLUE PLANET. WHY? Becausefrom space, the oceans combined with our atmospheremake our planet look blue. .


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It is the only planet whose name has not been derived fromthe Roman or Greek mythology? The name has originatedfrom the 8th century Anglo Saxon word- Erda. This meansground or soil .

More than 80% of the earth's surface is volcanic.

The Earth is known by many names -Herda,Erda,Dharti,Jord,,Gaiya,Hlodyn,Jord are few of theseexamples.

The we shrank Earth's history in 24 hours, we human beingswould appear only in lasr two minutes. It tells that the Earth

was present in this universe much before the human beings .

The Sun is 333,000 times as large as our earth.

The temperature of earth's inner core is as high as 7000degrees ,which is even more than the temperature on thesurface of the Sun .

Only 11 percent of the earth's surface is used to grow food. .

70% of the Earths surface is covered in water. .

Planet Earth rotates around the Sun at approximately 1000miles per hour. .

The Earth is like a great big magnet,so it pulls everythingtowards it. This pulling force of earth is called gravity. .

Earth doesnt take 24 hours to rotate on its axis.Its actually

23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. .

A year on Earth isnt 365 days .Its actually 365.2564 days.Its this extra .2564 days that creates the need for leapyears. .

Earth has 1 moon and 2 co-orbital satellites .


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Oceans occupy nearly 71 percent of the surface of earth .

Ten percent of the earth's surface is covered by ice .

The deepest part of the Earth is Pacific Ocean , it is calledthe Mariana Trench. It is deeper than Mount Everest ishigh! .

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. This is also the fifthlargest planet in the entire solar system.Earth is the onlyplanet known to have life.

The air on earth consists of around 78 percent nitrogen with21 percent oxygen. This air also contains 1 percent of otheringredients.

The temperature of the earth's interior increases by 1 degreeevery 60 feet down.

It takes eight and a half minutes for light to get from the sunto earth.

Geology is the study of the rocks that form the planets

surface. Geologists examine rocks to find out about thehistory of the Earth and how Earth was formed.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth and its peakis 8848 meters above sea level. And amazingly it is gainingheight

April 22 ,every year is celebrated as Earth Day.April 22 is thefirst official day of Spring in the Northern hemisphere and of

Fall in the Southern hemisphere and was chosen to be EarthDay for this reason

The Earths atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen(77%), oxygen (21%), argon (.93%), and carbon dioxide(0.03%).


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Earth has 3 layers,Crust (upper part),Mantle(middle part) &Core (inner-most part),out of these Crust is the lightest.

Seismometer is the device with which earth-quackes is

measured.Richter scale shows intensity of earth-quake -thatis how strong the waves are on seismometer.

Antarctica is world's longest glacier.

The Earth's equatorial circumference (40,075 km) is greaterthan its polar circumference (40,008 km..

The highest recorded temperature on Earth is 136F (58C)in Libya in 1922..

The lowest recorded temperature on Earth is -128.6F (-89.6C) in Antarctica in 1983.

One fifth of land surface is covered by deserts

Astronomy is study of outer space , a person who works inthis field is known as astronomer.

Nicolaus Coppenicus was ,the astronomer, who first realizedthat earth moves round the sun.

( I have received a mail my friend. I have added some more

information.)

COMPILED

Dr.Kesiraju Ramprasad


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Educational psychologist.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT EARTH- COMPILED BY Dr.KESIRAJU RAMPRASAD

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