10 WEIRD FACTS ABOUT PLANET EARTH

10 Weird facts about planet Earth 

1. The name comes from the Anglo Saxons. Every other planet in our solar system is named after a Greek or Roman God. Like Mars is derive from the Roman God of War and Pluto the ruler of the underworld to name a few examples. All planets except our planet Earth.                          

   

   image courtesy :Astronaut photography in Space nasa.gov
   

   The word Earth comes from the Anglo Saxon word Erda, which means “ground” or “soil” and is thought to be 1000 year old.

2. The Antarctic, Researchers have confirmed that the Antarctica contains most of the Earth’s fresh water as it hold about 70% of it and around 90% of that is frozen.

image courtesy: gadventures.com

3. Earth is the only planet with Plate Tectonics, Scientists believe the Earth is made up of 7 major plates of “crust”, which move in different directions up to 4 inches each year. When they crash into each other, it is said the mountains are created. As they are created, they pull apart creating valleys. On the downside however, this also causes earthquakes and volcano to erupt.

4. Earth Twin Planet, Scientists and Researchers now believe that at one point in time, we aren't alone when orbiting the Sun. It is reported that we had a twin planet we call Theia, which was the size of Mars and was 60 degree either in front or behind our planet. About 4.5 billion years ago, Theia crashed into the Earth; most of the planet was absorbed, but larger portions were blown off and merged with material from our planet to create the Moon.  

 

image courtesy: popsci.com

 5. There are not 24 hours in a day. You've probably said to yourself one time or another that there are not enough hours in the day. Well you’re right because there isn't 24 hours in a day. That’s right; the actual time it takes the planet to rotate on its axis is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds.

  6. The Moon’s almost perfect orbit so besides the fact that it’s not made of cheese there are something we don’t know. One thing being that the lunar center is 6000 feet closer to the Earth, which should cause its orbit to be more wobbly/erratic however it is almost perfectly circular. It’s quite a coincidence that the sun happens to be both 400 times bigger than the Moon and also 400 times farther away from Earth, making them appear the same size in the sky. Soon enough, people are going to start making conspiracy theories out of this!

 7. Hottest and coldest temperatures recorded while the coldest place on Earth is Antarctica with its temperature coming in at a staggering -100 degree Fahrenheit, the coldest spot was recorded in July of 1983 was at Vostok Station in Antarctica, where sensors recorded -128.6 degree Fahrenheit. And for comparison the hottest spot was recorded in September of 1922 in Libya, with the temperature being recorded at a blistering 136 degree Fahrenheit.

Vostok Station Antarctica

 8. The Earth is not round. Don’t worry this isn't another “The Earth is flat argument”. No the Earth is without a doubt a sphere, but due to its gravitational forces it is not a perfect circle. In fact, there is bulge around the equator because of this. The Earth’s Polar radius is 3949.99 miles while its equatorial radius is 3963.34 miles.

Earth

 9. 90 percent of Ocean is unexplored so it has been stated that we have only scratched the tip of the surface when it comes to knowing more about our planet. How so, you might ask??? Well we have barely swept the vast depths of our own oceans. In fact, less than 10 percent of the deep blue seas have been explored. The ocean contains 97 percent of our water and 99 percent of the living area. While scientists have identified over 200000 marine species, there are possibly 25 millions, more that scientists have not discovered.

image courtesy:newsread.in

 10. Highest Point in the World

   Due to contrary belief, a lot of people thing that Mount Everest is the tallest point in the entire world. Well it is the tallest mountain as it comes in at 29035 ft. above sea level. However considering we now knows that the Earth is not round as we have previously stated, anything that goes across the equator is likely to be higher. This makes Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador a higher point in the world than Mount Everest, even though its height is 20564 ft. above sea level. The reason it’s classed as a higher point in the world is because it’s placement is on one of the Earth’s bumps giving it a height advantage of 1.5 miles.