40 Earth Facts Opening Our Eyes About Our Incredible Planet

Now, you probably learned in geography class that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth. But that information is actually factually incorrect. The highest peak on our planet — from base to summit — is really Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. Everest is the highest above sea level — but not overall. Mind blown.

Earth is the sole planet to host living organisms that we know of, and it does so for around 8.7 million different species. But mind-bogglingly, less than 15 percent of them have been categorized by us. And with the onset of climate change, many species are sadly dying out — at a rate estimated to be somewhere from 0.01 to 0.1 percent extinctions per annum.

Earth predominantly consists of just four elements: iron, silicon, magnesium, and oxygen. Indeed, if you were to separate our planet’s components into well-ordered heaps, you’d discover that you had 32.1 percent iron, 30.1 percent oxygen, a little over 15 percent silicon and just under 14 percent magnesium. This isn’t evenly spread out, though: 47 percent of the Earth’s crust is oxygen, while close to 90 percent of the core’s iron.

The Great Wall of China is often said to be the only man-made structure that can be seen from space. But this isn’t true. In actual fact, from the International Space Station some 250 miles in the sky, you can spot numerous artificial landmarks. Where you judge that space starts will impact what you can see, of course. For instance, you won’t identify any structures from the Moon — just some indistinct lights in major urban areas.

Here’s one that might frighten you to your very core. Scientists guesstimate that there are around 6,000 lightning flashes somewhere on Earth each minute of every day. Scarier still, every lightning bolt — which is encased by 54,000° F gases — is not one, not two, but five times hotter than the Sun. Lastly, the electrical charge from the heavens strikes in less than half a second, so get indoors and avoid metal!

Now, you’ve probably read and believe that every sea has a coastline, right? Oceans are the seemingly endless open water stretches, while seas all boast a land border. Well, no actually. There’s a single body of water to which this almighty rule doesn’t apply: the Sargasso Sea. Yes, this particular one — which is situated on the Atlantic’s western side — borders no land. Interesting!

The sole planet that has plate tectonics in the Solar System is Earth. And they help keep it comfortable. How? Well, the regions of our globe’s outer crust — which float on top of the magma interior — sometimes shift beside one another. Upon a collision, one of the plates will go underneath, and where they pull apart, a new crust will be created.

Not trying to alarm you or anything, but just in case you didn’t already know: our planet is speeding through the galaxy right now at 66,000 mph. That’s right: Earth’s being propelled at an astonishing pace as it orbits the Sun. But because we’re continually in motion, we don’t realize this mind-blowing thing is happening all the time. Phew!

It’s a well-known fact that the oceans are vast. But it might surprise you just how vast they are. This fact will perhaps illustrate their enormity better than any. Ready? Here goes. We, as humans, have surveyed less than 5 percent of the planet's oceans. That's nothing! Most of the sea floor has never been examined because its depths are impenetrable to radio waves.

If you were to pinpoint the deepest place on Earth that doesn’t sit beneath an ocean, where’d you pick? Well, if you went for Antarctica, give yourself a pat on the back. Yes, the South Pole continent’s the deepest in that category. Specifically the Bentley Subglacial Trench, which drops almost 8,400 feet under sea level.

The Earth is round; we all learnt that in school. That’s indisputable, right? We hate to break it to you, but not quite! It actually has a bulge of sorts in the middle, almost as if it’s had one too many takeaways. As such, it’d be more accurately described as an oblate spheroid.

Here’s a fact that’ll blow your mind: not everywhere on Earth has the same level of gravity. No, really. Given the inconsistent shape of the planet, its gravity isn’t entirely consistent, either. So, Hudson Bay in Canada has gravity levels that are below average, for example. In this case specifically because of a massive ice sheet that impacted on the planet’s surface some 10,000 years ago.

We all know about the Earth’s moon. Well, we certainly should do, as you can see it almost every night! But you might not be aware that there are also two asteroids that have co-orbital orbits around our home planet. Astrologers have named them 2002 AA29 and 3753 Cruithne and they belong to a bigger group of asteroids referred to as Near-Earth Objects. Intriguing!

Just how far away is the Moon from Earth, do you think? Sometimes it looks so large and clear in the night sky that it feels as though you could get there on a short haul flight. But the Moon is actually almost 240,000 miles from our planet. A well-fueled Boeing 747 might be able to get you there in two-and-a-half weeks, in case you were wondering.

While there are quite a lot of volcanoes on Earth, only around six of them have achieved supervolcano status. To be classified as super a volcano must have a volcanic center with a Volcanic Explosivity Index eruption magnitude of 8. Examples can be found in Taupo, New Zealand, Indonesia’s Toba, and Yellowstone in the U.S.

There are areas of the Earth that get extremely cold. Antarctica’s chief among them and holds the title for the coldest area in the world, beating its northern neighbor the Arctic to the award. So, just how cold can it become? Well, the record low, which was verified by both the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA, was in the East Antarctic Plateau. The temperature recorded being a rather chilly -133.6° F. Brrr!

Ever wondered what the largest living organism on Earth is? Well, wonder no more, as we can tell you that it’s Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The underwater wonder spans more than 1,400 miles across the Coral Sea some way off the Queensland coast. It’s home to over 1,500 different types of fish and around 100 jellyfish species.

We all learnt in school that the Sahara in Africa’s the world’s biggest desert. But this widely accepted fact is actually false! Yes, believe it or not, the biggest desert on our planet is actually Antarctica. A desert you see, is somewhere that’s desolate and dry. It doesn’t need to be sandy and sweltering. Antarctica, then, also fulfills these criteria, given it gets only 2 inches of rain or snow annually and is so inhospitable that it contains barely any land mammals. It spans 5.4 million square miles — 1.8 million more than the Sahara.

This one sounds barely believable when you read it out loud. But boffins have done some significant studies on cosmic dust and estimated that around 60 tons of the stuff drops out of the atmosphere every day. You may well have breathed some of it in during your daily commute. Crazy!

As you’ll likely know unless you live in the Antarctic or Siberia, life on Earth can be rather hot and uncomfortable at times. But the record temperature on our planet might still shock you. It was here in the U.S. state of California, down in Death Valley. The thermometer reached a terrifying 134° F — or approaching 57° C — one day during 1913!

Did you know that planet Earth’s rotation is slowing down? It’s true, though it’s practically unnoticeable. Approximately 17 milliseconds each hundred years. So it won’t be until 140 million years in the future that calendars will have to be changed to make way for 25 hour days!

Now, a lot of us like to play in the snow, whether having a snowball fight or skiing down some piste. But just how much snowfall the Earth experiences each year will likely blow your mind. Yes, our planet gets roughly one million billion cubic feet of snow per annum, which weighs in at a million billion kilos. Wow!

The steepest cliff on the surface of the Earth? Well that’d be on the epically named Mount Thor, which towers over Baffin Island in Canada’s Auyuittuq National Park. There’s a 4,000 feet rock-face up there that even the most seasoned of climbers have thought twice about attempting. It was first conquered in 1985 by a four-man American team, taking them a whopping 33 days.

Here are some interesting facts about our planet’s atmosphere. It spans out approximately 10,000 km into the solar system and consists of five principal sections: the Exosphere, the Thermosphere, the Mesosphere, the Stratosphere, and the Troposphere. The first 50 km from the surface is the thickest part, with the air pressure decreasing the further you go into space.

Where’s the deepest point on Earth, you’re perhaps wondering. Thankfully, we have that kind of information to hand and can tell you now that it’s called Challenger Deep. This is a section of the Mariana Trench in the western part of the Pacific Ocean and it’s nearly seven miles deep. Only three people have ever been down it — and one of them is famed film director James Cameron!

The Amazon Rainforest in South America’s often called the lungs of the Earth. And this is a deserved title, as the colossal rainforest — which spans much of Northern Brazil and on into Colombia and Venezuela — produces around one fifth of all of our oxygen. The Amazon’s so large at 2.1 million square miles that it’d be the world’s ninth largest country if it ever acquired such nation status.

Here are some remarkable facts about the water on planet Earth. A whopping 97 percent of it is saltwater, which fills our oceans and seas and we cannot drink. Rivers, lakes, and marshlands meanwhile, account for a tiny 0.3 percent of all the Earth’s water. The glaciers hold more than two-thirds of our freshwater. We aren’t known as the Blue Planet for nothing, you know.

Many of you probably believe that the Grand Canyon’s the biggest canyon in the world. But the reality, as epic as the site is, is that Arizona’s most famous landmark holds neither the record for the widest nor deepest canyon on our planet. Nope, both those titles go to Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo, which beats the G.C. handily, with around two miles more depth and 30 miles more length.

The Moon’s gravity controls the Earth’s tides, right? Erm, not quite. It certainly has an effect but in reality it’s the interplay between the Earth, the Sun, and Moon that formulates a tidal force. Earth’s gravity is 10 million times greater than the Moon’s, too. So quite a bit stronger! And it’s more accurate to describe it as a “push” than a “pull,” even though the latter’s what you often hear people say.

Heard of the Goldilocks Zone? No? Well, it’s the particular area that Earth inhabits in space. It’s only in this zone that the necessary temperatures for water to stay liquefied are found. You see, a celestial planet or object can only orbit so close or so far from its star before any water present on its surface would freeze or boil away. Astronomers have found another planet called Kepler-186f in the same zone, which may lead us to more water and life.

Did you know that one day the North Pole will be the South and vice versa? “What are you talking about?” you’re probably thinking. But we aren’t mad: the reality is that the North and South Poles do trade places due to magnetic fields that push against one another and gradually move our planet’s magnetic poles. This means in 200,000 to 300,000 years the Pole swap will be complete!

Bang your foot up and down on the Earth’s natural rocky surface somewhere and you could easily be fooled into thinking it’s totally solid and unchanging. But you’d be wrong. Our planet’s surface actually regenerates itself, through the tectonic plates process. This takes roughly 500 million years, though, so we won’t see it in real time, sadly.

The world’s longest chain of mountains is the Andes in South America, right? Erm, no actually. There’s a longer one that spans more than 40,000 miles, most of which is underwater. It’s called the Mid-Ocean Ridge and it was constructed by magma rising into gaps when the Earth’s plates moved. Amazingly, it’s approximately 36,000 miles longer than the above-sea Andes!

Here’s a myth we want to dispel: tectonic plates only move apart because volcanic activity pushes them. The reality’s that the older edges of a tectonic plate — which are cooler and denser — are recycled when they sink into the mantle. Ocean ridges subsequently appear and the tectonic plate’s formed by hot, buoyant rock that convects upwards and rises through the weakest point.

Now we’ve all heard of treasures that’ve entered the ocean on sunken ships. But did you know that the oceans already contained a huge amount of gold? Well, it’s true. And scientists guesstimate that there are 20 million tons of it, which would hold a value of around $771 trillion! It’s all in tiny particles though, so don’t bother diving deep looking for gold bullion!

This really strange and seemingly counterintuitive fact surprised us. During summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth isn’t nearer to the Sun. In fact, the reverse is true: it’s at its farthest point from the Sun in the summer months. But how? Well it’s all due to the Earth being tilted, so as it orbits, the Sun’s heat is able to reach us more easily. Weird.

Climate change is affecting planet Earth in numerous ways and the U.S. has suffered considerably from its negative effects. For instance, the National Centers for Environmental Information reported that natural disasters across America during 2021 cost the nation close to $150 billion. It cited 20 particular incidents including cyclones, wildfires, and floods. Yikes.

Sorry to be super pedantic here, but it doesn’t take Earth 24 hours to rotate on its axis. No, the specific time taken is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds, in a process known as Sidereal Day. Likewise, a year isn’t quite 365 days but 365.2564 days; this discrepancy allows for a quadrennial leap year. Ah, close enough, we guess.

Lakes are tranquil bodies of water that we like to swim or boat across, and relax by in the summer. Right? Well, mostly. But some lakes aren’t so idyllic and can actually explode! Yes, several in Africa have experienced these scary transformations, which occur when bursts of volcanic gas underneath the water travel upwards at high speeds. Yikes!

Finally, here’s a preposterous-sounding theory. So, boffins have hypothesized that, if you were to drill then construct a neat tunnel that runs straight through the center of the Earth and jumped in, it’d take you roughly 42 minutes to reach the other side of the globe! Well, that’s future long-haul travel sorted, we think!