How much do you think you know about our planet? Have you ever heard that sometimes the time on Earth speeds up and there is another sun glowing inside it…
Know about the most unbelievable secrets of our planet with Jiji
It’s not only the Sun that warms us all
For so many years we believed that our main source of heat is the Sun. As soon as it disappears, all living things will die, and humanity will disappear forever from the face of the Earth.
But it turns out that the Earth’s core temperature is the same as the Sun’s surface. It is 5500 °C, but there is a problem: the kernel is 3000 km from the surface of the Earth. And the people have managed to dig for 18 km only.
Earthquakes speed up the time
All our lifetime we are told that there are 24 hours in a day. After all, the Earth needs as much time to make a full rotation around its axis. But the planet manages to make a turnover faster. The actual length of the day is 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds.
Different factors influence the rotation speed. For example, in 2011 after the earthquake in Japan, the Earth began to spin faster and the days become shorter for 2 seconds. By 2015, the speed of rotation again became normal.
Dinosaurs tread a very different Earth
The land, on which there were dinosaurs, is different from the one that we are treading today. You’ve heard that after the eruption of the volcano the lava cools, forming islands and land. And this is the first step towards the renewal of the earth. Magma rises from the depths of the earth to the surface, then cools to form igneous rocks.
Are you sure the Earth is round?
It took many years until people stopped assuming the earth was flat. But did you know that in fact, it is far from the shape of the ball?
Planet flattened at the poles and at the equator between Asia and Australia there is a huge bulge. So technically the Earth is still round, but it does not look like a ball – it looks rather like a huge potato.
Humans are not Earth’s landlords
In 2017, the population of the Earth exceeds 7.4 billion people. But the truth is that in one teaspoon of land there are more microorganisms than people all over the globe.
Where does this all air come from?
The Amazon rainforest occupies only 5.5 million square km. It produces 20% of the oxygen we breathe. The remaining rainforests are much smaller and are located in Central America, Africa, South Asia and Australia. Their total area is equal to the area of the Amazon forest.
But the value of the forests is not that they produce oxygen. They provide its constant cycling in nature due to micro-organisms, plants, and trees. Every year, forest area is rapidly decreasing. The reasons for this is the global warming and massive deforestation.
The Gravity on Earth can change
On the contrary to what we have learned in the lessons of physics, the force of gravity on the planet is not the same everywhere. If while walking along the equator, you’d be immediately transported to one of the poles, your weight would increase sharply by 0.5%. In some places of the Earth, for example in the area of Hudson Bay, the gravity force is less than normal.
Such anomalies are obtained from the thin Earth crust, the influence of glaciers and magma movements.
Southern lights
Perhaps you had a chance to see live green, pink and even blue lights dancing in the sky. Toward the north, they are called polar, or northern lights.
In the south, this phenomenon is called the Southern Lights. It occurs when the charged particles of the solar wind interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. This results in the shining skylights in the upper atmosphere layer.
Waterworld
Our planet is covered by water for 70%. And it accounts for a large part of the Pacific Ocean. Surprisingly, we know a lot more about the outer space than about the oceans. Moreover, we have investigated only 5% of the water would so far.
We have opened about 210 thousand species of living creatures, including fish, fungi, plants, and microorganisms. Scientists believe that there are 20 million other species still undiscovered by us.
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