welcome to earth! here are a few things you might not have known about your home planet

Welcome To EARTH!

Here are a few things you might not have known about your home

planet.

Can you stand the HEAT?

• The hottest temperature recorded on planet earth was in El Azizia, in Libya (136 degrees F!)

• The hottest place on average is Death Valley California.

Now that’s COOL!

• The coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 degrees F in Antarctica.

Space Dust?

• About 1,000 tons of matter enter earth from outer space each year. (Most of it is dust.)

waterFALL!

• The highest water fall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela.

• Water in this fall drops 979 meters!

Volcano!

• The largest volcano is Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

• It spews ash 9.5 miles into the air!

Earthquake!

• The deadliest earthquake ever occurred in China in 1557.

• It killed 830,000 people!

Gradual changes

• The moon gets about 4 cm further away from earth each year.

• Earth’s rotation is very gradually slowing down, and our days are getting a tiny bit longer.

• Earths shape is also gradually changing.

Mount Everest

• Mount Everest is Earths highest mountain at 29,035 feet (about 5.5 miles).

• But… Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the tallest mountain in the world at about 33,465 feet tall.

Now that’s a lotta watta!

• The longest river in the world is the Amazon river in South America. It is 4,225 miles long! (It just recently replaced the Nile, 4,160 as the longest.)

• The deepest lake is Lake Baikal in Siberia. It’s a little over a mile deep.

Lightning

• Each second about 100 lightning bolts strike the ground somewhere on the earth, and a lightning strike heats the air to about 20,000 Celsius (3 times hotter than the surface of the sun!)

Minerals• The softest mineral in

the earth is talk.• The hardest mineral in

the earth is diamond.• Many minerals are

used to make fireworks:– Strontium = red– Copper = blue– Sodium = yellow– Iron = gold sparks– Aluminum = loud bangs

Canyons

• The longest canyon in the world is the Grand Canyon which is 277 miles long and over a mile deep.

The Blue Planet

• 97% of the water on this planet is in the ocean.

• The ocean covers 2/3 of the earths surface.

• Humans use about 400 billion gallons of water every day.

A very Hot Spot!

• The center of the earth is thought to be about 7,000 degrees F!

All that sand

• About 1/3 of the earth’s surface is covered with deserts, but the amount of desert on earth increases each year.

But you’re so old!

• The earth is probably somewhere between 4.5-4.6 billion years old.

Mountains where?

• The largest mountain range in the world is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is under the ocean. (Although Iceland is one area that this mountain range rises above the ocean.

Other Earthy topics

• Where did Earth come from?

• What are the different layers of the earth made from?

• Why is Earth like it is?

Enjoy the ride

• This unit we will discuss many cool and amazing things about the earth, and you may realize that you don’t know your home planet as well as you thought you did .