40 Earth Facts Opening Our Eyes About Our Incredible Planet
The Earth is a wondrous thing, but it’s often something we take for granted. And there are a lot of things you likely don’t know about our planet. There are facts that’ll open your eyes wider than ever before and make you realize just how remarkable this place we call home is. From the strange to the amazing, it’s all here!
1. Tallest mountain trivia
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.
2. Millions of species
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.
3. Core components
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.
4. Great Wall myth
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.
