10 Mind-Blowing Facts About Planet Earth

By Austin Schoonmaker | February 20, 2019

Our planet is quite the amazing place if you stop and think about. The world around is pretty incredible and full of wondrous things that many don’t ever stop to consider. Check out these mind blowing facts about our planet and prepare to be amazed.

The driest place in the world is Antarctica

You’d think the icy continent of Antarctica wouldn’t be considered a desert, but it is! In fact, the entire continent hasn’t received any rain for more than 2 million years, making it the driest place on Earth.

We have explored less than five percent of the ocean

The oceans on Earth are so vast and deep that us humans haven’t even explored more than five percent of them. Much of the sea floor cannot be explored due to the depth being so vast, radio waves cannot penetrate.

The Earth is hurtling through space at 66,000 mph

Yep, as you read this, we are hurtling through space at a cool 66,000 miles per hour around the sun. The fact that we are in a constant state of motion makes it so we don’t feel the effects of traveling through space at such speeds.

There are six supervolcanoes on Earth

We know of six super volcanoes around the Earth that erupt every 100,000 years on average. One of the most well known is the supervolcano located under Yellowstone National Park. While they are inactive right now, an eruption of a supervolcano would be extremely damaging to the Earth, which would classify as an extinction-level event.

The Earth is not a perfect sphere

Since our planet is spinning at a rate of near 1,000 miles per hour, this motion makes Earth have a oblate spheroid shape rather than a perfect sphere. The middle of the Earth around the equator actually bulges out slightly, despite photos of the Earth showing it as a perfect sphere.

The Earth may have been purple millions of years ago

As we know, the Earth is blue and green, but millions of years ago, it may have been a vibrant purple color. Thanks to ancient microbes that obtained energy from the sun using a different process, the planet would have appeared violet.

A day on Earth isn’t actually 24 hours

We all know a day on Earth is 24 hours, but this is slightly wrong. Since the Earth is rotating and orbiting the sun, it creates a slight difference in time, making the length of a day actually be 23 hours and 56 minutes long.

The largest living organism on the planet is The Great Barrier Reef

Located in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef measures about 1,430 miles long, and is so big it can be viewed from space. The reef is home to more than 1,600 species of fish, 100 species of jellyfish, and 600 types of soft and hard corals.

The Earth receives one million billion cubic feet of snow each year

It is estimated that the Earth receives one million billion cubic feet of snow every year. All this snow is estimated to weigh quite a bit, coming in at million billion kilograms.

Only three people have visited the deepest point on Earth

A section of the Mariana Trench in the ocean known as Challenger Deep has only been visited by three people, including movie director James Cameron.

The hottest recorded temperature on Earth was 134 degrees

Death Valley holds the record for the hottest day ever, clocking in at a balmy 134 degrees Fahrenheit back in 1913.