A Little Information About Our Planet
Just the Facts
The deadliest tsunami ever recorded occurred on December 26, 2004, in Southeast Asia, triggered by an underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean with a magnitude of 9.3. The total number of fatalities exceeded 235,000 people.
The most toxic plant on Earth is the yew—a genus of small coniferous trees. Every part of this tree is poisonous, except for its berries; however, their seeds are also toxic.
Without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the Earth would be between −18 and −23 °C, whereas it is actually 14.8 °C. Without this insulating effect, life on our planet would likely not exist.
The largest ozone hole was discovered over Antarctica in 2006. Currently, there is a gradual reduction in the size of the ozone hole.
The largest waves on Earth, caused by tides, are observed in the Bay of Fundy in Canada and reach 18 meters.
Since the beginning of human civilization, the number of trees on the planet has decreased by almost half. As a result of human activity, we are losing about 15 billion trees each year.
According to WWF (World Wildlife Fund), 40% of wildlife on Earth has disappeared in the last forty years.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has increased by almost 30%.
At the current rate, in the next 100 years, about 30% of animal species may disappear from our planet.
Once the solar luminosity increases by 10% above its current value, the average global surface temperature will reach 47 °C. The atmosphere will become "humid greenhouse" and lead to rampant evaporation of the oceans.
According to Brandon Carter's doomsday theorem, humanity is likely to become extinct with a 95% probability in 10,000 years.
In the Amazon rainforest, nearly one-third of all terrestrial animals on our planet reside. Many species of Amazonian animals are even not described or identified.
The seas and oceans of the Earth hide enormous treasures weighing approximately 20 million tons. However, these are not the treasures of sunken ships, and retrieving this wealth is not feasible. Gold is dissolved in seawater in an almost negligible amount: 0.000000000013 grams per liter.
According to various estimates by scientists, there are over 2 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which gives hope that we may not be alone in the vast universe.
According to the famous inventor from the USA, Raymond Kurzweil, even 0.01% of the sunlight that falls on Earth each day could meet the energy needs of the entire world.
If the Sun were the size of a ball, then Jupiter would be the size of a golf ball, and Earth would be as small as a pea. More than 1.3 million planets the size of Earth could fit inside the Sun.
40% of the Earth's surface is owned by six countries.
