Nature Fun Facts
The Ocean
The ocean contains 80% of life on earth and covers 70% of the earth's surface. Its average depth (about 12,500 feet) is about 5 times the average height of land (about 2,500 feet).
The Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, is the deepest place on earth: it reaches 10,920 meters (35,827 feet) below the ocean surface.
Gravity in Space
Scientifically, there is no such thing as free gravity. The power of gravity decreases as we head away from earth, but it never totally fades away.
Flu Virus
The virus (also known as influenza) that causes the flu is 1/1,000,000 (one millionth) of an inch long.
A person can never have permenant imunity to the flu virus, since it mutates every year.
Lightning
Photo to the left is a historic photo taken on May 6, 1919, of the Eiffel Tower being struck by lightning.
Lightning strikes the Empire State Building about twenty-five times a year.
Every 24 hours, about 8,640,000 lightning bolts touch the earth.
A lightning flash can contain 1 billion volts of electricity and is 5 times as hot as the surface of the sun!
Why do we hear thunder? Due to the excessive heat produced by lightning, air molecules expand and vibrate with such a immense speed that a thunder noise is created.
Earthquakes
More than ½ a million earthquakes occur worldwide every year. Most have a very low magnitude that people do not feel the quake.
The following table shows the top 14 earthquakes since 1900. Each earthquake is rated based on its magnitude, not its amount of distruction.
| Location | Magnitude | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Chile | 9.5 | 5-22-1960 |
| 2. Prince William Sound, Alaska | 9.2 | 3-28-1964 |
| 3. Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra | 9.1 | 12-26-2004 |
| 4. Kamchatka | 9.0 | 11-4-1952 |
| 5. Off the Coast of Ecuador | 8.8 | 1-31-1906 |
| 6. Rat Islands, Alaska | 8.7 | 2-4-1965 |
| 7. Northern Sumatra, Indonesia | 8.6 | 3-28-2005 |
| 8. Assam, Tibet | 8.6 | 8-15-1950 |
| 9. Andreanof Islands, Alaska | 8.6 | 3-9-1957 |
| 10. Southern Sumatra, Indonesia | 8.5 | 9-12-2007 |
| 11. Banda Sea, Indonesia | 8.5 | 2-1-1938 |
| 12. Kamchatka | 8.5 | 2-3-1923 |
| 13. Chile-Argentina Border | 8.5 | 11-11-1922 |
| 14. Kuril Islands | 8.5 | 10-13-1963 |
Source: earthquake.usgs.gov.