#1 There Are Not 24 Hours In a Day
Ever since you were in elementary school, you were taught that there are 24 hours in a day. This is not technically true. The Earth spins on its axis for 23 hours and 56 minutes. The reason we add an extra 4 minutes is that the distance that that Earth orbits the Sun is so great that it takes extra time for us to face the Sun again. Eventually, the time will catch up and the days will last longer than 24 hours. This is because every few million years, the Earth spins slower and slower. About 250 million years from now, a typical day will last 25.5 hours. Unfortunately, we won’t be here to see that.
#2 A Glitch In the Earth’s Gravity
Hudson Bay is located in Canada. This area has an uneven mass. When there is an uneven mass, there is uneven gravity. At one time, there were glaciers in the area. Today they are melted, however, the burden of gravity still remains in ice sheets under the Earth’s crust. This has caused the gravity in Hudson Bay to be lower than anywhere else on Earth. If you are planning to visit Hudson Bay, don’t think that you can bounce around like you are on the moon. The difference in gravity in this area is just 0.005 percent. This amount is so small that you won’t be able to feel the reduction in the gravity.
#3 How Was Ocean Salt Created?
Everyone knows that there is salt in the oceans of Earth, however, many people don’t know exactly how the salt was formed. The salt actually comes from the rocks on the shores of the ocean. Rainwater is naturally acidic and it causes the rocks to break down. The components are then distributed into the water. The water in the Earth’s oceans is so dense that if you were to evaporate all of the water in the oceans, the salt would spread over the land. This would result in a 500-foot thick layer of salt on absolutely everything.
#4 The Earth Had a Twin
There is a theory that when the Earth was developing that there was a smaller twin planet nearby called Theia which was about the size of Mars. About 5 billion years ago, Theia crashed into Earth and most of it was absorbed into the Earth’s crust. The rest of the planet drifted off and it is now the Moon. The reason that so many scientists and astronomers believe this theory is because normally, plants that are the size of the Earth don’t have moons that are so large. Also, the Moon and the Earth share various matters.
#5 The Earth Is Hot
Many people believe that if the Sun were to become permanently blocked by the clouds or if it just drifted away, that we would not receive its heat and the human race would quickly become extinct. This is not the case. The Earth’s core is just as hot as the surface of the Sun. It is between 5,000 and 7,000 degrees Celsius. If something tragic were to happen to the Sun and the land on the Earth were to freeze, we would be able to harness the energy from the Earth’s core to keep the human race alive.
#6 Unexplored Oceans
Of the 10 strange things you didn’t know about Earth, this fact peaks the most curiosity. Mankind has gone to space many times and we have even touched down on the Moon. Most of the Earth has been explored, except for the ocean. As of now, only about 10 percent of the oceans have been explored. We have only discovered about 210,000 underwater creatures and it is estimated that there are 20 million more that have not been discovered. This means that there could be mermaids living deep in the ocean that we don’t even know about.
#7 There Are Exploding Lakes On Earth
There are three lakes in Cameroon, Nyos, Monoun, and Kivu. They are located near the border of the Congo and they are often known as the exploding lakes. In 1984, a group of local villagers was walking to work on a small stretch of road when a gas cloud appeared and swallowed many of the villagers up and carried them away. Of all the villagers on the road, 37 were killed instantly. It was discovered that the gas cloud was carbon dioxide that was released when the lakes exploded. The reason that they exploded was that they were sitting on volcanic Earth. These lakes still explode today.
#8 The Supercontinent
When the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, there was a supercontinent called Pangaea. It was a continent that joined all of the countries of the world in one big landmass. In the next 250 million years, there will be another supercontinent formed. It will be called Pangaea Ultima. It will rejoin America and Africa and Africa to Europe. The center of the supercontinent will be an arid desert that will be prone to extreme weather.
#9 The Earth Isn’t Round
For a very long time, people thought that the Earth was flat. Explorers were worried about falling off the face of the Earth on their ships. Eventually, it was discovered that the Earth was round, however, it isn’t a perfect circle. There is a bulge in the equator that stretches about 20 miles out. This bulge gives the Earth a rotund shape. While you won’t fall off the Earth, it still isn’t completely round.
#10 There is Gold Underwater
At the bottom of the Earth’s oceans, there are 20 millions tons of golds. The only reason that nobody has attempted to get the gold is that one liter of water contains just 13 billionths of a gram. If it were possible to get the gold from the ocean, there would enough for every person on Earth to get 9 pounds of gold.
