15 Cool Facts About Our Planet

You might have never heard

1. The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 156.7°F (69.3°C) in Death Valley, California on July 10, 1913. This is hot enough to cook an egg on the ground!

1. The deepest point in the world’s oceans is the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, which reaches a depth of around 36,070 feet (10,994 meters) below sea level. The pressure there is over 1,000 times greater than at the surface.

1. Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on Earth. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -129°F (-89°C) at Vostok Station in 1983.

1. The largest desert in the world is Antarctica, which covers about 5.5 million square miles (14.2 million square km). Despite being covered in ice, it receives very little precipitation.

1. The Earth’s magnetic north and south poles aren’t exactly opposite each other on the globe. The magnetic north pole is actually several hundred miles away from the geographic North Pole in the Arctic Ocean.

1. Around 80% of the world’s fresh water is found in Antarctica in the form of ice sheets and glaciers.

1. The fastest wind speed ever recorded on Earth was 253 mph (408 km/h) during the passage of Typhoon Olivia in 1994.

1. The Dead Sea, located between Israel and Jordan, is the lowest point of elevation on land at 1,412 feet (430 meters) below sea level.

1. There are an estimated 60,000 Wildlife Conservation Society species left on Earth.

1. The world’s smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat, which is about 1.1–1.3 inches (3–3.5 cm) long and weighs only 0.05–0.07 oz (1.4–2 grams).

1. The Nile River is the longest river in the world at approximately 4,132 miles (6,650 km) in length.

1. Roughly 70% of the world’s fresh water is used for agriculture and irrigation.

1. The world’s largest earthquake ever recorded was a terrifying 9.5 magnitude quake off the coast of Chile in 1960.

1. There are over 7,000 languages spoken around the world, with Mandarin Chinese being the most widely spoken with over 1.2 billion native speakers.

1. The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela, which plunges 3,212 feet (979 meters) from the top.