Beautiful World

07/09/2022

Ocean Facts That Will Blow You Out of the Water

1Thanks to the ocean, most of our planet is dark.

Oceans have an average depth of 12,100 feet, and because light waves can only pe*****te 330 feet of water, everything below that point is dark. Seeing as water makes up most of the planet, this means that most of Earth exists in absolute darkness all the time.

2The loudest ocean sound came from an icequake.

In 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) captured one of the loudest sounds ever recorded, which they named "The Bloop." The sound was loud enough to be picked up by sensors over 3,000 miles away. Originally, researches noted that the nature of the sound made it seem like it came from an animal, although no known animal exists that is large enough to make that sound. After 15 years, the NOAA concluded that the noise came from an icequake, which is when seismic activities cause a break in frozen ground. However, many people still question this conclusion, and The Bloop is the source of many conspiracy theories to this day.

Blue tang swimming in coral reef
Willem Kalkwiek/Shutterstock
You probably know that the majority of our planet's surface is covered by bodies of water. (Specifically: It's a hair shy of 71%.) What you might not have heard, though, is that sea waves can move at hundreds of miles per hour. Or that the ocean's depths are home to millions of tons of gold. Or that scientists have more detailed, more extensive maps of Mars than they do of our own oceans. Yes, as deep as our planet's oceans are physically, they're deeper still when it comes to mystery and fascination. The following little-known facts about the ocean are sure to blow you out of the water.

07/09/2022

Moon Facts That Are Out of This World.

1Thanks to the ocean, most of our planet is dark.
Dark underwater cave
Shutterstock
Oceans have an average depth of 12,100 feet, and because light waves can only pe*****te 330 feet of water, everything below that point is dark. Seeing as water makes up most of the planet, this means that most of Earth exists in absolute darkness all the time.

2The loudest ocean sound came from an icequake.
Ship sailing through icy ocean in Greenland
Shutterstock
In 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) captured one of the loudest sounds ever recorded, which they named "The Bloop." The sound was loud enough to be picked up by sensors over 3,000 miles away. Originally, researches noted that the nature of the sound made it seem like it came from an animal, although no known animal exists that is large enough to make that sound. After 15 years, the NOAA concluded that the noise came from an icequake, which is when seismic activities cause a break in frozen ground. However, many people still question this conclusion, and The Bloop is the source of many conspiracy theories to this day.

3The ocean's canyons make the Grand Canyon seem small.

Not to take anything away from the gorgeous Grand Canyon on Earth, but the Zhemchug Canyon, located in the Bering Sea, has a vertical relief of 8,520 feet—almost 2,500 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.

4The biggest ocean waves are beneath its surface.

The biggest ocean waves are not the ones that you can see from the shoreline. As physical oceanographer Kim Martini told Deep Sea News, the largest waves that occur in the ocean are called internal waves, which take place between two fluids with two different densities. As these internal waves travel—for thousands of miles, no less—they can grow to be 650 feet tall.

5Water at the bottom of the ocean is incredibly hot.

In these deepest parts of the ocean, the water temperature may only be 2º to 4º Celsius, with the exception of water coming out of hydrothermal vents in the seafloor. The water released from these vents can be up to 400º Celsius (750º Fahrenheit). It's the intense pressure at these depths—the same pressure that would crush you—that keeps the water from boiling.

6The ocean is home to nearly 95% of all life.

With so much going on well below the surface, it's easy to forget that the oceans are teeming with life. In fact, 94% of life is aquatic, according to the USA Science & Engineering Festival. That means those of us who live on land are part of a very, very small minority.

7Coral produces its own sunscreen.

Too much sunlight can damage the algae that live inside coral in shallow water. To protect the algae, which are a main source of sustenance for the coral, the corals fluoresce. This creates proteins that act as a sort of sunscreen for the algae.

8There's enough gold in the ocean for each of us to have nine pounds of it!

There's around 20 million tons of gold dispersed throughout the oceans. It is, however, diluted pretty much to a pulp—its concentration is only a few parts per trillion, according to the National Ocean Service. The ocean floor also has undissolved gold embedded in it, but it's not cost-effective to mine it. However, if the ocean's gold were equally distributed among every person on earth, we'd each receive nine pounds of it.

9There's an ice sheet larger than the continental United States.

Just two vestiges of ice remain from our planet's last ice age: the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The latter of the two is staggering in size. Clocking in at 5.4 million square miles, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC), it's roughly the size of the continental United States and Mexico combined!

10Sharks have their own underwater "café."

It turns out, humans aren't the only creatures in need of a winter vacation. In 2002, scientists discovered an area in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, partway between Baja California and Hawaii, where typically coastal great white sharks will migrate to in the winter. The scientists named the spot the White Shark Café and some sharks hang around the area for months before heading back to the coast for warmer weather.

07/09/2022

07/09/2022

Three times the size of the country’s mainland, the reserve’s abundance of sharks, whales, turtles, and other marine life has been described as an “underwater Jurassic Park.”

07/07/2022

The Pacific Ocean is Earth’s largest ocean basin.
It covers about 63 million square miles, after all.

The wettest place in the world is Mawsynram.
When it comes to annual rainfall, Mawsynram, India takes the cake with over 10,000 millimeters of rain per year. You can thank monsoon season for that!

The most snowfall per year happens in Japan.
Surprising? Perhaps, but Aomori City, Japan may just be the snowiest place in the world. On average, Aomori City experiences 312 inches of snowfall annually.

The world’s largest living structures are coral reefs.
What’s a living structure, you ask? Well, a coral reef is, in fact, alive. According to NOAA, coral reefs are a crucial part to thousands of species per unit of any of the other ecosystems on Earth.

Oceans cover about 70 percent of Earth’s surface.
According to NOAA, about 70 percent of the surface of Earth is covered in oceans.

However, humans haven’t even discovered all of Earth’s oceans.
But that doesn’t mean we’ve explored it all! The NOAA adds that we—meaning, humans—have only discovered about 20 percent of Earth’s waters.

The largest earthquake to hit Earth occurred in Chile.
With a massive magnitude of 9.5, the world’s largest earthquake took place in Bio-Bio, Chile on May 22, 1960.

About 20 percent of the U.S. is a coastline.
However, that’s not including Alaska.

Stromboli Volcano is the world’s most active volcano.
Contrary to popular belief, of course, as historically, Kilauea—in Hawaii—has been recorded as such. But it’s not true. Located off the coast of Italy, the aptly-named Stromboli Volcano has been non-stop erupting for more than 2,000 years.

Rocks have been known to “walk” at The Racetrack Playa, Death Valley.
In a specific part of Death Valley National Park in California—known as The Racetrack Playa or The Racetrack—rocks have been known to “walk” on their own. According to NASA, these ice-encrusted “sailing stones” as they’re called retain meltwater from the hills above, allowing the wind to pick them up and throw them around. This phenomenon has been known to leave “racetrack” imprints on the ground—hence its moniker.

07/07/2022

Glaciers are retreating, causing sea levels to rise.
It’s one of the many terrible effects of climate change. That also means that we’re losing a lot of the world’s freshwater.

The moon experiences moonquakes, just as Earth experiences earthquakes.
Moonquakes, however, aren’t nearly as powerful as earthquakes, but they are, in fact, caused by the moon’s tidal relationship with Earth.

We don’t actually know what the tallest mountain on Earth is.
But we can narrow it down to two! Mount Everest’s summit is higher above sea level than the summit of any other—about 29,029 feet high. But Everest is actually, technically tied with Mauna Kea because when measured from the base of the summit below sea level to its top point, Mauna Kea measures 56,000 feet.

Some hikers have summited Everest without oxygen.
Speaking of Mount Everest, did you know that people have actually climbed the mountain without the help of oxygen before? Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first to do so on May 8, 1978, according to Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology.

07/07/2022

Waste left over from the coffee-making process can jolt destroyed forests back to life.

07/07/2022

A school of scalloped hammerhead sharks, Sphyrna lewini, swim in a blue ocean, Cocos Island. SharkFest returns to National Geographic and Disney+ July 10.

07/05/2022

Earth kinda, sorta has other “moons.”
Well, kind of. Called 3753 Cruithne and Asteroid 2002 AA29 —two asteroids that also orbit the sun—are sometimes considered Earth’s “moons” even though they don’t really fit the bill. Both asteroids remain very close to Earth—as close as 3.9 million miles every 95 years.

The Amazon is Earth’s biggest rainforest.
Located in the South American Amazon, the world’s biggest rainforest is where more than 30 million people and one in 10 known species on Earth call home.

The deepest point on the ocean floor is 36,200 feet below sea level.
It’s located in the Mariana Trench, according to NOAA.

Earth has a type of “recycled” rock cycle.
Come again? Earth has a rock cycle—igneous rocks transform to sedimentary rocks, then to metamorphic, then back again. Some scientists and experts think of this or refer to it as a “recycled” ground since the rocks change cyclically.

Earth’s lowest point not covered by the ocean is 8,382 feet below sea level.
But it’s impossible to get to. That’s because it’s located under layers and layers of ice in the Bentley Subglacial Trench in Antarctica.

Greenland is the world’s largest island.
It’s about one-fourth the size of Australia and is the world’s largest island that is not a continent in and of itself.

There are billions of people living on Earth.
As of 2020, that number is as big as 7.753 billion.

Earth is approximately 93 million miles away from the sun.
According to Space.com, that’s 150 million kilometers away.

The Earth is approximately 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun, according to Space.com. At this distance, it takes about 8 minutes and 19 seconds for sunlight to reach our planet.

It takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds for sunlight to reach us.
Being that we’re 93 million miles away, that’s how long it takes for the sun’s rays to hit our planet.

07/05/2022

Earth may have actually had two moons at one point.
And no, we’re not talking about 3753 Cruithne and Asteroid 2002 AA29. According to Space.com, it’s possible (but not proven) that Earth might have had another moon—one about 750 miles wide. Scientists that buy into this theory hypothesize that this tiny moon may have crashed into the other one.

The largest living thing in the world is a fungus.
A massive fungus, at that! Known as the honey mushroom (or Armillaria), this fungus spans 2,200 acres across Oregon.

The oldest shark in the world is a Greenland Shark.
In fact, according to Live Science, Greenlands are so old they don’t even have backbones. These sea creatures grow to be as mature as 392 years old.

Greenland has the lowest population of any country on Earth.
A 2016 census found that 55,847 people lived in 836,330 square miles in Greenland with most communities sitting on the coastline.

Earth used to be purple… apparently.
Some experts—like Shil DasSarma—believe that Earth may have been purple at one point in time. Fueling that fire is the fact that ancient microbes may have relied on a different molecule other than the green chlorophyll to grab the sun’s rays. Instead, that molecule—retinal—could have made things we know as green today look more purple.

The moon may have been formed as the result of a collision.
Not a ton of information is known about how the moon was created, but one hypothesis claims that a planet, asteroid, or perhaps a comet—called Theia—collided into Earth, resulting in debris flying into space. That debris may have formed the moon as we know it today.

One of Earth’s coolest phenomenons is the Auroras.
Known colloquially as the Southern Lights or Aurora Australias, Aurora Borealis, or Nothern Lights, Auroras happen when particles from the sun collide with the upper atmosphere of Earth near the poles. According to Space.com, this results in a sort of rainbow of lights twinkling in the sky, like a crystal in the sun.

Earth’s magnetic north pole is moving northward.
NASA has said that Earth’s magnetic north pole has slowly moved northward by more than 600 miles since the early 19th century. As of right now, the pole is moving at about 40 miles per year.

07/05/2022

Занзибар, Танзания 🇹🇿 #танзания

07/05/2022

How to see Komodo dragons in the Indonesian wilds or at a North American zoo.