5 Things You May Not Have Known About Earth
1. Mt. Everest may be the tallest mountain above sea level, but it is not the tallest mountain on Earth. Mauna Kea, measured from base to peak, is 33,476 ft tall; Mt. Everest, although growing, measures 29,028 ft.
2. Which brings us to the next point… Mt. Everest is not the furthest point from the center of the Earth. Because Earth is not a true sphere (it’s an oblate spheroid) and has a larger circumference around the equator than other ways of measuring it. Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador rises 20,703 ft above sea level, but because of the equatorial bulge, it is over 6,800 feet FURTHER away from the center of the earth than Everest. In fact, Ecuadorian beaches are further away from the center of the earth than Everest.
3. The two largest deserts in the world are both Polar – the Antarctic and the Arctic deserts. They are both about 40% larger than the Sahara Desert.
4. The USGS estimates that several million earthquakes occur each year worldwide. Real time earthquake map: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
5. The total number of non-bacterial species has been estimated at 8.7 million. About a million of those are insects.