– Earth is older than 4.5 billion years, a fact supported by the oldest crust found in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake and in West Greenland, evidence that helps scientists trace the planet’s early formation.
– The hottest surface temperature on record is often cited as 57.8 degrees Celsius from El Azizia, Libya in September 1922, though later assessments have cast doubt on that measurement in favor of the Death Valley result from 1913, a point noted by the World Meteorological Organization.
– The coldest air temperature ever measured on Earth reached minus 89 degrees Celsius at Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983, a record confirmed by data from national and international science programs, including the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
– Arica, Chile, is recognized as the driest inhabited place on the planet, receiving around 0.76 millimeters of rain per year, a statistic tracked by meteorological agencies worldwide.
– Lloro in Colombia ranks among the wettest places on Earth, averaging about 13 meters of rainfall annually, a level roughly ten times wetter than many moderately wet European or American cities.
– The Nile River in Africa holds the title of the longest river, stretching about 6,695 kilometers or 4,160 miles from its origins to its delta.
– Earth encounters roughly 1,000 tons of space dust each year that settles onto its surface, a figure reported by space and atmospheric science programs.
– About 97.5 percent of Earth’s water is salt water, while only about 2.5 percent exists as fresh water, a distribution that shapes global water use and conservation efforts.
– Glaciers and ice caps store roughly three quarters of the planet’s fresh water, underscoring their pivotal role in sustaining freshwater resources for communities worldwide.
– The total surface area of the planet is approximately 510 million square kilometers, a vast landscape of continents and oceans that supports diverse ecosystems.
– About 70 percent of Earth is covered by water, with the Pacific Ocean alone ranking as the largest body of water, spanning roughly 165 million square kilometers.
– Earth sits about 93 million miles from the Sun, which translates to roughly 149.6 million kilometers and creates the temperate zone where liquid water can persist and life can flourish.
– The planet is not a perfect sphere; it bulges at the equator and has a pumpkin-like shape rather than a flawless globe.
– By 1999, scientists documented that molten material around Earth’s core moves in large, swirling vortices that resemble tornadoes and hurricanes in the planet’s outer core.
– There are more than 6.6 billion people on Earth, and United Nations projections suggest the population could approach about 9 billion by mid-century, highlighting ongoing demographic trends.
– Experts estimate there may be anywhere from five to one hundred million species on Earth, with roughly two million already known to science.
– About one third of the land on the planet is covered by deserts, with the Sahara Desert as the largest hot desert, spanning about three million square miles and even recording snowfall on February 18, 1979.
– The distance from the surface of Earth to its center is about 6,378 kilometers, or roughly 3,963 miles.
– The Great Wall of China was built over more than two and a half thousand years and extends for more than 5,000 kilometers in length.
– There are roughly 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth, and Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the largest, rising about 13,677 feet or 4,169 meters above sea level.
– Sunlight takes about eight minutes and three seconds to reach Earth, making the journey from the Sun to the planet in real time.
– The Moon completes one orbit around Earth every 27.32 days, a cycle known as a sidereal month that governs tides and celestial mechanics.