Interesting Facts about Earth Science

Interesting Earth Science Facts - Elevations on Earth

• The deepest known depth in the ocean is the Mariana Trench, located south of the island of Guam, is over 36,000 feet (almost 11,000 meters) deep. At this depth, water pressure is greater than 2 million pounds per square foot.


• The lowest dry land elevation in the world is the land around the dead sea, which is located in Israel and Jordan. The land here is 1355 feet (413 meters) below sea level because it is located between the Arabia and Africa tectonic plates which have shifted. The rainfall and natural mountain ranges surrounding the Dead Sea result in water levels that drop almost every year.

Earth Science Facts - The Largest on Earth

These earth science facts include the largest, highest, deepest and most extreme places on earth, from lakes to deserts.

• The largest lake on Earth is the Caspian Sea. It is a saltwater lake with a size of 143,000 square miles (371,000 square km). The largest freshwater lake is Lake Superior which borders the U.S. and Canada. Lake Superior has an area of 31,820 square miles (82,410 square km).


• The longest river in the world is the Amazon River in South America. At 4345 mile (6992 km), explorers recently mapped the length of the Amazon, which is now longer than the Nile River.


• The largest ocean on Earth is the Pacific Ocean which contacts 4 continents. The Pacific Ocean is over 60 million square miles in size and contains approximately one-half of the world's surface water.


• The largest desert on Earth is the Antarctic Polar Desert. The largest non-polar desert is the Sahara Desert in Africa.


• The largest glacier left on Earth is known as the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica. It has a volume of over 23,295 cubic miles (97,097 cubic km). The Lambert Glacier is named after Bruce Lambert who was the Director of National Mapping for the Australian Department of National Development.


• The highest elevation on Earth above sea level is Mount Everest located in Nepal. The peak of Mount Everest is 29,029 feet (8848 m) above sea level.


• The tallest waterfall on Earth is Angel Falls in Venezuela with a single drop of 2647 feet.


• The largest remaining swamp in the world is Pantanal located primarily in Brazil. It has a land area of almost 58,000 square miles (150,000 sq. km).


• The largest active volcano in the world is Mouna Loa on the island of Hawaii. Counting the part of Mouna Loa under the ocean, it is 29,848 feet tall, which is taller than Mt. Everest.


• The largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon River Basin rainforest which occupies over 40 percent of the South American continent. Over the last 40 years approximately one-fifth of the Amazon River rainforest has been destroyed through deforesting.


• The largest coral reef in the world is the Great Barrier Reef located off the Northeast coast of Australia. The reef chain has a total area of 133,000 square miles (344,500 square km).


• The deepest known cave in the world is the Krubera Cave in Georgia (previously Russia). This cave is over 7200 feet (almost 2200 meters) deep.


• The largest known oil traditional oil field in the world is the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia. Over 55 billion barrels of oil have been pumped from Ghawar since 1951. Currently, 5 million barrels of oil per day are pumped from this oil field. It may have over 100 billion barrels of oil left. There may be larger shale oil and oil trapped in rocks and sand in the world, but Ghawar is the largest in known oil field in terms of easy to extract liquid oil.


• The location with the coldest recorded temperature is -128.6 F ( C) at Vostok Antarctica. Even lower extreme temperatures may take place since not all cold weather regions have termperature monitoring.


• The location with the hottest recorded temperature is 56.7 F (134 C) in Death Valley, California in July of 1913. Oddly, the last time an all-time record-high temperature was broken on any continent in 1977 in Athens, Greece (Europe).


• The place with the most rainfall is Mawsynram, Meghalaya, India. Amazingly it receives 467 in (1187 cm) of rain per year, mostly during the monsoon season.