| 1.The Earth's equator is 24,901.458 miles long. 2.The distance to the center of the Earth is 3,958 miles. 3.The Earth is farther away from the sun in July than in January. 4.The axial tilt of the Earth is 23.45 degrees. 5.The Earth's diameter is 7,926.68 miles, or 12,756.776 kilometers. 6.The deepest depression on the Earth is the Marianas Trench, at 35,798 feet deep, located in the Pacific Ocean. 7.The world's oldest known rocks are found near the Great Slave and Great Bear lakes in Canada. The rocks, which include granite, are around 4.03 billion years old. 8.The asthenosphere begins around 63 miles deep (100 kilometers), and end around 160 miles deep (260 kilometers). 9.The outer core of the Earth begins around 1,800 miles deep (2,898 kilometers), and ends where the inner core begins, at 2,095 miles deep (4,982 kilometers). 10.The Devonian period, was named after a county called Devon in southwest England, where Devonian rocks were first studied. 11.Perovskite sometimes contain cerium. 12.Anthracite gives off relatively little sulfur dioxide when burned, due to its purity. 13.The three types of seismic waves, primary waves (P), secondary waves (S), and surface waves. 14.The three types of plate boundaries are divergent boundaries, convergent boundaries, and transform boundaries. 15.The first geology textbook was The Index to the Geology of the Northern States by Amos Eaton, which was published in 1818 in Leicester, Massachusetts. 16.The first geologist to reach the moon was Dr. Harrison Hagan Schmitt, who accompanied Captain Eugene A. Cernan and Commander Ronald E. Evans, both of the U.S. Navy, in Apollo XVII, which was launched December 7, 1972, at 12:33 A.M. EST at Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four days later on December 11, he and Cernan spent three days on the surface of the moon gathering scientific data. 17.The biggest and most destructive earthquake in the world since 1900 was in Chile on May 22, 1960, with a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter Scale. 18.The biggest earthquake in the United States since 1900 was in Alaska on March 28, 1964, with a magnitude of 9.2 on the Richter Scale. This was also the second largest earthquake in the world. 19.Probably the earliest seismoscope was invented by the Chinese philosopher Chang Heng in A.D. 132. This was a large urn on the outside of which were eight dragon heads facing the eight principal directions of the compass. Below each dragon head was a toad with its mouth opened toward the dragon. When an earthquake occurred, one or more of the eight dragon-mouths would release a ball into the open mouth of the toad sitting below. The direction of the shaking determined which of the dragons released its ball. The instrument is reported to have detected an earthquake 400 miles away that was not felt at the location of the seismoscope. The inside of the seismoscope is unknown: most speculations assume that the motion of some kind of pendulum would activate the dragons. 20.The largest volcano in the world is Mauna Loa, located at the island of Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean. 21.The tallest volcano in the world is Ojos del Salado in Chile. It is 22,589 feet (6,887 meter) tall. 22.If all the ice in the world was melted into water (some 5.5 million cubic miles) (23 million cubic kilometers), in all, the oceans would rise 1.7% percent, or about 180 feet (60 meters). 23.The oldest volcanic rocks on Earth are 3.825 billion years old, formed by the University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada, and the Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, in 2002, found in the Inukjuak area in the northern reaches of Quebec, Canada. 24.The second hardest substance in the world, knowing diamond is the first, is cubic boron nitride, the hardest ceramic. 25.The world's smallest volcano is Mount Taal, located on the island Luzon, about 30 miles south of the Philippines' capital, Manila, which is about 1,310 feet high, where a building in Chicago is taller than. 26.Millions of years ago, all the land on Earth were together as one big island (continent), called Pangaea. 27.The world's worst earthquake occured in 1556 in China killing approximately 830,000 people. 28.The mean density of the Earth is 5.515 times that of water. 29.The deepest drill into the Earth is on the Kola Peninsula in Russia at 7.619318 miles (40,230 feet) (12.261 kilometers) deep into the crust, beginning from May 24, 1970 when construction was started till it stopped by 1983, due to lack of funds. The temperature of the rocks at the bottom of the hole is around 410 degrees Fahrenheit (210 degrees Celsius). 30.The Earth's prime meridian is 24,859.731 miles long. 31.The volcano Parícutin in west-central Mexico, one of the world's youngest volcanoes, began erupting on February 20, 1943 in an open field. Within a year the volcano's cone has risen 1,475 feet above its base and had buried the village of Parícutin. Its peak reached an elevation of 9,210 feet in 1952. 32.U.S. cities Los Angeles and San Francisco become about 2.5 inches closer to each other every year because they are on opposite sides of the St. Andreas Fault. 33.The Earth weighs (mass) 6,585,428,233,724,480,000,000 pounds (5,974,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms). 34.The weight of the Earth's crust is 23,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms. 35.The weight of the Earth's mantle is 4,050,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms. 36.Geological stufy of the Grand Canyon began in 1857 with a pioneering work, published as a government report in 1861 by John Strong Newberry. 37.7,000 years ago, Mazama, a 9,900 foot volcano in southern Oregon, erupted violently and ejected large amounts of ash and pumice over the northwestern U.S. and as far away as Saskatchewan, Canada. During the eruption, the top of the volcano collapsed, leaving a caldera 6 miles across and about half a mile deep, which filled with rainwater to form what is now Crater Lake. 38.More than 800,000 earthquakes are registered by seismographs each year. 39.The Richter magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institude of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes. 40.The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale was developed in 1931 by American seismologists Harry Wood and Frank Neumann. 41.The deepest lava cave, an open tube down the inside of a solidified lava flow, is Kazumura Cave, on Hawaii, U.S.A., at 36.9 miles (59.3 kilometers) long and descends 3,605 feet (1,099 meters) down the eastern flank of Kilauea volcano. 42.The highest temperature in a fumerole (smoke vent) was 1,726 degrees Fahrenheit (941 degrees Celsius) and was recorded in the hot dome of the Kudryavy Volcano, Iturup, Kurile Islands, Russia in 1996 to 1997. 43.On July 8, 2002, a team of Chinese and U.S. scientists announced their discovery of rocks indicating that plate tectonics were active on Earth 2.5 billion years ago, which is 500 million years earlier than previously thought. The evidence comes from a belt of rock not far from the Great Wall of china at Dongwanzi, Hebei, containing chromite (iron chromium oxide) which is normally found only in rocks deep on the ocean floor. 44.In October of 1996, a volcanic eruption under Vatnajokul glacier in Iceland (Europe's largest) topped Lake Grimsvotn with meltwater, flowing from the lake at an estimated 1.6 million cubic feet per second (45,000 cubic meters per second), making it the greatest melting of a glacier in record history. 45.The largest doline in the world is Xio Zhai Tien (The Great Doline), situated in the Sichuan region of central southern China, measuring 1,600 feet (500 meters) across 2,100 feet (660 meters) deep. 46.The total volume of matter discharged in the eruption of Tambora, a volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, between April 5 and April 10 of 1815, was estimated to be 36 to 43 cubic miles (150 to 180 cubic kilometers), making it the greatest known eruption volume from any volcano comparing a probable 14 to 16 cubic miles (60 to 65 cubic kilometers) ejected by Santorini in Greece in 1628 B.C. and 5 cubic miles (20 cubic kilometers) ejected by Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883. 47.The deepest lava cave, an open open tube down the inside of a solidified lava flow, is Kazumura Cave, on Hawaii, U.S.A. It is 36.9 miles (59.3 kilometers) long and descends 3,605 feet (1,099 meters) down the eastern flank of Kilauea volcano. 48.The highest temperature in a fumerole or smoke vent was 1,726 degrees Fahrenheit (941 degrees Celsius) and was recorded in the hot dome of the Kudryary volcano, Iturup, Kurile Islands, Russia, in 1996 and 1997. 49.On July 8, 2002, a team of Chinese and U.S. scientists announced their discovery of ricks indicating that plate tectonics were active on Earth some 2.5 billion years ago. This is 500 million years than previously thought. The evidence comes from a belt of rock not far from the Great Wall of China at Dongwanzi, Hebei. The 2.5 billion year old rock contains chromite (iron chromium oxide), which is normally found only in rocks deep on the ocean floor. 50.A volcanic eruption under Vatnajokul glacier in Iceland in October 1996 topped Lake Grimsrotn with meltwater. The meltwater flowed from the lake at an estimated 1.6 million cubic feet per second (45,000 cubic meters per second) making it the greatest melting glacier in record history. 51.The largest doline in the world is Xio Zhai Tien (The Great Doline). Situated in the Sichuan region of central southern China, this huge depression measures 1,600 feet (500 meters) across 2,100 feet (660 meters) deep. 52.The total volume of matter discharged in the eruption of Tambora, a volcano on the Indonesia island of Sumbawa, between April 5 and April 10, 1815, was estimated to be 36 to 43 cubic miles (150 to 180 cubic kilometers). This is the greatest known eruption volume from any volcano, comparing a probably 14 to 16 cubic miles (60 to 65 cubic kilometers) ejected by Santorini (Greece) in 1628 B.C. and 5 cubic miles (20 cubic kilometers) ejected by Krakatoa (Indonesia) in 1883. 53.The tallest granite monolith is El Capiton, in Yosemite National Park, California, U.S.A., at 3,593 feet (1,045 meters) tall. 54.The deepest valley is the Yarlung Zangbo valley in Tibet at an average 16,400 feet (5,000 meters) deep. The deepest point has been measured at 17,657 feet (5,382 meters). |
| Geology Facts |
Geology ---------------- |
| A lot of the facts here have to do with the Earth, rocks and minerals, volcanoes, geologic time, etc. |