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Antarctica

Amazing Facts 4 U — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 04:30:16 +0000

35 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Antarctica | Amazing Facts 4U

Antarctica is the fifth largest and the southernmost continent in the world. Antarctica is covered by ice all throughout the year making it unsuitable for permanent inhabitation and livelihood.
Because Antarctica lies in the southern hemisphere, the seasons there is the opposite of seasons in the north. Summer runs from October to February and winter covers the remainder of the year.
Fact is Antarctica is the highest, windiest, emptiest place on earth. The Antarctic is colder than the Arctic.
Antarctica is the coldest place on earth average temperature being -56 degrees F. The lowest temperature ever recorded was at Vostok Station (-89.20 C i.e. -128.60 F).
Antarctica is almost entirely desert and is the driest place on earth. Very little snow or rain falls on the continent. An amazing fact is the Dry valley’ region on the continent has not received rainfall for 2 million years.
It is called the White Continent as it is completely frozen. In summer, Antarctica gets light all day while in winter it is total darkness.
A phenomenon like an aurora australis (glow in the night sky), diamond dust (cloud of tiny ice crystals), and sun dog (bright spot beside the sun) are observed in Antarctica.
The amazing fact is that the Antarctic continent wasn’t even actually seen until 1820.
Amazingly no man set foot in Antarctica until 1895.
The South Pole is found in Antarctica. Ronald Amundsen, a Norwegian, was the first person to reach the South Pole in 1911.
It’s amazing that Antarctica is bigger than Europe and almost double the size of Australia.
Mt. Vinson Massif (4,892 m) is the highest peak of Antarctica. Mt. Erebus is the only active volcano in Antarctica.
The fact is nobody owns the Antarctica continent. There are no countries. It is governed by an international treaty. The ‘Antarctic Treaty’ of 1959 designates Antarctica as ‘a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science’.
Several minerals have been discovered in Antarctica but their commercial exploitation is banned until 2048 by the ‘Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty’.
Amazingly Antarctica is the only continent without a time zone.
The amazing fact is most of Antarctica is covered in ice over 1.6 km thick (1 mile). The ice can be more than 4 km thick in some places. Antarctica has 8 times more ice than the Arctic. The average thickness of ice sheet is around 2 km.
Amazingly there are no permanent residents in Antarctica. Only temporary residents are around 1000 scientists.
Antarctica has amazingly no trees or bushes. Vegetation on the continent is composed of mosses, lichen, and algae.
Amazingly the Antarctic ice cap has 29 million cubic km of ice. This is 90% of all the ice on the planet and between 60 and 70 % of all of the world’s freshwater.
The amazing fact is if Antarctica’s ice sheets melted, the world’s oceans would rise by 60 to 65 meters (200 ft) around the world.
About 70% of the total earth’s freshwater reserve is in the Antarctica ice cap.
Antarctica accounts for 90% of the entire world’s ice.
Antarctica is the best place in the world to find meteorites. Dark meteorites show up against the white expanse of ice and snow and don’t get covered by vegetation.
One of the biggest icebergs which ever broke free was from the Ross ice shelf in Antarctica in 2000. It was amazing 295 km (183 miles) long and 37 km (23 miles) wide, with an area of 11,000 sq km (4,250 sq miles) above water and 10 times bigger below.
The amazing fact is when the Antarctic sea-ice begins to expand at the beginning of winter, it advances by around 40,000 sq miles (100,000 sq km) per day and eventually doubles the size of Antarctica adding up to an extra 20 million sq km of ice around the landmass.
Only about 1% of Antarctica is not covered by ice.
Amazingly the number of breeding pairs of penguins in Antarctica is estimated to be 20 million.
Antarctica has a peculiar group of fish called the ice fish. These have no red pigment hemoglobin in their blood to carry oxygen around. They manage without it because the temperature is so low and oxygen dissolves better in cold temperatures. They just have a larger volume of clear blood instead and this gives them an unusually ghostly white color, particularly their gills.
There are no land mammals in Antarctica. Eskimos and polar bears are found only in the Arctic.
An amazing fact is the largest land animal in Antarctica is an insect, a wingless midge, Belgica Antarctica, less than 1.3 cm (0.5 in) long. They don’t fly (they’d get blown away). They look shiny black and hop like fleas living among penguin colonies.
Fossils have been found in Antarctica which shows that once it was a warm and habitable place.
Amazingly in 1981, a swarm of krill was tracked by US scientists that were estimated at being up to 10 million tonnes of krill! This is the equivalent of about 143 million people. Krill is the main food of the blue whales.
Antarctica is the only continent with no native species of ants. Antarctica is also the only continent without any reptiles or snakes.
Antarctica has more than 70 lakes that lie below the ice sheet. Lake Vostok is the largest among them. Lake Vostok may house life. Expeditions from several countries are currently drilling the 13,100 feet (4,000 meters) to reach this hidden gem.
Antarctica, with its dry, clear skies, stable atmosphere, and months of complete darkness, is one of the best places in the world to observe galaxies. The largest telescope in Antarctica is the South Pole Telescope.

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By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Africa

Amazing Facts 4 U — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 09:30:16 +0000

55 Facts About Africa | Amazing Facts 4U

Africa is in fact the second largest and the second-most populous continent in the world. In fact, it encompasses all four hemispheres and has the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Equator passing through it.
The name ‘Africa’ came from ‘Afri’, the title for a group of people who dwelt in North Africa, and ‘ca’, the Roman suffix for ‘country’ or ‘land’.
In Latin, ‘Africa’ means ‘sunny’ and in Greek ‘Aphrike’ means ‘without cold’.
Africa covers 6% of the earth’s total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. There are 54 countries and 1 non-self-governing territory in Africa.
An amazing fact is before colonial rule, Africa comprised of 10000 distinct autonomous states with a distinct identity, language & customs.
All of Africa was colonized by foreign powers during the “scramble for Africa”, except Ethiopia and Liberia.
In the 1950s, the independence struggle in Africa gathered momentum. Libya was the first African country to declare its independence.
The northernmost countries of Africa (bordering the Mediterranean Sea) are generally called ‘The Middle East’ and the countries to the south are referred to as ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’.
Algeria is the largest country in Africa and Seychelles is the smallest.
Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and Seychelles is the least populated.
Namibia is the least densely populated country in Africa.
Cairo, Egypt is the largest urban agglomeration in Africa. The second-largest in Lagos, Nigeria.
The largest land animal in the world, the African elephant lives in Africa.
The tallest animal in the world, the giraffe lives in Africa.
The fastest animal in the world, the cheetah lives in Africa.
The largest reptile in the world, the Nile crocodile lives in Africa.
The largest primate in the world, the gorilla lives in Africa.
The world’s largest wildlife migration occurs in Serengeti, Tanzania.
Africa has more than 25% of the total bird species in the world.
Lake Malawi has in fact more fish species than any other freshwater lake in the world.
Africa has about 3,000 protected areas which include 129 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 50 Biosphere Reserves, and 198 Marine Protected Areas.
Mt. Kilimanjaro (5,895m) is the highest peak in Africa. It is a dormant volcano.
Lake Assal (Djibouti) is the lowest point in Africa. It is 155m below sea level.
Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa. It is also the second-largest freshwater lake in the world.
Victoria Falls is the largest waterfalls in Africa. It is about 1.7 km wide and 108m high.
Madagascar is the largest island in Africa. It is also the fourth largest in the world.
The deepest river in the world is River Congo (220m). It is also the second-largest river in the world by volume of water discharged.
The River Nile is in fact the longest river (6,650km) in the world. It is formed by the confluence of two smaller rivers namely the Blue Nile and the White Nile.
Egypt is called ‘The Gift of Nile’.
Africa is the world’s hottest continent.
Africa is the second driest continent in the world (after Australia).
The Sahara is the world’s hottest desert and the third largest desert after Antarctica and the Arctic.
The Sahara desert covers around one-tenth of the total land area of Africa.
The highest temperature ever recorded in the world is in Al-Aziziyah (Libya) in the Saharan desert which was amazing (136 F or 58 C in 1922).
The oldest human remains (Lucy) ever discovered were in Ethiopia (dating back to amazing 200,000 years).
The skeleton of ‘Lucy’, a hominid (discovered in Ethiopia, 1974), and a 165-foot trail of hominid footprints (discovered in Tanzania, 1979) helped scientists mark the northeastern territory of Africa as the birthplace of humanity.
The Pharaonic civilization (Egypt) is in fact one of the oldest and longest-lasting civilizations in the world.
Arabic is the most common language spoken in Africa.
Amazingly more than 2,000 languages are spoken in Africa and there are at least 3,000 different ethnic groups in Africa.
Islam is the most followed religion in Africa, with Christianity being the second.
Egypt is the most popular tourist destination in Africa.
Africa is the world’s poorest and the most underdeveloped continent.
Africa is the only continent to have a large percentage of its inhabitants transported elsewhere for slave labor.
The Second Congo War (1998 – 2006) is the deadliest worldwide conflict (in terms of death toll) since World War II. It is also considered the largest war in African history.
The amazing fact is Ethiopia counts its time on the opposite side of its clock. This can be tallied to being behind by 6 hours. 6 pm would be 12 noon and 12 noon would be 6 am.
The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months. The calendar is eight years behind the Western calendar. The months are usually 30 days long but the last month has 5 or 6 days. September 11th is celebrated as the day of New Year.
Ethiopia is the country where coffee was first discovered. Hence it is considered coffee’s homeland.
Amazingly in the African country of Lesotho, the people are known as Basotho and speak Sesotho.
Liberia, United States &, Burma are the only countries that haven’t yet adopted the Metric system as the standard of measurement.
Amazingly a “Stock exchange System” exists in Somali pirates. One could invest in a pirate group and get the rewards as per the investment made after the successful heist.
The two most popular sports in Africa are football and cricket. The success of African teams added to the popularity and flourishing of these games in the continent.
More than 90% of the soils in Africa are unsuitable for agriculture.
Deforestation rates in Africa are twice that of the rest of the world.
Africa is connected to Asia via the Sinai Peninsula.
Suez Canal is the artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. It allows ship transport between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa.

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~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Europe

Amazing Facts 4 U — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:30:48 +0000

50 Interesting facts – Europe | Amazing Facts 4U

Europe covers 3.93 million square miles. Europe in fact constitutes 2% of the earth’s surface area and 6.8% of the total land area.
The amazing fact is that the whole of Europe is only two percent larger in area than Canada.
Europe has more than 50 countries. Russia alone constitutes 40% of Europe’s total land area.
Europe is said to be named after ‘Europa’, a Phoenician Princess in Greek Mythology.
The amazing fact is if it was not for the Europeans, the U.S.A would not have existed today.
The European Union has 25 countries members and was formed in 1957. Most of the countries in Europe use the universal currency called the Euro. The Euro currency entered circulation on 1 January 2002.
Brussels (Belgium) is the capital of the European Union.
The European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.
The amazing fact is the British Empire based in Europe was at one time the largest empire in the world covering more than 36 million square kilometers and had a population of about 550 million people. It covered a quarter of the Earth’s surface.
The economy of Europe is currently the largest on earth.
Democracy was in fact invented in Europe almost 2000 years ago.
Famous European Philosophers are Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato.
Both the World Wars (I and II) were principally focused in Europe.
It’s amazing that over 60 million European soldiers were mobilized during the First World War.
Europe is home to the highest number of migrants in all global regions. In fact, By the end of the Second World War, Europe had more than 40 million refugees.
River Volga is the longest river in Europe. It is also the largest river (in terms of discharge ) in Europe.
The Piano and Violin were European inventions.
Croatia was the first country to eradicate slavery in the continent.
The amazing fact is Denmark has twice as many pigs as there are people.
The tallest Ferris wheel (London Eye) in Europe is located in England.
Cricket was in fact invented in England.
Finland is the most forested country in Europe.
France is the only country in Europe to be completely self-sufficient in basic food production.
In France, the law in fact guarantees everyone five weeks of vacation, and most full-time workers get two full months of vacation.
If you count everything, including overseas territories, then France claims the title of most time zones by covering 12 of them. The United States would be the runner-up with 11 and then Russia with 9.
The Dune du Pilat (France) is the tallest sand dune in Europe.
The statue of Liberty was constructed in France and was designed by Frederic Bartholdi.
Greenland (Denmark) is the largest island in the world.
Iceland let its largest three banks fail without bailing them out but made sure that no citizens suffered financial loss.
Amazingly Iceland has no army and is regarded as the most peaceful country.
Mt. Etna (3,329m) is the tallest active volcano in Europe. It is located in Sicily, Italy.
The thermometer was invented in Italy.
Monaco is the world’s richest country in terms of GDP per capita.
The amazing fact is that the Netherlands is closing 8 prisons across the country because of a lack of crime.
Amazingly Norway will allow any student from any nation to study free of charge at their public universities.
Poland alone has in fact generated 17 Nobel Laureates.
Russia is the largest country in Europe. It is also the largest country in the world.
The longest railway line in the world is the Trans-Siberian Railway line. It has connected St. Petersburg to Vladivostok since 1916.
Russia has 13,000 uninhabited villages.
Golf started in Scotland.
The Spanish national anthem has no words.
Spain literally means ‘the land of rabbits’.
The Tomatina Festival of Spain is one of the most unusual festivals in Europe where people throw tomatoes at each other. It is held in the Valencian town of Bunol.
The amazing fact is that Sweden recycles so well that it has run out of garbage and must import it from Norway for its energy programs.
Sweden has one of the highest populations of those who believe there is no God.
Amazingly the Swedish & Finnish governments pay students monthly pocket money if they attend high schools and universities.
If you fail your driver’s license test in Switzerland three times, you are required to visit a Psychologist to explain the reasons.
It’s amazing that water, electricity, and gas has been free in Turkmenistan since 1991.
The largest country entirely in Europe is Ukraine.
Vatican City is the smallest country (by area and by population) in the world.

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~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Desert

Amazing Facts 4 U — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 09:30:15 +0000

50 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Desert | Amazing Facts 4U

The word ‘Sahara’ means ‘desert’ in Arabic, so the Sahara Desert just means ‘desert desert’.
There are a number of different definitions to describe a dessert but they are typically areas that receive extremely low amounts of rain.
For a place to be called a desert, it has to be an area that gets less than 10 inches (25 mm) of rain a year.
Deserts are typically found across our planet along two fringes parallel to the equator at 25–35° latitude in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
Around one-third of the Earth’s surface is covered in deserts. Europe is the only continent with no large deserts.
The Sahara Desert is large enough to cover almost all of the United States and spans 12 countries. It is the largest hot desert in the world occupying 8% of the world area.
The Sahara Desert is home to 2 million people in spite of harsh conditions.
As recently as 6,000 BC, grains and millet were grown across much of what is now the Sahara Desert.
In fact, there are about 80,000 square miles of oasis across the Sahara i.e. Over 2 % of the Sahara is covered by oasis.
Amazingly only about 30% of the Sahara Desert is covered in sand. There are lots of sand dunes, with some of them as high as 500 feet high.
The Arabian Desert in the Middle East is the second largest hot desert on Earth but is substantially smaller than the Sahara.
Other large hot deserts in the world are the Gobi Desert in Asia, the Kalahari Desert in Africa, the Patagonian Desert in South America, the Great Victoria Desert in Australia, the Syrian Desert in the Middle East, and the Great Basin Desert in North America.
The Lut Desert in Iran is the hottest place on earth.
Amazingly some deserts can get as hot as 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) during the day and drop to 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius) at night!
The all-time hottest temperature ever recorded in the desert was 136 degrees F, in Azizia, Libya, in 1922.
Sahara is currently in a dry period and scientists expect it to be green again in 15,000 years.
There was a solitary tree in the Sahara Desert of Niger called the Tree of the Ténéré that kept itself alive by a 110 feet deep root system. It was the only tree for roughly 250 miles in any direction. In 1973, a drunk Libyan truck driver managed to ram his truck into it and uprooting it.
The scarab beetle is an essential part of life in the Sahara Desert. It’s also known as the “dung beetle” because they are able to survive almost entirely on animal feces. They roll dung into a ball and push it or dig a new burrow next to a heap of dung in which they live.
An adult desert tortoise can survive more than a year without water and can survive temperatures that exceed 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Amazingly it snowed in the Sahara Desert in 1979.
A 30-mile giant eye in the Sahara Desert once served as a geographical landmark for astronauts.
The amazing fact is that sand from the Sahara is blown by the wind all the way to the Amazon, recharging its minerals. The desert literally fertilizes the rainforest.
The amazing fact is that there’s a society of 1.2 million of Muslims in the middle of the Sahara Desert where men wear veils and women do not; where most women are literate while most men are illiterate; and where livestock is owned by the women.
There is an annual ultramarathon held each year in the Sahara Desert called the Marathon des Sables (MDS) in southern Morocco each year in April. It has to be entered several years in advance, and it costs over $4,500 to participate. The race is run in six stages over seven days, and runners have to carry all of their supplies on their backs. The total distance covered over sand dunes and rocky plateaus is 156 miles. It is considered the toughest foot race on the planet.
A boy named Hadara was lost by his parents in the Sahara Desert at the age of two, and was apprehended, and raised by ostriches for a period of ten years.
There is a Stonehenge type megalithic stone, a calendar structure in the Sahara Desert, built around 6000 years ago.
After getting lost in the Sahara Desert, a man tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists, he was so dehydrated that his blood clotted the wounds. 9 days later he was rescued 186 miles (299km) away and had lost 18 Kgs, living off his urine, bats, and snakes.
The world record for crossing the Sahara by bicycle was set in 2011 by Reza Pakravan, 36, a market security analyst in London, who made about 1084 miles journey in 13 days, 6 hours. He started in Algeria, cycled south, then turned east through Niger and Chad to reach Sudan. He needed 6,000 calories of food and 7 liters of water each day.
Rain does fall occasionally in deserts, and desert storms are often violent. A record 44 millimeters of rain once fell within 3 hours in the Sahara.
Large Saharan storms may deliver up to 1 millimeter per minute. Normally dry stream channels, called arroyos or wadis, can quickly fill after heavy rains, and flash floods make these channels dangerous. More people drown in deserts than die of thirst.
Scientists have recently found an ancient mega lake under the Sahara Desert.
The $1 billion, 2,900-mile Trans-Saharan highway will link Africa’s most populous city, Lagos, Nigeria, to Algeria and Tunisia.
The Great Sphinx of Giza is not located in a remote region of the Egyptian desert. It actually is situated in a suburb of Cairo.
There is also a tree called the Tree of Life in Bahrain, living in the desert with no other vegetation in the surrounding area.
About 1,000 square miles of Chinese land turns into Gobi Desert every year, fueling deadly, globe-circling dust storms. China has planted the biggest artificial forest in the world to stop the spread of the Gobi Desert.
The first dinosaur eggs discovered were found in the Gobi Desert in 1923 by an expedition led by the American Museum of Natural History.
A German particle physicist Gerhard Knies has calculated that in 6 hours, the world’s deserts receive more energy from the sun than humans consume in a year.
That calculation has inspired the 2009 formation of the Desertec Industrial Initiative, a project that aims to construct a network of solar and wind farms stretching across Africa and the Middle East. It would connect electricity to Europe via high-voltage DC cables.
The disappearance of the Aral Sea has left behind a desert filled with ship graveyard. In just 50 years, it went from the world’s fourth-largest saline body of water to a desert.
The largest cold desert in the world is Antarctica, because a desert doesn’t need to be hot, but only lose moisture more than it gains.
Many of the ice-free regions of the Arctic and Antarctic are known as polar deserts.
The South American Atacama Desert gets an average rainfall of 1 millimeter (.04 inches) per year and had not had any significant rainfall in over 400 years making it the driest desert. Amazingly in July 2011, it received a whopping 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) of rain.
Amazingly more than 1 million people live in the Atacama Desert today.
Camels don’t store water in their humps. They store fat there. They can survive for so long in the desert because of their ovular blood cells, relatively dry urine and feces, and nostrils that recycle water vapor.
In 1958, a Cessna (A type of plane) was flown continually for over two months, refueled via truck matching its speed on a desert highway.
Sand dunes are actually said to “sing” audibly in 30 deserts around the world, producing haunting and baffling sounds. It was first recorded by Marco Polo when he crossed the Gobi Desert. Each song lasts up to several minutes.
Alaska has a sand desert with dunes over 150 feet high.
Those residing in the Atacama Desert Use Fog catching nets to provide up to 10,000 Liters/day of freshwater.
The Taa language, spoken by less than 5,000 people in the Kalahari Desert is the language with the most vowels and consonants.
The world’s largest film studio is located in Morocco, consisting mostly of deserts and mountains, and was used for the latest Game of Thrones episode, The Mummy, Gladiator, etc. It has also become a popular tourist resort.

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Earthquake

Amazing Facts 4 U — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:30:28 +0000

60 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Earthquakes | Amazing Facts 4U

Earthquakes kill approximately 8,000 people each year and have caused an estimated 13 million deaths in the past 4,000 years.
In Hindu mythology, Earth is held in place by eight gigantic elephants, all balanced on the back of a turtle, which stands on the coils of a snake. If any of these animals shift or move, an earthquake occurs.
In ancient Greece, people believed that the god of the sea, Poseidon, caused earthquakes. When he was angry, Poseidon would strike the ground with his trident and set off an earthquake. Aristotle was the first to note that soft ground shakes more than hard ground.
The earliest recorded earthquake is from 1831 B.C. in the Shandong province in China.
An earthquake in A.D. 1201 in the eastern Mediterranean is labeled the worst earthquake in history and claimed an estimated one million lives.
Nearly 2,000 years ago, a Chinese astronomer named Zhang Heng (A.D. 78-139) invented the world’s first earthquake detector. It could detect earthquakes more than 370 miles (600 km) away.
The worst avalanche triggered by an earthquake occurred in Peru in 1070. A 250-foot (850-meter) wave of ice, mud, and rock fell down the mountain in Huascaran at 250 miles (400 km) per hour. It carried away entire villages and killed more than 18,000 people.
The biggest earthquake ever felt in Britain was in 1580. It caused a tsunami that sank around 150 ships and drowned 120 people in Dover.
The highest tsunami caused by an earthquake happened in Japan in 1771. A tsunami 278 feet (85 meters) high struck Ishigaki Island.
Englishman John Milne invented the seismograph in 1880.
The 1906 earthquake in California was before the Richter scale, but scientists estimate it would rank as a 7.8. As much as 90% of the damage in San Francisco was from fires caused by cracked gas pipes. San Francisco burned for three days and nights.
The 1906 California earthquake was one of the first major disasters to be recorded by photography.
The world’s worst landslide started by an earthquake occurred in 1920 in the Kansu province in China. The landslide killed about 200,000 people.
American scientist Charles Richter invented the Richter scale in 1935.
The Chilean quake of 1960 shook the entire Earth for many days, a phenomenon called oscillation that was measured by seismic stations around the planet. It had a magnitude of 9.5 and is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
The 1964 Alaska 9.2 quake lasted four minutes and dropped streets 20 feet (6 meters) below normal. It caused flooding on the coast of Hawaii, more than 3,100 miles away.
You may not notice a magnitude 2 quake. You would feel the ground shake in a magnitude 3 quake. A magnitude 7 or higher can destroy a city.
Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world. Thousands of earthquakes occur in Japan every year, but most of them are very weak.
Though the ground moved for only about 20 seconds during the 1995 Kobe, Japan, earthquake, more than 5,000 people were killed, 300,000 people were left homeless, and more than 100,000 buildings were destroyed.
An average earthquake lasts around a minute. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake lasted nearly 10 minutes, the longest on record.
The Indian Ocean earthquake on December 26, 2004 triggered a series of tsunamis. These tsunamis hit 11 countries and 225,000 lives were lost that year. Tsunami waves as high as 100 feet tall several coastlines.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake released enough energy to power all the homes and business in the United States for three days.
An earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 with a magnitude of 7.0 killed over 200000 people.
The 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan March 11, 2011 was the worst earthquake in Japan’s history. It created a tsunami with waves as high as 30 feet (10 meters) and severely damaged nuclear power plants. It killed 15000 people.
Japan’s 9.0 earthquake in 2011 not only moved the island closer to the United States, it also shifted the planet’s axis by 6.5 inches.
Japan’s 9.0 earthquake in 2011 also created a massive 186-mile long and 93-mile-wide rift 15 miles under the ocean.
There are about 500,000 earthquakes a year around the world, as detected by sensitive instruments. About 100,000 of those can be felt, and 100 or so cause damage each year.
An earthquake happens somewhere in the world once every thirty seconds.
Each year the southern California area alone experiences about 10,000 earthquakes, most of them not felt by people.
Approximately one earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 or higher occurs every year.
Earthquakes can set off volcanoes, as was the case in the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and the Mount Etna eruption in 2002.
The moment magnitude scale (MMS) replaced the 1930s-era Richter scale in the 1970s as the method of measuring the size of earthquakes in terms of energy released.
A quake is considered major when it registers more than 7.0 on the moment magnitude scale.
The Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 generated enough energy to power all the homes and businesses in the United States for three days.
The largest earthquake in recent history was a 9.5 and occurred in Chile in 1960. It caused giant ocean waves as far as 6,000 miles (10,000 km) away.
The largest earthquake in the U.S. on record was a 9.2 quake that occurred in Alaska in 1964.
The speed of the fastest seismic wave is 225 miles (360 kilometers) per hour.
Aftershocks can occur years after a main earthquake because the displaced fault line and crust are adjusting to the effects of the main earthquake.
Parkfield, California, is known as “The Earthquake Capital of the World” and has a bridge that spans two tectonic plates.
Earthquakes are mostly caused by geological faults, but they can also be caused by landslides, nuclear testing, mine tests, and volcanic activity.
The “focus” or “hypocenter” is the earthquake’s initial point of rupture. Its “epicenter” is the point at ground level above the hypocenter.
Scientists developed the theory of plate tectonics in the mid-twentieth century. There are four types of faults: normal, reverse, thrust, and strike-up.
Even a small plate movement can trigger major earthquakes.Tectonic plates move less than 3 inches(8 cm) per year. However, a tectonic plate movement of just 8 Inches (20 cm) is enough to set off a major earthquake.
Earthquakes occur only in the Earth’s crust. Deep earthquakes originate in crust that is sliding down beneath another tectonic plate.
The most devastating earthquakes are those that are strong and shallow with the focus point less than 20 miles (32 km) underground.
Nearly 80% of Earth’s largest earthquakes occur near the “Ring of Fire,” which is a horseshoe-shaped region in the Pacific Ocean where many tectonic plates meet.
“Ring of fire” circles the Pacific Ocean, touching the coasts North and South America, Japan, China and Russia.
The second-most earthquake-prone area is a region called the Alpide Belt, which includes countries such as Turkey, India, and Pakistan.
Many animals may sense weak tremors before a quake. Other scientists think that animals may sense electrical signals set off by the shifting of underground rocks.
An earthquake can release hundreds times more energy than the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in Japan in 1945.
An earthquake under the ocean can cause a tsunami, which travels outward in all directions up to 600 miles (970 km) per hour, the speed of a jet.
When the tsunami reaches the shoreline, it suddenly rolls up to massive heights causing massive destruction.
The San Andreas fault extends at least 20 miles vertically into the Earth.
The San Andreas Fault is moving about 2 inches a year, about the same rate fingernails grow. At this rate, San Francisco and Los Angeles will be next to each other in 15 million years.
The most earthquake-prone state is Alaska in USA.
An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.
The San Andres is one of the longest fault zones in the world. It is a strike-slip fault and runs over 800 miles (1,280 km) from San Francisco through southern California to Mexico. The San Andres fault is not just one fault but it is actually made up of many faults.
Steel, reinforced concrete and wood are good building materials for an earthquake resistant house because they flex somewhat without breaking. Family homes built completely out of brick are not as safe because they can break apart easily.
The five strongest earthquakes since 1900 A.D. are Chile 1960 (9.5) , Alaska 1964 (9.2), Indonesia 2004 (9.1), Japan 2011 (9.0) & Russia 1952 (9.0).
The two deadliest earthquakes in history are Syria in 1201 A.D. which claimed 11,00,000 deaths & China in 1556 which claimed 8,30,000 lives.

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