Nature – Amazing Facts 4 u

Volcano

Amazing Facts 4 U — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 09:30:19 +0000

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

Anything that humans cannot control or are afraid of has been associated with gods and divinity. Ancient cultures had their own versions of volcano gods. Ancient Greeks had Hephaistos , the god of craftsmanship and fire. For Romans Vulcan was the blacksmith of gods. Among Hawaiians. Pele is the goddess of volcanoes.
The term “volcano” is from the Latin Volcanus or Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. The Romans first used the term to describe Mt. Etna, a volcanic mountain they believed was the forge of Vulcan.
“Lava” derives from the Latin lavara, meaning “to wash,” and is magma that has erupted at the surface.
Hot liquid rock under the Earth’s surface is known as magma, it is called lava after it comes out of a volcano through some opening. Most volcanoes happen on fault lines, or cracks in the Earth’s surface.
There are four major types of volcanoes, classified according to their shape, composition of their magma, and the way they erupt. Composite Volcanoes (also known as Stratovolcanoes) which are the most common type of volcanoes, generally steep-sided cone shaped mountains most of which have a crater at the summit and erupt with different kinds of lava, ash, and rock . Shield Volcanoes are wide gentle sloping volcanoes that have low viscosity lava flows. Cinder cone volcanoes are smaller single vent volcanoes, that have short-lived eruptions and often have bowl shaped craters at the summit. Lava domes are rounded volcanoes which erupt with very viscous lava that doesn’t flow great distances. An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, mudflows and rockfalls.
The largest volcano found in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars, though it is now extinct. It rises to an elevation of 27 km measuring 550 km across.
Venus may have at one time produced more volcanoes than any other planet in our solar system, though they are all now extinct.
While no other planet besides Earth shows active volcanoes, Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, shows volcanoes that are erupting.
The caldera is the term used for the circular depression formed at the summit of a volcano after a large eruption. Caldera, is Spanish for “kettle.”. Once a big eruption takes place, the volcano collapses in on itself and spews out gases, lava and ash that flow down from the edges of the circular depression or caldera.
The largest caldera is the La Garita Caldera in Colorado which was formed 26-28 million years ago and was one of the largest eruptions if not the largest on Earth.
Our entire world is threatened by what is known as Pacific Ring of Fire. It is actually a volcano string around Pacific Ocean’s perimeter. The Pacific Ring of Fire is responsible for giving some of the world’s deadliest eruptions. This is the area where several tectonic plates move beneath each other.
The Pacific Ring of Firehouses 452 volcanoes that cover 75% of world’s total dormant and active volcanoes above sea level.
The material ejected from a volcano is called “pyroclastic flow” from the Greek pyro (fire) and I (broken) refering to an avalanche of volcanic gases, rock fragments, pumice and hot ash rushing down the slopes of a volcano. It can have amazing speed of 100 kilometers per hour with temperature exceeding 500 degree Celsius.
Volcanoes can dramatically impact global climate as it releases huge amounts ash that gets trapped in atmosphere and prevents sun rays from reaching the earth resulting in a temperature drop. The acid that is released by volcanic eruptions destroys the ozone layer, letting in harmful UV rays of sun to earth. These eruptions also release massive amounts of carbon dioxide leading to greenhouse effect increasing the temperature.
Ash and gases spewed by volcanic eruptions can color sunsets because the material adds more obstacles through which incoming sunlight has to pass before reaching our eyes. The effect accentuates the sky light toward the red end of the spectrum.
About 20% of all volcanoes are under water.
Japan has 10% of the world’s active volcanoes.
Almost 80% of earth’s surface below or above sea level has volcanic origins.
About 350 million or 1 in 20 people live within danger range of an active volcano.
Over last 10,000 years, a total of 1,500 or more volcanoes have erupted. Of these, only about 20-30 erupt in any one year.
World’s oldest and longest document activity is of Sicily’s Mount Etna. It has been active and erupted since 1500 B.C. It is Italy’s most active volcano and also the largest active volcano in Europe.
Indonesia ranks first in terms of number of active volcanoes throughout history. Second position is taken by Japan while U.S. ranks third in the list.
Klyuchevskaya Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula is the largest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere.
There are no active volcanoes in Australia because it sits in the middle of a tectonic plate.
Volcanoes form through subduction (when two tectonic plates smash against each other), mid-oceanic rift (when two plates drift apart), or in a hot spot (a weak spot in one of Earth’s plates).
In A.D. 79, Vesuvius erupted violently, devastating the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum killing 16000 people. Eyewitness accounts of the time, recent excavations, and the preserved remains tell the full story of the eruption.
During the past 400 years, nearly a quarter of a million people have been killed as a direct result of volcanic eruptions. Indirect aftereffects such as famine, climate change, and disease most likely have tripled that number.
The eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa island in Indonesia in 1815 is the biggest eruption recorded in history. The explosion for the eruption was heard on Sumatra Island more than 1200 miles away. The destruction was vast, with an estimated ejection volume of 38 cubic miles (160 km3) and a death toll of more than 71,000 people. It created a massive sulfate dust cloud that fundamentally altered the planet’s climate for 3 years.
The 1883 eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia is thought to have released 200 megatons of energy, the equivalent of 15,000 nuclear bombs. Even though the island was uninhabited, the eruption killed 36,000 people as the result of burning ash showers and huge tsunamis. It generated the loudest sound historically reported.
The worst volcanic disaster of the twentieth century is considered to be the eruption of Mt. Pelée in 1902 on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean which killed 30,121 people. Only two people survived: a shoemaker living on the edge of the island and a prisoner who had been locked in a dungeon cell with thick stone walls.
Mount St. Helens is North America’s most active volcano. During the 9 hours that Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, the volcano spewed about 540 million tons of ash over an area of more than 22,000 square miles causing the largest terrestrial landslide in recorded history, reducing the mountain’s summit by about 1,300 feet . The eruption had 500 times the power of an atomic bomb.
The most dangerous volcano today is Popocatépetl, nicknamed El Popo, which is just 33 miles from Mexico City. El Popo is still active, sending thousands of tons of gas and ash into the air each year.
World’s largest and active supervolcano is Yellowstone Caldera. On top of the Caldera is the Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone supervolcano erupted thousands of years ago but till date fuels nearly 10,000 hot springs and geysers which is about 50 % of world’s visible geothermal activity.
In Hawaii you will find two mountains , Mauna Lao and Mauna Kea which are massive volcanoes covering almost entire Hawaii.
Mauna Kea measures 4,205 meters above sea level. However, the height of the mountain when measured from the ocean floor is 10,210 meters making it the highest mountain in this world even larger then Mount Everest.
The most active volcano on Earth is Mount Yasur on Tanna Island, part of the archipelago nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. It has been erupting nearly continuously for 111 years.
The Volcano can scream just before exploding. Alaska’s Redoubt Volcano erupted in 2009 but right before erupting, the volcano started screaming forewarning the danger.
The volcanoes can appear all of a sudden from the middle of nowhere. Example is Paricutin, the Mexican volcano in 1943. A long crack in the ground was followed by rumbling noises and rising earth with ash and sulfur coming out. The volcano rose to 165 meters within 24 hours and 230 meters within a week. The lava flow gradually consumed a town named San Juan. It kept erupting for 9 years rising to the height of 424 meters before it eventually died in 1952 covering 10 sq. mile of fertile land.
Paricutin volcano is a monogenetic volcano which is a type of volcano that never erupts again once it dies. So, Paricutin will never erupt again.
The volcano’s called Ol Doinyo Lengai located in Tanzania spews out a type of lava which geologists often call as ‘lava from another planet’. It is 2,200 meters tall and spews out ‘black lava’ which is carbonatite substance similar to dark mud. It is cooler than usual lava and its temperature can reach a maximum of 540℃. When the volcano erupts the lava usually cools while in air and falls down in form of glass shreds.
The black sand beaches in Iceland and Hawaii are formed by grains of black volcanic glass.
Iceland is made up almost entirely of volcanic rocks like those found on the ocean floor. It gradually built up above sea level through intense and prolonged eruptions.
The southernmost active volcano on the planet is Antarctica’s Mount Erebus. It is also home to Earth’s only long lived lava lakes.
Java’s volcano known as Ijen is in the area which has very high volcanic activity resulting in high sulfur concentration. The area is also known to have some of the most lethal acid lakes in the world due to sulfur turning to sulphuric acid.
In the crater of the volcano Ijen is the lake Kawah Ijen, which is the world’s most lethal and largest acidic lake which can eat up metals.
In 1982 scientists came up with what is known as VEI or Volcanic Explosivity Index which is used to determine the power of a volcanic eruption. The VEI runs from 0 to 8.
Eruptions with VEI 0-2 occur weekly or even daily. A category 3 volcanic eruption will shoot out ashes up to 15 kilometers high in sky. These eruptions usually occur once a year. Scale 4-5 are volcanic eruptions that take place once every few decades or centuries. Volcanic ash can shoot up up to 25 kilometers in sky.
Scale 6-7 are called colossal eruptions and super-colossal eruptions respectively which will shoot out lava bombs traveling well over hundred miles or more, cause tsunamis and more!
There is a type of volcanic rock known as pumice. This rock is the only type of rock on Earth that can float on water. Typical pumice will have numerous bubbly holes. These holes are created when the rock cools and hot gases get out of the rock in form of jets.
In 1883 the Krakatoa volcano erupted and was a category 6 explosion. It killed 36,417 people by thermal trauma and tsunamis.
8 on the VEI scale is a mega-colossal explosion at least 100 times more powerful than a category 6 eruption. There hasn’t been any VEI-8 explosion in last 10000 years. VEI-8 can end most of our world.
One of the biggest eruptions ever occurred about 30 million years ago in what is today eastern Nevada and western Utah, when a supervolcano exploded 3500 cubic kilometers of magma over an area of about 12,000 square miles. It left behind deposits of debris 13,000 feet deep. It was a VEI-8 eruption.
Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming sits on the site of an ancient supervoclano of grade VEI-7. It erupted around 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 640,000 years ago. If it follows the same pattern, another eruption is due any time now.
Other VEI-7 explosions have taken place so far , one in 74,000 B.C. in Sumatra , Indonesia and one in 24,500 B.C. in Taupo New Zealand.
Volcanologists use a special electric thermometer called a “thermocouple” to take a volcano’s temperature. Lava is so hot that a glass thermometer would melt.
Scientists believe that all the water on the earth was originally vented into the atmosphere by volcanoes.
There is an endangered bird species known as the Maleo which is the only known bird species on earth that uses geothermal energy from the volcanoes to incubate the eggs which are 5 times bigger than chicken eggs. The mama bird seeks out exposed volcanic areas where the eggs can hatch using the geothermal energy from the volcanoes.
Before the Panama Canal opened in 1915, rival proposals for an Atlantic–Pacific link included a plan to carve a canal through Nicaragua, which had a lot more fresh water and much less deadly malaria than Panama but it also had a significant volcanic activity which resulted in Panama getting the vote.
Cerro Negro, a new and very active volcano that first erupted in 1850 and has blown 23 times since, most recently in 1999 has black pebble covered slopes you can surf down on a metal-bottomed wood board.
Surtsey, one of Earth’s newest islands, was dramatically formed in 1963 by underwater volcanic eruptions. Surtsey Island, which lies off the southwest coast of Iceland.

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Falcon

Amazing Facts 4 U — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 09:30:13 +0000

25 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Falcons | Amazing Facts 4U

The peregrine falcon is the largest falcon and perhaps the best hunter of all its family. It hunts in wild uplands and rocky coasts, scanning the landscape for prey with its astounding eyesight.
The Peregrine Falcon is a raptor or bird of prey. Adults have blue-gray wings, dark brown backs, a buff-colored underside with brown spots, and white faces with a black tear stripe on their cheeks.
Peregrine falcon’s name comes from the Latin word peregrinus, which means “to wander.”
Peregrine falcons are among the world’s most common birds of prey and live on all continents except Antarctica.
Peregrine Falcons were virtually eradicated from eastern North America by pesticide poisoning in the middle 20th century.
After significant recovery efforts, the Peregrine Falcon population is increasing. There are an estimated 2,000 breeding pairs in the United States and Canada.
Their eyes are larger and heavier than human eyes and they can spot prey on the ground from a great height of 300m.
Amazingly falcons can keep track of three moving objects at the same time.
Soaring through the sky on broad, pointed wings, the streamlined peregrine falcon is a most impressive sight as it hunts down small birds. The force and impact of its breathtaking ‘stoop’, a sheer, high-speed dive is often enough to kill a victim outright while still in mid-air.
The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on the planet. In a ‘stoop’ they can reach up to speeds of 200 miles/hr.
A researcher has clocked their speed up to 242 miles/hr.
As per a BBC documentary film, only 20 percent of falcon’s high-speed dives end in a successful kill.
The air pressure from a 200 miles/hr dive could possibly damage a bird’s lungs, but small bony tubercles on a Peregrine Falcon’s nostrils guide the powerful airflow away from the nostrils, enabling the bird to breathe more easily.
The falcon’s prey is struck in one wing so the falcon does not injure itself. It then captures the prey in mid-air; the Peregrine Falcon strikes its prey with a clenched foot, stunning or killing it with the impact. If its prey is too heavy to carry, a Peregrine will drop it to the ground and eat it there.
The Peregrine Falcon’s upper beak is notched near the tip, an adaptation that enables falcons to kill prey by severing the spinal column at the neck.
The peregrine’s courtship involves the male passing food to the female, often when in flight. To make this maneuver possible, the female will roll over when flying to take the offered food from his talons.
Peregrine falcon chicks mature quickly. They have tremendous appetites and double their weight in just around 6 days. At three weeks of age, they are already around 10 times their size at birth.
The male peregrine is called a ‘tiercel’ because it is a tierce (one third) smaller in size than the female.
Falcons that nest on Arctic tundra and winter in South America fly as many as 15,500 miles in a year. The amazing fact is that peregrines will often return to the same eyrie (nest) each year.
The life span of falcons in the wild is up to 15 years.
In the UK the peregrine falcon can be spotted in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, in the Lake District, Devon, Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland. Many of the peregrines seen wintering in Britain will have come across the North Sea from Scandinavia.
During the Second World War peregrines were deliberately shot down in case they caught a pigeon that was carrying messages.
Today, the main predator to the peregrine is chemical pollutants, which they ingest from their prey and are highly sensitive to. The introduction of pesticides such as DDT saw numbers in Britain declined considerably. These poisons do not break down in the environment. Instead, they accumulate in the food chain, and birds such as falcons inevitably take in large quantities of such toxic substances.
Other factors that contributed to the decline of the peregrine falcon include gamekeepers who shot them to protect grouse. Their eggs are also highly prized by collectors.
In Britain, the peregrine falcon is a specially protected bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Individual birds nesting in vulnerable areas may also be guarded by volunteers. There are approximately 2000 pairs left in Britain.

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Tornado

Amazing Facts 4 U — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 09:30:52 +0000

30 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Tornado | Amazing Facts 4U

Tornadoes are usually the extreme result of a very large thunderstorm called a supercell.
Tornadoes begin when the sun heats up the surface of the land. As the warm, less heavy air begins to rise, it meets the colder, heavier air above it. The faster-moving air begins to spin and roll over the slower wind gathering pace and growing in size. Initially it is an invisible, horizontal wind spinning and rolling like a cylinder.
Later stronger and more powerful warm air forces the spinning winds vertically upward, causing an updraft and gathering momentum and creating a vortex. Now it moves in the direction of the thunderstorm winds. When the pointed part of the tornado touched the ground from the cloud, it is often referred to as ‘touch down’. As it moves it rips off things along its path. Its bottom end that stays in touch with the earth has a cloud of debris and dust surrounding it.
Tornadoes also go by the name of Twisters.
The whirling wind in a tornado can reach a speed of 300 miles per hour but usually stays anywhere between 110 and 300 mph. It is this wind speed that gives a tornado its destructive power.
Usually, some of the Tornadoes are found to last for only a few minutes but they can last up to 2 hours. In extreme cases, a tornado can last up to 4 hours.
Tornadoes can be really tall reaching the height of 75 feet!
Tornadoes move forward and they can actually move at a speed of 73 miles or 117 kilometers an hour.
Long-lasting Tornadoes can leave a destruction trail which can be 50 miles long and 1 mile wide.
Tornadoes have categories based on their destructive force. Their destructive force is measured using the Fujita Scale and are categorized as F1, F2, F3, F4, or F5 category Tornadoes.
F5s are terrible and the worst of the lot! They are the most destructive Tornadoes known to humans. There are several factors that are considered while categorizing these nasty fellows such as duration, distance travel, wind speed and more.
Tornadoes die just like everything else on this earth. They will last as long as their source of war air exists.
A tornado is associated with rainfall. This rain drags a region of rapidly descending air region, which scientists call as RFD or rear flank downdraft. This drag in turn drags the area of organized rotation known as the Meso cyclone of the super cell from which the tornado originated. This drag eventually cools down the RFD and chokes the tornado by cutting off the warm air source and thereby dissipating the tornado.
In 1925, the United States was hit by an F5 tornado that lasted for nearly 3.5 hours and traveled a distance of 219 miles. The tornado passed through parts of Illinois, Missouri and Indiana and is popular by the name Tri-State Tornado.
Tornadoes do not have any consistent shape or structure. They can be long and thin like ropes or they can be wide and spiral.
Tornadoes can occur over water bodies. These Tornadoes are known as waterspout tornadoes. There may be multiple-vortex Tornadoes!
There is no open area that can be considered as tornado-safe.
A tornado will look transparent when it starts until it actually hits the earth and starts picking up mud, dust and other debris.
When a tornado just starts rising, the sky takes a characteristic greenish hue.
Scientists make use of Pulse-Doppler radar for detecting Tornadoes. Data collection by this radar is based on the study of surrounding air reflectivity and velocity. Scientists also look for hook echoes and debris ball effects for detecting Tornadoes.
Cyclonic spin is characterized by clockwise spin in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise spin in the northern hemisphere. Anti-cyclonic, on the other hand, is a ridge or high-pressure circulation in the southern and northern hemispheres.
The fastest winds on earth are found in Tornadoes forming condensed water funnel.
There is no specific time for tornado occurrences and a tornado can hit anytime throughout the year. However, the frequency of tornado occurrences is at its peak between April and May.
Tornadoes will usually travel a few miles before they die out.
Around 1200 Tornadoes hit the United States every year.
Bangladesh ranks 3rd in terms of the frequency of Tornadoes. The US ranks first followed by Canada.
Bangladesh was hit by the most destructive tornado ever recorded in entire world. The tornado claimed more than 1300 lives and hit Bangladesh in 1989 on April 26. The tornado left a trail of complete devastation within 6 square kilometers. Except for a few tree skeletons, no other standing infrastructures were found.
The best place to hide during a tornado is a basement or any underground area.
It is widely believed that a tornado can make a house explode if a low pressure is developed inside the tornado. The actual fact is that the debris inside a tornado slams against house causing greater structural damage.
The noise made by Tornadoes vary and depend on the objects they pick and carry along their path. Tornadoes moving along open plain have little noise to offer.

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Oxygen

Amazing Facts 4 U — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 09:30:59 +0000

50 Amazing Oxygen Facts | Amazing Facts 4U

Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe after Hydrogen and Helium.
Oxygen forms in the hearts of stars, with the fusion of a carbon-12 nucleus and a helium-4 nucleus (also known as an alpha particle).
In fact on earth, oxygen is the most common element, making up about 47% of the earth’s mass.
Oxygen is absolutely essential to human life, it is found in the air we breathe and the water we drink (H20). Humans inhale more than 6 billion tons of oxygen each year.
Cyanobacteria, which are organisms that “breathe” using photosynthesis, take in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, just like modern plants. Cyanobacteria were likely responsible for the first oxygen on Earth, an event known as the Great Oxidation Event some 2.4 billion years ago.
When oxygen first developed on Earth 2.4 billion years ago , it is believed that it wiped out nearly 99% of all life in simple forms mostly anaerobic organisms and paved the way for life as we know it today. The simplest animals only appeared around 600 million years ago.
Oxygen (O2) is unstable in our planet’s atmosphere and must be constantly replenished by photosynthesis in green plants. Without them, our atmosphere would contain almost no Oxygen.
In simple terms photosynthesis reaction is : carbon dioxide + water + sunlight → glucose + oxygen.
Green algae and cyanobacteria are believed to be responsible for the production of as much as 70% of the free oxygen found in nature.
The Amazon rain forest consumes nearly all of the oxygen it produces through photosynthesis. The main contribution of oxygen to the atmosphere comes from plankton blooms fed by run off from its forest floor.
While ground-level ozone is an air pollutant, the ozone layer in the Earth’s upper atmosphere provides protection from the suns harmful rays by filtering Ultraviolet light.
Amazingly just five elements make up over 90 percent of the weight in the Earth’s crust. Almost half of the weight of the crust comes from oxygen. The other four elements are Silicon, Aluminum, Iron and calcium.
Scientists believe that there have been times when the Earth’s oceans have become completely devoid of oxygen and understandably many creatures died.
Amazing fact is that almost two-thirds of the weight of living things comes from oxygen mainly because living things contain a lot of water and about 89 percent of water’s weight comes from oxygen.
Oxygen is found in virtually all vital bodily compounds, such as carbohydrates , proteins and fats.
At cellular level the process is reverse to photosysnthesis providing energy to cells. In simple terms the reaction is : glucose + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water + energy.
Oxygen is about two times more soluble in water than nitrogen is making it possible for living organisms to thrive in seas, lakes and rivers. The polar oceans, being coolest, hold more dissolved oxygen and therefore sustain vast amounts of aquatic life.
During the carboniferous period in earth history , due to high oxygen levels in the range of 35 % , insects would grow to amazing sizes with the largest being a 2.6 meter long millipede.
English chemist and clergyman Joseph Priestly isolated oxygen by shining sunlight on mercuric oxide and collecting the gas from the reaction. He noted that a candle burned more brightly in this gas. Findings were published in 1774, beating out Swiss scientist Carl Wilhelm Steele, who had actually isolated oxygen in 1771 but not published the work.
French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier gave the name Oxygen in the year 1777.
Oxygen gas is colorless, odorless, and tasteless.
Liquid and solid oxygen are pale blues.
Oxygen gas normally is the divalent molecule O2. Ozone, O3, is another form of pure oxygen. The Atomic Number (number of protons in the nucleus) of Oxygen is 8.
It’s the most reactive of the non-metallic elements forming oxides after the reaction.
Oxygen was the atomic weight standard for the other elements until 1961 when it was replaced by carbon 12.
Dry air is 21 percent oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen and 1 percent other gases.
The oxygen molecule is very tough. A study found that an oxygen molecule (O2) can survive pressures 19 million times higher than atmospheric pressure.
Too much oxygen can be dangerous. Breathing 80 percent oxygen for more than 12 hours irritates the respiratory tract and can eventually cause deadly fluid build-up or edema in lungs.
Amazing fact is that Oxygen does not burn by itself! It does, however, support the combustion of other substances. If oxygen itself actually burnt, simply striking a match would be enough to burn all of the oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere in one go.
The Northern and Southern Lights , the green and dark-red colors in the sky are caused by oxygen atoms. Highly energetic electrons from the solar wind split oxygen molecules high in earth’s atmosphere into excited high energy atoms. These atoms lose energy by emitting photons, producing awe-inspiring light shows. They are usually seen in the polar regions.
Venous (oxygen deficient) blood is in fact not blue, but a dark red. The reason your veins appear blue is because of light scattering.
Because of the cornea’s need for transparency, it lacks blood vessels and oxygen must diffuse directly into cornea from air. This is why our eyes dry out in areas with low oxygen concentration.
Amazingly every mammal has an oxygen-saving reflex triggered specifically by cold water on the face. The reflex, which slows down heart rates in humans up to 25%, is only triggered by water colder than 70 °F (21 °C), and does not trigger when any other part of the body is submerged.
Horseshoe crabs’ blood carries oxygen with copper instead of iron.
Amazing fact is that liquid oxygen is magnetic, and it can be moved around and even picked up with a powerful magnet.
The reason for the lump felt in our throat when you are stressed or crying is the expanded glottis (the opening in the trachea) when we are under heavy stress for increased oxygen intake.
Nuclear submarines actually create breathable air by using an electric current to split the hydrogen and oxygen molecules of ocean water. This allows them to stay submerged for months at a time.
Oxygen therapy is used to treat emphysema, pneumonia, some heart disorders, and any disease that impairs the body’s ability to take up and use gaseous oxygen. It is also commercially produced for a wide variety of industrial uses.
Oxygen is commercially used in the production of steel, where it removes carbon-based impurities by forming carbon dioxide.
Oxygen can be liquefied at -183° C (the boiling point of oxygen) and solidified at -219° C (the melting point of oxygen). The solid form has been discovered to have enormous potential as an efficient rocket fuel, due to its superior oxidizing ability.
Amazing fact is that in aviation history hardly any life has ever been saved by emergency oxygen masks in commercial airplanes, nor has any life ever been lost due to their absence.
The Diving Bell Spider lives almost its entire life in a web that can replenish its oxygen supply by acting as a gill, drawing oxygen from the water itself.
There is a fish called “Climbing Gourami” that can exit water, breathe oxygen, climb and even walk.
Oxycyte, a perfluorocarbon which has high density of oxygen, can bypass blood clots and swollen vessels to deliver oxygen to the brain because of its smaller particle size.
If a dead body winds up in a cold humid environment that is devoid of oxygen, it will degrade into a crumbly, waxy material with the consistency of a soap.
The reason wine is stored on its side is to keep the cork moist so it doesn’t shrink and thus preventing oxygen from seeping into the bottle and ruining the wine.
Phrase “standing in the limelight’ originates from the fact that an intense light could be created from burning lime mixed with hydrogen and oxygen which was then for spotlights at the theater.
On his deathbed, Steve Jobs refused to wear his oxygen mask because he did not like the design of it
In 2003, Disney launched a short lived rental program to rent movies on self destructing DVDs which were not to be returned. The discs worked perfectly to view for a two-day window after taken out of the package. Then the exposure to oxygen turned the coating black and made the disc impenetrable by a DVD laser.
Tropicana Orange Juice is owned by Pepsico and Simply Orange is owned by Coca Cola. They strip the juice of oxygen before packaging for better storage which essentially strips the juice of its flavors. The companies then add other flavor and fragrance to make it “fresh.”

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Hurricane

Amazing Facts 4 U — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 09:30:59 +0000

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

The word “hurricane” comes from Hurricane, a name for the god of evil on some islands in the Caribbean.
The terms “hurricane,” “typhoon,” and “cyclone” are different names for the same type of storm, a tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones that occur in the Atlantic Ocean or the eastern Pacific Ocean are called hurricanes; in the western Pacific Ocean they are called typhoons and in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, tropical cyclones are called cyclones.
Hurricanes form over warm ocean waters near the equator. The warm, moist air above the ocean surface rises, causing air from surrounding areas to be ‘sucked’ in. This ‘new’ air then becomes warm and moist, and rises, too, beginning a continuous cycle that forms clouds. The clouds then rotate with the spin of the Earth. If there is enough warm water to feed the storm, a hurricane forms!
Most hurricanes occur harmlessly out at sea. However, when they move towards the land they can be very dangerous.
Water must be a certain depth for hurricanes to form, at least 200 feet (60 m). Additionally, the water must be warm, over 80º F (27 º C). A hurricane’s strength depends on how warm the water is the warmer the water, the stronger the hurricane becomes.
Hurricanes spin around a low-pressure center called the “eye.” Sinking air makes this 20 to 30-mile-wide area calm and free of clouds. A thick ring of clouds called the “eyewall” surrounds the eye and is the strongest part of the hurricane.
Though the eye is the calmest part of the storm, over the ocean, it can be the most dangerous area. While waves in the eye wall travel in the same direction, waves in the eye converge from all directions, which often creates strongest waves.
The strong spiraling winds of a hurricane can reach speeds of up to 320kmph strong enough to rip up entire trees and destroy buildings!
Hurricanes are classified into 5 categories, based on their wind speeds and potential to cause damage.
In the Atlantic, hurricane season starts June 1, while in the Pacific it starts May 15. Both end on November 30. This is the time when the seas are at their warmest and most humid.
A tropical storm is classified as a hurricane when sustained winds reach 74 miles per hour, though hurricane winds are often faster. When a tropical cyclone’s sustained wind speed is between 39-74 mph, it is classified as a tropical storm. When its winds are less than 38 mph, a tropical cyclone is called a tropical depression.
In A.D. 1281, a hurricane killed 100,000 Mongols who were attacking Japan.
Christopher Columbus wrote the first known report of a hurricane in 1495.
A single hurricane is strong enough to stir up millions of miles of air and can dump more than 9 trillion liters of rain a day.
Every second, a large hurricane releases the energy of 10 atomic bombs. Hurricanes produce enough energy in one day to run the lights of Las Vegas for many years.
Hurricane-generated waves frequently toss tons of fish onto beaches. The eyes of many of the fish have popped out because of sudden changes in pressure.
In the southern hemisphere, hurricanes rotate in a clockwise direction, and in the northern hemisphere they rotate in an anti-clockwise direction. This is due to what’s called the Coriolis Force, produced by the Earth’s rotation.
The Southern Hemisphere typically experiences about half the number of hurricanes as the Northern Hemisphere each year.
Ninety percent of all hurricane deaths result from heavy sea waves, which can reach over 20 feet high and extend nearly 100 miles.
Hurricanes have killed approximately 1.9 million people worldwide over the past 200 years.
Most of the deadliest hurricanes have occurred in southeastern Asia and India due to flooding on low-lying, densely populated areas.
The deadliest hurricane on record is the 1970 Bhola Cyclone in Bangladesh, which killed between 150,000-300,000 people.
In 1900, a hurricane in Galveston, Texas, killed more than 8,000 people, making it the deadliest weather emergency in U.S. history. Hurricanes kill more people than any other type of storm.
Five of the 10 costliest hurricanes in the U.S. have occurred since 1990.
40% of the hurricanes that occur in the United States hit Florida.
The costliest hurricane worldwide is widely believed to be Hurricane Katrina, with overall damage estimates at over $100 billion.
A hurricane makes “landfall” when its center, not its edge, crosses the coastline.
With 210 mile-per-hour winds at landfall, Hurricane Camille (1969) was the strongest hurricane to strike land.
Typhoon Tip (1979), which did not strike land, is considered to be the largest, with tropical storm-force winds 1,350 miles in diameter. It was nearly half the size of the United States! Luckily it didn’t strike land.
A hurricane can reach 40,000 to 50,000 feet up into the sky.
Most hurricanes typically last approximately 10 days.
Hurricane Andrew (1992) ripped an 80-foot steel beam weighing several tons off a building and flung it more than a block away.
The largest hurricane can be the size of 600 miles (966 kilometers) wide.
Hurricanes are never formed at the equator because they need the strong Coriolis force, which is very weak at the equator.
Hurricanes and Tornados are different. Hurricanes last several days while tornadoes last only minutes or rarely, hours.
Hurricanes are on average about 2,000 times bigger across than tornadoes.
Although hurricanes can cause terrible damage, they are an important part of Earth’s weather system. Like giant fans, they take hot air from the tropics and move it toward the poles to balance temperatures and moisture around the Earth. Without hurricanes and other storms, vast areas of the planet would be too hot for animal and human life.
Tornadoes have more intense winds than hurricanes. The fastest recorded hurricane wind speed is approximately 200 mph. Tornado winds can be up to 300 mph.
Hurricanes are often accompanied with tornadoes. Hurricane Andrew (1992) had 62 tornadoes, and Hurricane Beulah (1967) created 141 tornadoes. Tornadoes can occur days after a hurricane’s landfall.
Assigning hurricanes human names is a fairly recent practice. Hurricane names are chosen from a list selected by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which has 6 separate lists for Atlantic hurricanes, with one list used each year. Each list is repeated every 7th year. However, officials retire names of hurricanes that have caused a great deal of damage or death.
In 1953, the National Weather Service adopted the Navy’s practice of naming Atlantic hurricanes after women. Previously, hurricanes were named either according to their longitude and latitude or were identified by the phonetic alphabet. In 1979, meteorologists added men’s names to alternate with women’s names. The first three male names ever used for hurricanes (Bob, David, and Frederick) all are now retired.
The first hurricane of the year is given a name beginning with the letter “A”.
The first time anyone flew into a hurricane happened in 1943 in the middle of World War II. Since then pilots have flown into typhoons and hurricanes but so far only 4 planes have been lost. However, no trace of these planes or their crew has ever been found.
Each year, approximately 10 tropical storms form over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. Out of these, six become hurricanes.
Approximately five hurricanes strike the U.S. coastline during an average three-year period. Of these, two are major hurricanes over 110 mph.
A hurricane warning is issued when a hurricane is expected to arrive within 24 hours. A hurricane watch is issued when the storm is 24-36 hours away.
Approximately 85 hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical cyclones occur worldwide each year.
No hurricane is on record as ever hitting the United State West Pacific Coast. However, hurricanes have hit the West Coast of Mexico.
Hurricane/Typhoon John lasted 31 days in 1994, which is longer than any other hurricane in history. It was both a hurricane and a typhoon because it passed through both eastern and western parts of the Pacific Ocean.
A hurricane on Jupiter has been raging for over 300 years and is bigger than the Earth. It can be seen as a red spot on the planet.

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~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

Amazon River

Amazing Facts 4 U — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 09:30:22 +0000

25 Amazing and Unknown Facts about Amazon River | Amazing Facts 4U

The length of the Amazon River is approximately 6400 kilometers (4000 miles). It is the second-largest river in this world in terms of length the first being Nile. However, the latest measurements suggest that it could be as long as the Nile river or even longer.
Going back in history, the Amazon River originated as a transcontinental river somewhere between 11.8 million and 11.3 million years back in the Miocene Epoch. The river took its current shape some 2.4 million years back.
Its westernmost source is high in the Andes Mountains, within 100 miles (160 km) of the Pacific Ocean, and its mouth is in the Atlantic Ocean, on the northeastern coast of Brazil.
The Amazon River surrounds the entire Amazon Rainforest and covers territories belonging to French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil.
It flows along the Amazon tropical rainforest, home to more than 800,000 species having to support and nurturing the richest biodiversity in the world.
The forest covers an area of 5,400,000 square kilometers or 2,100,000 square miles.
In terms of the amount of water discharged, Amazon is the largest river in this world. It discharges 7,831,000 cubic feet or 209,000 cubic meters every second.
The total discharge by Amazon River alone is greater than the total discharge of the 7 next largest rivers of the world taken together!
The flood-stage discharge at the river’s mouth is four times that of the Congo and more than ten times the amount carried by the Mississippi River.
Of the total river flow of the world, approximately 1/5th is accounted for by the Amazon basin spanning over 7,050,000 square kilometers or 2,720,000 square miles, making Amazon the largest drainage basin in the entire world.
During dry seasons, the width of Amazon ranges between 1.6 and 10 kilometers but during the wet seasons, the river’s width increases to 60 kilometers.
The Amazon River enters the Atlantic Ocean through a broad estuary that has a width of 150 miles or 240 kilometers with the main stem mouth spanning over 80 kilometers width. Because of its immense width, the estuary is often referred to as ‘The River Sea’.
There are no bridges that cross the Amazon, mostly because there is no need, the majority of the Amazon River runs through rainforests rather than roads or cities.
The largest city along the Amazon River is Manaus which is located in Brazil having a population of over 1.7 million people.
The Amazon River is known by several names in different countries. In Brazil, above its confluence with Rio Negro, the river is known by the name Solimões.
In Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru as well as other Spanish-speaking countries, the river is known as Amazon downstream from Ucayali and Marañón rivers confluence in Peru.
Amazon’s primary source is the Ucayali-Apurímac river system with the main headstream being Carhuasanta glacial stream that flows off Nevado Mismi Mountain.
20% of Earth’s freshwater that enters the oceans comes from Amazon. The freshwater that enters the Atlantic from the Amazon River flows on top of the seawater because freshwater is lighter. This freshwater dilutes the salinity of the seawater and changes the color of the ocean surface. This color change spans over 1,000,000 square miles.
More than 3000 species of fish have been identified so far in the Amazon basin and more are being discovered every year. The famed anaconda can be found in the basin’s shallow waters.
Amazon manatee, boto (Amazon river dolphin), tucuxi (another species of dolphin), various species of notorious piranhas, electric eels, giant otter and black caiman are some of the most commonly found creatures of Amazon.
The river is also known for supporting turtles, algae, and crabs. The microbes that are generally found in the Amazon River are Crenarchaeota, Gammaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, and Actinobacteria.
Amazon dumps directly into the turbulent Atlantic. Because of the high tidal energy and the strong waves, sediments from Amazon flow out into the open ocean and thus, Amazon never really forms a true delta.
Amazon has over 1,100 tributaries. Out of these, 17 are 1,500 kilometers long. The longest, Madeira River exceeds 2,000 miles (3,200 km). In terms of volume, The Negro River is the largest of all the Amazon tributaries accounting for about one-fifth of the total discharge.
The largest oceangoing ships can ascend the river 1,000 miles to the city of Manaus, Braz., while lesser freight and passenger vessels can reach Iquitos, Peru, 1,300 miles (2,090 km) farther upstream, at any time of year.
The Amazon floods every year because of the tidal wave known as ‘pororoca’. It occurs at high tide during late winter when the river is overlapped by the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in 4 meter high waves, traveling 13 kilometers inland. Not all tributaries flood at the same time of the year.

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