The world is full of mysteries.
No matter how well we may have studied the planet on which we live, the world remains a lot of surprising and unknown.
We offer to your attention 12 facts about the Earth and its inhabitants, which are rarely mentioned in school textbooks.
12. Everest not the highest mountain on the planet
Of course, Everest is higher above sea level than any other mountain on Earth, — 8 848 m. But if we take as a starting point the bottom of the ocean, the highest mountain peak should be considered a shield volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Its height above sea level is 4 207 m and the foot at the bottom of the ocean is 10 203 m.
11. Exploding lake
In the world there are lakes, which are dangerous not in its depth, and the presence in them of toxic gases. One of these lakes — lake Nyos in Cameroon. 21 Aug 1986 happened the Limnological catastrophe, which from the lake had thrown a huge amount of gaseous carbon dioxide. The victims were 1 700 people, and animals.
10. Singing Sands
The phenomenon of singing Sands in the desert caused by the friction of grains of sand in the sand as the result of the wind. The greater the mass of moving sand, the more expressive is the sound — from the squeak to the roar. Sometimes the singing Sands sound like some sort of authority, you yourself can verify this by looking at the video.
9. Unknown the inhabitants of the oceans
Not all of this thinking, but really about the inhabitants of the deep sea, we know almost less than about distant galaxies. To date, studied only about 5% of the World’s oceans, and scientists continue to discover new species. The creatures you see in the photo, was discovered in June 2017 at the bottom of the ocean near the Australian continent.
8. Antarctica is the driest place on Earth
Surprisingly, the driest place on our planet is not a hot desert, and ice, dry valleys of McMurdo station in Antarctica. Some areas of the valleys have not seen any rain for 2 million years. Environmental conditions were as close to Mars that NASA even conducted in McMurdo station testing apparatus “Viking”.
7. In the past the Earth could be purple
Some scholars argue that in the distant past, the plants used in photosynthesis is not the chlorophyll (it is responsible for the green color), and entirely different pigment, which gave vegetation a violet color.
6. Crooked forest
This forest is located in the West of Poland near the town of Gryfino. The trees growing there are different curved shape, the reason today is not clear. There are several theories, according to which the trees can bend as the result of wind or snow storm, or their shape has been distorted intentionally landing.
5. Eye Of The Sahara
Geological formation richat, also known as the eye of the Sahara is so huge that for a long time served as a landmark for astronauts in orbit. Although richat resembles the shape of the impact crater, scientists believe that the “eye” formed by other means — the action of erosion in the uplifted areas of the earth’s crust.
4. Moving rocks
In California’s Death Valley in the US there is the phenomenon of moving stones. It looks as if the stones, as if alive, on their own journey from place to place. Scientists call the reason for the movement of large, but thin sections of ice formed during freezing nights. And then melting the ice moves the stones at a speed of 5 m per minute.
3. Strange hollows in the Peruvian Andes
These holes you can see in Google Maps: they stretch from North to South in the valley of Pisco in Peru and resemble a punched tape. Archaeologists believe that the pits were intended for storage of products, which were collected by the Incas to pay taxes.
2. Contact peoples
On Earth there are several tribes that live in isolation in different parts of the world and does not contact with the outside world. They are known very little, and even to photograph them from a distance is possible with great difficulty. Some of these tribes are very hostile to outsiders, and to establish contact with them seems almost impossible.
1. Blood falls in Antarctica
In Antarctica there is a waterfall, not the usual, and “bloody” and also salty. Unusual coloring gives it a large iron content, and the source of the waterfall is an ancient salty lake, hidden under a 400-meter-thick ice. Scientists have found that the lake is inhabited by microorganisms which are able to vital energy without sunlight.
Bonus: the flat Earth Society
It sounds like a joke, but it turns out that in our days there are many people who are absolutely convinced that our Earth is flat. Here are their core beliefs:
The earth is a flat disk centered on the North pole.
The sun, Moon and stars revolve above the Earth’s surface.
The South pole does not exist. Instead — ice wall circling the world.
Pictures of Earth from space are fakes, and all the astronauts and airline crews — participants of a global conspiracy.
And let all this criticism, supporters of the society not less. Well, at least they don’t claim that the world stands on three pillars or the back of a turtle.
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