Earth and its Surroundings

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post.

~Compiled from various sources~

• A full moon always rises at sunset.
• Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5. Though it goes to 10, just over 9 is estimated to be the point of total tectonic destruction (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided).
• In 1883, the explosion of Mount Krakatau put so much dust into the earth's atmosphere that sunsets appeared green and the moon appeared blue around the world for almost two years.
• The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.
• The red giant star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the Earth's orbit around the sun.
• The Earth-Moon size ratio is the largest in the solar system, apart from Pluto-Charon.
• The most common substance found on earth is water.
• It would take 829,000 kilolitres of water to cover 2.5 square kilometres with 30 cm of water.
• The Amazon rain forest produces half the world's oxygen supply.
• 71% of the earth's surface is water.
• 97% of all the earth's water is ocean or sea.
• 2% of the world's water is frozen in the polar ice caps and therefore unusable.
• Only 1% of the earth's water is suitable for drinking.
• The amount of gold dissolved in the oceans is nearly 10 million tonnes, which is about 180 times the total amount of gold dug in mines in the entire history of humanity.
• About 10 million bacteria live in one gram of soil.
• If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
• Dinosaurs lived on Earth for around 165 million years before they became extinct.
• About 450 million years ago the South pole was situated where the Sahara desert is now.
• Only 55% of Americans know that the sun is a star.