Interesting Facts about the Earth

Our planet is truly very interesting. While 70% of it is covered with water, the most advanced life form on Earth is found on its land mass. It is this life form, that is responsible for the damage to the existence of life. Any guesses which life form it is? Yes, it's us, the mighty bipedal animals that rule this kingdom, and slowly dragging it to ruin.

• Earth is the only planet in the solar system with plate tectonics. That means that while the core is liquid, the crust floats on the core of the planet.
• Around 47% of the crust consists of oxygen.
• Earth is a big magnet, with poles at the top and bottom of the planet.

• It takes the Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds, to rotate on its axis. That means a day is not exactly 24 hours.
• A year is 365.2564 days and not 365 days. The extra .2564 days is why leap years were created.

• Earth is the only planet in the Solar System to have water in all three states of matter: (solid) ice, (liquid) sea, rain, etc. and (gas) clouds.
• It is believed that millions of years ago, a day was approximately 20 hours long.
• The Earth will appear as the brightest of the 8 planets, if viewed from a specific distance in space. This is because the water bodies on it reflect large amount of sunlight.

These were some facts about the planet, let's take a look at what truly makes this planet special.

• El Azizia (Libya) is the hottest place on Earth, and Vostok (Antarctica) is the coldest.
• Rain has never been recorded in some parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile.
• Venice in Italy is gradually sinking in the water. It is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges.

• A California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah' is the oldest living tree. It is almost 4600 years old.
• The Antarctic Notothenia fish can't freeze in the icy waters of its habitat, as it has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and prevents freezing.

• Tiger shark embryos fight each other in their mother's womb. The surviving embryo of the shark is born.
• Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, is the name for a hill, 305 meters (1,000 ft) high, close to Porangahau, New Zealand. It is the longest officially recognized name of a place, the name has 85 letters.

• There is one chicken for every human being on Earth.
• Humans grow by about 0.3 inches every night in sleep, but shrink back to normal during the day.
• Bones are five times stronger than steel.

To conclude, I hope that one day when someone else from another planet is writing on interesting facts about our planet, they don't mention this. "Earth is the only planet with life in the milky way. The most progressive life form of which were the Humans, who ironically brought about extinction on the blue planet."