250 Fun Facts
250 Random Facts: Geography, Science, Language, Oceans & Culture
Oceans & Nature Facts
Oceans cover about 71% of Earth's surface.
Most of the ocean floor still hasn't been mapped in high detail, so we know more about the surface of Mars than parts of our own seabed.
The deepest point in the ocean, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, is about 11 kilometres down. Mount Everest could fit inside with more than 2 kilometres to spare.
The Pacific Ocean is bigger than all of Earth's land put together.
About 97% of Earth's water is salty seawater.
Tiny ocean plants called phytoplankton produce around half of the oxygen we breathe.
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the largest structure on Earth built by living things, and it can be seen from space.
Coral may look like rock or plants, but it's actually made of tiny animals called polyps.
The average depth of the ocean is about 3,700 metres.
Point Nemo is the loneliest spot in the ocean
Point Nemo, in the South Pacific, is the place in the ocean farthest from any land, about 2,700 kilometres from the nearest shore. It's so remote that space agencies use the area as a graveyard for old satellites and spacecraft, and the closest humans are sometimes astronauts passing overhead on the International Space Station.
Ocean tides are caused mainly by the pull of the Moon's gravity.
Canada's Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, rising and falling by up to about 16 metres.
There are waterfalls under the ocean. The largest, in the Denmark Strait, is far taller than any waterfall on land.
The deep sea floor has "lakes" and "rivers" of extra-salty water called brine pools, which have their own shorelines.
Most of the world's volcanoes are hidden underwater.
The longest mountain range on Earth is the mid-ocean ridge, which winds about 65,000 kilometres through the oceans.
The songs of some whales can travel thousands of kilometres through the ocean.
Most creatures living in the deep ocean can produce their own light, a glow called bioluminescence.
Seawater freezes at about -2°C, lower than fresh water, because of the salt.
Ocean water travels around the world on a giant conveyor belt
Differences in temperature and saltiness keep ocean water constantly moving in a huge global loop, sometimes called the great ocean conveyor belt. A single drop of water can take around 1,000 years to complete the journey, carrying heat around the planet and shaping weather and climate as it goes. 170.
The Antarctic ice sheet is, on average, nearly 2 kilometres thick.
The Siachen Glacier in the Himalayas is one of the longest glaciers outside the polar regions, at about 76 kilometres.
The Amazon rainforest is home to around 10% of all known species on Earth.
Tropical rainforests cover only about 6% of the world's land but are home to more than half of its plant and animal species.
The tallest known tree, a coast redwood in California named Hyperion, is about 116 metres tall.
Some bristlecone pine trees in California are more than 4,800 years old.
The Great Banyan tree near Kolkata spreads over about 1.5 hectares and looks more like a small forest than a single tree.
Scientists estimate there are around 3 trillion trees on Earth.
Lightning strikes somewhere on Earth around 40 to 100 times every second.
The northern lights are caused by the Sun
The glowing curtains of green, pink and purple light known as auroras happen when charged particles from the Sun collide with gases high in Earth's atmosphere. They are usually seen near the poles, where Earth's magnetic field guides these particles down toward the planet.
Earth's air is about 78% nitrogen and only about 21% oxygen.
At the top of Mount Everest, each breath contains only about a third of the oxygen you'd get at sea level.
Deserts can be extremely cold at night, because there are few clouds to trap the day's heat.
Parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile are among the driest places on Earth, and some weather stations there have barely ever recorded rain.
The largest hailstone recorded in the United States, which fell in South Dakota in 2010, measured about 20 centimetres across.
Rainbows can appear at night, too. They're called moonbows and are created by moonlight.
Fog is simply a cloud that forms close to the ground.
The southwest monsoon brings India around 70% to 80% of its yearly rainfall.
Kerala is usually the first state in India to receive the southwest monsoon, around the beginning of June.
The Valley of Flowers bursts into colour every monsoon
Tucked high in the Himalayas of Uttarakhand, the Valley of Flowers National Park becomes a carpet of hundreds of species of wildflowers during the monsoon months. Together with the nearby Nanda Devi National Park, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Neelakurinji flower blooms only once every 12 years, turning the hills of the Western Ghats blue.
The Himalayas hold so much ice that they're sometimes called the "Third Pole."
Kaziranga National Park in Assam is home to around two-thirds of the world's greater one-horned rhinoceroses.
Gir Forest in Gujarat is the only place in the world where wild Asiatic lions live.
Loktak Lake in Manipur has floating islands called phumdis, and it's home to the world's only floating national park.
Lonar Lake in Maharashtra was formed when a meteorite slammed into the Earth tens of thousands of years ago.
Mangrove forests protect coastlines by absorbing the force of storms and waves.
Some of the white sand on tropical beaches is made by parrotfish, which grind up coral and pass it out as sand.
Volcanoes can create their own lightning storms when ash particles rub together and build up electric charge.
Meghalaya's living root bridges are grown, not built
In the rainforests of Meghalaya, the Khasi and Jaintia people guide the roots of rubber fig trees across rivers until they form strong, living bridges. Some take decades to grow, can last for centuries and grow stronger with age. The double-decker root bridge near Nongriat village is one of the most famous.
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