1. The Earth Generates $72 Trillion of Goods and
Services Each Year
2. The Word ‘Earth’ Has Been on Earth for 7,000
Years
3. The Earth Isn’t a Perfect Sphere – It Has a 27
Mile Tall Bulge at Its Belly
4. The Earth Is 32.1% Iron and 30.1% Oxygen
5. The Center of the Earth, at 10,380 °F, Is as Hot
as the Sun
6. If The Earth Was Smooth, A 1.5 Mile Deep Ocean
Would Cover the World
7. It’s Hard to Tell Where Earth’s Atmosphere Ends
and Space Begins
8. Going as Fast as the Earth You Could Reach the
Moon in 3.5 Hours
9. When the Earth Was Formed, a Day Was Only
5.5 Hours Long
10. 77% of the Earth’s Population Lives in the
Northeastern Quadrasphere
1. The Earth Generates $72
Trillion of Goods and Services
Each Year
When we look at Earth facts, we look at the
planet we call home. The incredible natural
resources and the ingenuity of the people that
live on Earth combine to make an impressive
output of goods and services that are traded to
sustain, inform and entertain.
The sheer scale of the world economy is
mind-boggling. Earth facts teach us that each
year, humankind produces $72 trillion worth
of goods and services.
Whether these are tangible goods or not,
we’re using the natural resources of the Earth
to produce them. After all, everyone is
breathing the Earth’s atmosphere!
When we examine historical Earth facts, we
see that the production of goods and services
across the world really took off about 200
years ago with the dawn of the Industrial
Age.
Humankind has gotten really good at
exploiting the many materials the Earth has to
offer, including forging metals mined from
the surface at extreme temperatures that are
as hot as lava from a volcano.
2. The Word ‘Earth’ Has Been on
Earth for 7,000 Years
Looking at Earth facts about the word Earth ,
we learn that not everyone agrees whether
the word should be capitalized. Originally,
the word earth wasn’t capitalized. Once the
word Earth began to be used in scientific
circles, it started to be capitalized when
compared to other planets, such as Mars,
Neptune and Jupiter.
Following the historical Earth facts about the
etymology of the word Earth, we see that it
comes from Old English, which is one of the
Germanic languages. The form is found even
earlier in proto-Germanic as something like
erde .
Digging deeper into historical Earth facts, we
find that the proto-Germanic word dates back
to the time of the Proto-Indo Europeans . This
early culture dates from some time around
5000 BCE.
Linguists have revealed Earth facts about the
origin of the word, and it was likely
pronounced something more like h’er . The
word changed over time until it became the
word that we pronounce as earth today. These
Earth facts are great fun facts about Earth for
kids because it shows how language can
change over thousands of years.
3. The Earth Isn’t a Perfect Sphere
– It Has a 27 Mile Tall Bulge at Its
Belly
We don’t need Earth facts to tell us that it’s
not polite to talk about your mother’s weight.
Many people call Earth Mother Earth because
the planet sustains all life as we know it. In
the same way a mother feeds and protects her
children, Earth feeds and protects all of
humanity.
Earth facts regarding the shape of Earth show
that our planet is not a perfect sphere. There
is a bulge around the center of the Earth. This
is what’s considered an oblate spheroid; it’s
like a squashed ball.
This bulge around the center of the Earth
means the diameter at the equator is 43
kilometers, or 27 miles, larger than the
diameter going top to bottom or from the
North Pole to the South Pole.
4. The Earth Is 32.1% Iron and
30.1% Oxygen
When we examine geological Earth facts we
find that the Earth is made up of a handful of
elements and a sprinkling of trace elements.
The Earth is the densest planet of the solar
system. Let’s take a look at some fun Earth
facts about the elements that make up the
Earth.
The Earth is strong! Earth facts tell us that it
is 32.1% iron. Surprisingly, oxygen accounts
for 30.1%. This is due to the number of oxides
that make up the Earth. Silicon, which makes
computer chips, makes up 60.2% of the
Earth’s crust and 15.1% of the total elements
in the Earth.
Magnesium makes up 13.9% of the Earth,
sulfur makes up 2.9%, and nickel and calcium
both account for over 1.5% of the Earth.
Aluminum makes up 1.4% of the Earth and
the remaining metals account for only 1.2%.
From these facts, it’s clear why certain
elements are valuable. A metal like gold is
only a trace element compared to the mass of
the Earth. Looking at the distribution of
elements in the Earth, Earth facts show that
nearly 90% of all iron on Earth is in the core.
5. The Center of the Earth, at
10,380 °F, Is as Hot as the Sun
Earth facts tell us about the shocking
conditions at the Earth’s core. Geothermal
power is produced by the radiant energy
coming from the Earth’s core. This radiant
energy is what heats volcanoes and powers
the movement of the continents on Earth
through a system known as plate tectonics .
When scientists look at what causes this heat,
it appears that 20% of the heat is still the
Earth cooling off from when all the rocks
slammed together to form the planet in the
early solar system. Another 80% of this heat
occurs in the form of radioactive decay.
According to Earth facts, radioactive
potassium, uranium and thorium are all
present in the Earth’s core, and are giving off
a lot of heat. So much heat, in fact, that the
temperature of the Earth’s core is as hot as
the surface of the sun, at more than 10,000
°F!
Based on the fact that much of this heat
energy comes from radioactive decay, it’s
likely that when the Earth formed, before the
half-life of many isotopes had been reached,
the Earth might have been putting out twice
as much energy from the core.
6. If The Earth Was Smooth, A 1.5
Mile Deep Ocean Would Cover the
World
While we might think that Earth facts would
teach us about the different oceans on Earth,
the truth is, there is actually only one ocean
on Earth. The names for the different oceans
on Earth are really man-made constructs, just
like the borders between countries.
All of the Earth’s oceans connect to form one
large ocean that covers over 70% of the
Earth’s surface. There’s a lot more water than
land on the surface of the Earth. While the
oceans only cover the surface of the Earth,
they account for 1/4400 of the mass of the
Earth.
There is a lot of water in the Earth’s ocean. If
the Earth was totally smooth, with no
mountains, or valleys on land, or underwater,
the result would be a 2.7 kilometer, or 1.5
mile, deep ocean that covered the entire
surface of the Earth.
7. It’s Hard to Tell Where Earth’s
Atmosphere Ends and Space
Begins
Another of the surprising Earth facts is that
there is no clear boundary between the
Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. While
we typically think of the Earth as this perfect
sphere, we already know from our Earth facts
that it’s more like a squashed ball.
Looking at the edge of the atmosphere, Earth
facts become a little blurry. The atmosphere
slowly becomes thinner and thinner until it
fades into outer space. There’s no clear line
or sign that says welcome to outer space .
The atmosphere of Earth is one of the unique
features that allows such an amazing array of
life forms to exist on the planet. The
atmosphere, in conjunction with the
magnetosphere , protects us and the other
forms of life on Earth from some of the most
harmful energy that’s produced by the Sun.
8. Going as Fast as the Earth You
Could Reach the Moon in 3.5
Hours
Earth facts about speed are blazing fast facts.
The speed at which the Earth orbits the Sun is
over 100,000 kilometers per hour, or over
66,000 miles per hour!
Moving at that speed, you could reach the
moon in 3.5 hours, and you could travel the
whole way around the Earth in about seven
minutes.
When we look at Earth facts about how fast
the Earth rotates, we find that it’s spinning
fast, too. The Earth is spinning at 1,675
kilometers per hour, or over 1,040 miles per
hour!
Because the Earth is spinning so fast, at the
equator, the centrifugal force caused by the
Earth spinning pushes against the gravity
pulling objects towards the Earth. Someone
who weighs 150.8 lbs. at the North Pole would
only weigh 150 lbs. at the equator.
When someone tells you that life moves slow,
tell them some of these Earth facts and they
might think we’re all living life in the fast
lane!
9. When the Earth Was Formed, a
Day Was Only 5.5 Hours Long
We already know from our Earth facts that
the Earth is spinning fast. It’s shocking to
learn that the Earth, spinning at over 1,000
miles per hour, is actually slowing down.
The cause of the slowdown is the moon! One
of the most surprising Earth facts is that the
moon has such a big impact on the Earth. The
friction caused by the Moon and other objects,
such as other planets, pulls on the Earth and
slows it down.
This is a good thing, when you consider each
year the length of a day gets a little longer.
Based on the rate that the Earth is slowing
down, when the moon first formed billions of
years ago, the Earth was rotating so fast, that
a day was only 5.5 hours long. That must
have made for some fast sunsets!
10. 77% of the Earth’s Population
Lives in the Northeastern
Quadrasphere
First let’s look at the Earth facts that tell us
what a quadrasphere is. The Earth is typically
divided into Northern and Southern or
Eastern and Western hemispheres. Well, the
name given to the northern part of the
Eastern hemisphere or the western part of the
Northern hemisphere is a quadrasphere,
which is one half the size of a hemisphere.
Earth facts teach us that 90% of Earth’s
population lives in the Northern Hemisphere.
Going by the most recent counts, we also find
that 86% of the Earth’s population lives in the
Eastern Hemisphere. Putting these two facts
together, we find that 77.4% of the people
that live on Earth live in the Northeastern
quadrasphere, or the northern part of the
Eastern hemisphere.
Interesting Facts about Earth
Summary
Earth facts teach us about the amazing planet
that we call home. This fast moving planet is
spinning at over 1,000 miles per hour and the
temperature at its core is over 10,000 degrees
Fahrenheit!
Many people call Earth Mother Earth , and the
planet’s unique atmosphere protects and
sustains life in conjunction with the
magnetosphere and the geological movements
of the planet itself.
When Earth was born, it was hotter and was
spinning faster. While life may seem like it
gets more hectic each year, the Earth is
actually cooling down and slowing down.
Maybe we should take a lesson from Mother
Earth and things would be more peaceful
here!
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