Earth Day started in 1970 and takes place on April 22 yearly.
Here are 10 questions to check your information of the planet.
1. A day on Earth is 24 hours but it surely all the time hasn’t been that means. Are the times getting longer or shorter?
Answer: Longer. According to NASA, the size of Earth’s day is growing. When Earth was shaped 4.6 billion years in the past, its day would have been roughly six hours lengthy. By 620 million years in the past, this had elevated to 21.9 hours. Today, the typical day is 24 hours lengthy, however is growing by about 1.7 milliseconds each century.
The cause? The moon is slowing down Earth’s rotation by the tides that it helps create.
2. What nation has the driest place on Earth?
A) U.S.
B) Saudi Arabia
C) Chile
Answer C: The driest place on the earth — the Atacama Desert in northern Chile — is subsequent to the largest physique of water — the Pacific Ocean. Average annual rainfall in Arica, Chile, is simply 0.03 inches. It is believed that Atacama’s Calama metropolis noticed no rain for 400 years till a sudden storm in 1972. Unlike most deserts, the Atacama is comparatively chilly and, in its most arid components, doesn’t even host cyanobacteria — inexperienced photosynthetic microorganisms that reside in rocks or underneath stones.
3. The solar is about 93 million miles from Earth. How lengthy does it take gentle from the solar to achieve Earth?
A) About 20 minutes
B) About 8 minutes
C) About 1 day
Answer B: The gentle of the Sun takes 8.25 minutes to achieve us.
4. If the Sun have been as tall as a mean door entrance, about what dimension would Earth be?
A) A nickel
B) A tennis ball
C) A basketball
Answer A
5. Is the snow-covered continent Antarctica (pictured above) a desert?
1) Yes
2) No
Answer: Yes. Antarctica is the southernmost continent, positioned primarily south of the Antarctic Circle (66°S). Antarctica is taken into account a desert as a result of it receives little or no rain or snowfall, and the small quantity of snow it does obtain builds up over a whole lot and 1000’s of years to type giant, thick ice sheets. The continent’s terrain is made up of glaciers, ice cabinets and icebergs. The solely crops that may survive the intense chilly are lichens, mosses and algae. Antarctica ranks solely fifth in dimension (bigger than Europe and Australia) and it’s giant sufficient that the whole U.S. may match inside its 5.4 million-square-mile dimension.
6. Of the eight planets (dwarf planet Pluto not included) in our photo voltaic system, the place does Earth rank by way of being the most important?
A) Third
B) Fourth
C) Fifth
Answer B: The Earth’s diameter (distance straight by the center) measures 7,917.5 miles, making it the fourth-largest planet within the photo voltaic system. Jupiter, the most important planet, is 11 instances the dimensions of Earth.
7. What is the higher restrict of our environment referred to as?
A) Stratosphere
B) Thermosphere
C) Exosphere
Answer C: There are six layers in our environment. The exosphere extends from the highest of the thermosphere as much as 6,200 miles.
8. What proportion of the Earth is roofed by water?
A) 71%
B) 81%
C) 91%
Answer A: About 71% of the Earth’s floor is water-covered, and the oceans maintain about 96.5% of all Earth’s water. Water additionally exists within the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, within the floor as soil moisture and in aquifers, and even in you and your canine. Water isn’t sitting nonetheless.
This picture above reveals blue spheres representing relative quantities of Earth’s water compared to the dimensions of the Earth. Each sphere represents quantity. They present that compared to the amount of the globe, the quantity of water on the planet could be very small. Oceans account for under a skinny movie of water on the floor.
The largest sphere represents all of Earth’s water. Its diameter is about 860 miles (the space from Salt Lake City to Topeka, Kansas) and has a quantity of about 332,500,000 cubic miles. If all the world’s water have been poured on the contiguous United States, it might cowl the land to a depth of about 107 miles.
You can be taught extra on the USGS web site right here.
9. What county is the world’s tallest waterfall in?
A) Denmark
B) Venezuela
C) U.S.
Answer A: The world’s largest waterfall is within the ocean within the Denmark Strait, between Greenland and Iceland. The top of the Denmark Strait cataract is roughly 11,500 ft. By comparability, the most important waterfall on land is Angel Falls in Venezuela and is 3,212 ft.
This infographic illustrates how a big underwater cataract (waterfall) naturally varieties beneath the waves inside the Denmark Strait.
10. How many miles per hour do winds must be for a storm to be categorized as a hurricane?
A) 55 mph
B) 74 mph
C) 84 mph
Answer B: A tropical storm turns into a hurricane if its winds attain 74 mph.
Bonus query: How many miles per hour is the Earth shifting on its orbit across the solar?
A) 6,700 mph
B) 67,000 mph
Answer B: The price is quicker on the equator and slower on the poles. In addition to this every day rotation, Earth orbits the Sun at a mean pace of 67,000 mph, or 18.5 miles a second.
Score:
- 5-10 appropriate: Earth science whiz
- Four or much less: Martian
Sources: NASA, Space.com, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey (All photos from respective businesses are public area)
Source: www.bostonherald.com”