amazingfacts...ragingplanet
wild weather
rainbows
Every rainbow is unique - each rainbow is formed from light hitting your eye at a very precise angle. Someone standing next to you will see light coming from a slightly different angle than you and therefore see a different rainbow.
hurricane
The energy in one hurricane is equal to about 500,000 atomic bombs.
wet
trench
The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is so deep that Mount Everest could be submerged in it with its summit still two kilometres below the surface.
gold
There is about 6 kg of gold per cubic kilometre of sea water. The oceans contain more than one billion cubic kilometres of water which means there is 6 million tonnes of gold in the Earth's oceans.
icebergs
Icebergs are not restricted to the Arctic or Antarctic - they can float very far south or north. An Arctic iceberg has been sighted at the same latitude as Florida and an Antarctic iceberg at the same latitude as Rio de Janeiro.
wettest
The wettest place in the world is the island of Kauai, Hawaii. One side of the island receives 11.5 metres of rainfall a year, but the other side receives only 0.25 metres.
quaking
tsunami
Because of the depth of the Pacific Ocean, pacific tsunami (waves created by earthquakes) can reach speeds of over 750 kilometres per hour. The same velocity as a jet aeroplane.
tectonic plates
In the middle of the Atlantic the two plates, the African Plate and the American plate, are moving apart at about the same speed as your fingernails grow.
earth's core
The centre of the Earth's core is thought to exceed 4000 K - similar to the temperature of the surface of the sun. The pressure at the centre of the Earth is estimated to be 4 million atmospheres.
gravity
Ironically there is no gravity at the centre of the Earth because it all cancels out.
electric
lighting
A bolt of lightning contains enough energy to toast 160,000 pieces of bread. Unfortunately the bolt only takes 1/10,000 of a second – so turning the bread over might prove difficult.
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