Okay.
Is this statement correct or bogus: If someone asked you to show where North is on a map,
you'd instinctively point up, right?
But would you believe it wasn’t always that way?
And are the continents really moving because I don’t feel any shifting under my feet!
Let’s play a little game of “true or false”!
(I’ve got a sweet bonus for ya at the end too!)
1) Mount Everest is the highest summit on the planet.
False: Everest stands a proud and impressive champion
at just over 29,000 ft above sea level.
But it's not the closest point to space!
Because our planet isn't perfectly round but more of a squashed sphere, mountains closer
to the equator get some extra elevation.
This is how Chimborazo in Ecuador is the closest you can get to the Sun and stars.
And if you dive into the Pacific, you'd find a giant that's 3,000 feet taller than Everest.
Above sea level, though, Mauna Kea is just 13,800 ft tall.
The rest is hidden underwater.
Speaking of things hiding in the ocean…
2) The Mariana Trench could fit Everest in it completely.
True: The deepest place on this planet could easily
host Everest and still have room for another decently sized 7,000-ft-tall mountain!
3) A sea must have a coast.
False: The Sargasso Sea is nothing like your regular
vacation destination.
It has no coasts whatsoever.
It’s surrounded by 4 ocean currents – the Gulf Stream in the West, the North Atlantic
Current in the North, the Canary Current in the East, and the North Atlantic Equatorial
Current in the South.
That means its borders are always shifting.
4) The continents are constantly moving.
True: And they’re doing it at the same speed your
fingernails are growing!
As a result, the Pacific Ocean is shrinking by about an inch a year.
So, Asia and North America are getting closer every year (yay shorter flights!), but Europe
is drifting away as the Atlantic widens (aw, longer trips…).
5) Iceland is becoming larger each year.
True: And it's a natural process.
The land of geysers is also the place where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates
meet.
The gap between them is growing by nearly 2 inches a year.
6) The African continent sits in all 4 hemispheres.
True: Africa is the only continent that spans over
the northern, southern, eastern, and western hemispheres.
I mean, it does cover 12 million square miles – I’d expect at least a few hemispheres
in there!
Both the Prime Meridian and the Equator cross it, and that's unique too!
7) The people on Earth are evenly spread.
False: 90% of the entire population (that’s around
7 billion out of 7.7 billion people) live in the Northern Hemisphere.
Before you imagine igloos, polar bears, and eternal winter – the North actually includes
North America, Europe, most of Africa and Asia, and even some parts of South America!
8) The Earth is extremely densely populated.
False: If we all squeezed up like residents in any
major city, we’d need much less room than the entire planet Earth.
250, 000 square miles would do.
That means we could all fit into the state of Texas, and still have some room to spare!
But the price of apartments in Houston and Dallas would skyrocket!
9) There’s plenty of drinkable water here on the Blue Planet!
False: 71% of the Earth might be covered by water,
but it's not the kind you'd drink first thing in the morning.
Only 2.5% of that water is fresh, and only 1% is available to drink.
The rest makes up glaciers and snowfields.
Salty seawater has its own benefits though, and humanity is always finding innovative
ways to use it, from new technologies to the beauty industry.
10) The Sahara Desert is always hot.
False: Most people think of it as the driest and
one of the hottest places on Earth, but it does get snow!
In the last 40 years, it’s happened 3 times already.
So it does get chilly sometimes, mostly during long winter nights.
Speaking of unexpected places where you can find snow…
11) It snows in Hawaii.
True: Hawaii’s volcanoes Mauna Kea (remember what
it’s famous for?), Mauna Loa, and Haleakala all rise above 10,000 ft.
This altitude is high enough to get a good amount of the white fluffy stuff during winter.
12) The North Pole is the coldest place on Earth.
False: The South Pole is!
It's because the North Pole sits on floating chunks of ice.
That ice is thin enough to let the heat coming from the Arctic Ocean get through.
Antarctica – home to the South Pole – is a massive continent that doesn't have such
a natural heater.
The average winter temperature there is -76°F, compared to -40°F in the North.
13) The North is always “up.”
False: Old Egyptian maps had South as “up” because
that's where they lived.
In Medieval times, “North” was actually East on many maps because that's where the
Sun rises.
People heading to the Americas held maps with West where you’d expect North to be today.
Ptolemy was the first to put north on top of a “global” map, but that could be because
he didn’t have much information on the Southern Hemisphere.
Centuries later, people discovered there’s a magnetic north pole where a compass needle
will point straight down.
That's only possible at the Geographic North Pole.
But technically, you could mark that point anywhere on the map, not just the very top
–especially now that the magnetic north pole is moving!
Who knows where the North might end up centuries from now?
14) You’re walking on gold every day.
True: The Earth's core is home to some expensive
substances, including diamonds and gold!
If you took all the gold out and spread it on the surface, it would be enough to cover
the entire planet in a 2-ft-thick layer up to your knees!
That’s an expensive highway!
15) There are no more real isolated areas on this planet.
False: Two words: Point Nemo.
“Nemo” translates from Latin as “no one” and it’s the perfect name for a place
so remote from any land – 1,000 miles in any direction – that astronauts are the
closest humans to it.
When the International Space Station is flying over Point Nemo, the crew is only 260 miles
away from it!
16) Two people can be 43 miles yet 24 hours apart.
True: In 2011, Samoa just skipped December 30 and
became 3 hours ahead of Sydney Australia, the nearest large business center.
It used to be 21 hours behind it.
So now, Samoa and American Samoa are a mere 43 miles yet a whole 24 hours apart!
17) A journey down the Mississippi River takes 90 days.
True: That is, if you’re a droplet of water.
Three months is what it takes to cover the distance of almost 2,350 miles from Lake Itasca
in Northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.
Would you want to go on that journey?
Let me know in the comments below!
18) Canada has the highest concentration of lakes.
True: Over half of all the natural lakes on Earth
are in the Great White North.
That’s over 30,000 of those natural pools covering 9% of the country’s territory.
19) Kentucky has the longest cave in the world.
True: If you ever visit Mammoth Cave National Park,
you'll only get a sneak peek of the largest cave system on the planet.
400 miles have already been officially explored, and half as much is believed to still be waiting
underground.
20) The poles are in all time zones at the same time.
True: If someone asked you what time it is during
a trip to either the North or the South Pole, you could never give them the right answer.
That's because all the longitude lines that divide one time zone from another come together
here.
Technically, you could use any time, but most people stick to their country’s research
station's zone.
Bonus!
I enjoyed this journey around the globe with you so much, that I’d like to show you something.
We’ll need to take a quick trip down to the Great Barrier Reef.
Here it is – a heart-shaped reef to show how much I appreciate ya!
Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a
friend!
And here are some other videos I think you'll enjoy.
Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!