Earth is a unique planet. It is very different from other planets in the solar system. Only here there is everything necessary for the normal development of life, including water. It occupies more than 70% of the entire surface of the Earth. We have air, a favorable temperature for life, and other factors that allow plants, animals, people, and other living creatures to exist and develop.
The deepest place on the planet
As you know, the Earth’s surface is heterogeneous and has troughs, plains and elevations. The deepest point is the Mariana Trench. It is below sea level by 10994 meters. This place is located east of Japan, not far from the Mariana Islands. It was in honor of them that the hollow got its name.
For the first time, a couple of American researchers managed to plunge into this place in 1960. The last recorded dive was in 2012.
High point of the planet
In the Himalayas is the highest point on the planet - this is Mount Everest. It reaches a mark of 8850 meters above sea level. The southern part of this highest mountain is located in Nepal, and the northern - in China. At the very top of the mountain strong winds blow, the speed of which can reach sixty meters per second.
Over the course of history, there have been many attempts to climb to its top, among which the most unexpected was the rise of Yuitiro Miura in 2013. At the time of the ascent, he was eighty years old. So far, this is the oldest person who visited the summit of Everest, conquering it.
Hemisphere of the planet
The Earth's surface is usually divided into the southern and northern hemispheres. In the south, most of the water is about eighty percent, and the remaining twenty are land. In the northern hemisphere there is less water - only about sixty percent, and the remaining forty are land. In this hemisphere are large continents, such as North America, part of Africa, Eurasia. In this hemisphere, strong temperature fluctuations are observed. In some places, the lowest temperature reaches -90 degrees, and the highest +75 about .
Discoveries and secrets
The surface of the Earth is not fully understood, although scientists from different fields can explain a variety of things, but there are secrets that still remain puzzles. For example, the Bermuda Triangle, in which ships and planes disappear. It is located near Bermuda. All people whose route passes through these lands try to avoid a mysterious place.
The surface of the planet is constantly moving, the position of the continents is changing: some areas are flooded, and some appear above the water.
There are several climatic zones on the planet, because of which a certain time of year is established on each part of it. The closer the surface to the poles, the colder the climate there. Closer to the central part of the surface the weather is milder, without sharp annual temperature drops.
Planet structure
The surface of planet Earth is unusual and heterogeneous, even its structure is different. Scientists distinguish several layers: the earth's crust, mantle and core. Each of them has its own characteristics.
The hardest part of the planet is the earth's crust. It is divided into three layers: sedimentary, granite and basalt. The thickness of the crust can reach seventy kilometers, although in some places it is not more than ten kilometers. This scatter is explained by the place of measurements: at the bottom of the oceans, the thickness of the crust is less than on land, and on the mountains it is the largest.
The lowest layer of the earth's crust is basalt, it was formed first. Granite follows him. For information, it is not at the bottom of the oceans. The last layer is sedimentary, it is constantly changing.
Below the crust is a mantle. It occupies about eighty percent of the total surface area and about seventy percent of the earth's mass. The thickness of this layer is about three thousand kilometers. The upper layer (approximately 900 km) is called magma and consists of minerals in a molten state.
At the very center of the earth is the core. It consists of nickel and iron. The radius of the core is about 3,550 kilometers. This layer is divided into the outer core, whose thickness is about 2200 kilometers, and the inner one - with a diameter of about 1350 kilometers. Presumably, in the very center the temperature is about ten thousand degrees Celsius, and on the surface of the core - about six thousand.
Dimensions of planet Earth
Asking the question of what the surface of the earth is, one can hear the answer that it is round. Another name is a geoid, which in essence is an ellipsoid of revolution. Knowing the shape of the surface, scientists were able to calculate the diameter of the planet, its circumference and some other information.
So what is the surface of the earth and what is the mass of the blue planet? In the equatorial zone, the diameter of the planet is 12756 kilometers. The entire surface of the planet is 510072000 square kilometers.
The mass of the planet is 5.97X1024 24 kg. She annually increases by forty thousand tons. This is due to the constant fall on a flat surface of the Earth, as well as in the oceans and on the elevation of cosmic dust, meteorites. However, the dispersion of gases in space reduces the mass by about one hundred thousand tons annually. Mass loss is affected by temperature increase. The smaller the mass, the less gravity, and the more difficult it is to hold the atmosphere around the surface.
The radioisotope method made it possible to establish the age of the Earth - 4.5 billion years. It is believed that as many of our solar system exist.
The surface of the planet consists of water and land. Oceans occupy 361.9 million square kilometers, and land - a little more than 148.9 million square kilometers.
Other information
As mentioned above, the highest and lowest points were found on Earth - Mount Everest and the Mariana Trench. The latter is located deep under water. However, the average depth of the oceans is 3800 kilometers. And the average surface above sea level is eight hundred and seventy meters.
Earth is a great and mysterious planet. The more a person finds out about her, the more questions arise. On the surface there are still secrets, riddles that are yet to be revealed to people. One of the secrets is the scenario of planet formation. There are many options, and to find out which one is true is unlikely to ever succeed.