Earth Round-Up
EARTH
MOST LETHAL SMOG
The term “smog” derives from the words “smoke” and “fog”.
On 5–9 Dec 1952, London experienced thick smog, caused
by cold weather coupled with an anticyclone that facilitated
a build-up of pollutants. There were around 12,000 fatalities.
In Nov 2 016, an international team of scientists published
their analysis of the disaster, noting that sulphur dioxide
and nitrogen dioxide from residential and power-plant coal
burning had formed sulphuric acid when mixed with fog.
This led to lung inflammation and, in many cases, death by
suffocation. A performance of the opera La Traviata at the
city’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre had to be abandoned when
smog infiltrated the auditorium, making the audience cough
and rendering the stage invisible to those at the back. On
the Isle of Dogs in London’s East End, the smog became so
thick that people could not see their own feet.The temperature at Earth’s core is around 6,000°C (10,830°F);
the average surface temperature is nearer to 14°C (57.2°F).FASTEST MOTION IN EARTH’S CORE
On 19 Dec 2016, scientists announced their discovery of a
“jet stream” of molten iron in Earth’s outer core, moving at
around 50 km (31 mi) per year. The team – from DTU Space
Institute (DEN) and the University of Leeds (UK) – used data
from ESA’s three Swarm satellites, designed to study Earth’s
magnetic field, and found the mass of molten iron at a depth
of around 3,000 km (1,860 mi). It is some 420 km (260 mi)
wide and wraps around half the planet.Longest duration
for a lightning flash
In Sep 2016, the World
Meteorological Organization
announced that on 30 Aug
2012, a 7.74-sec cloud-to-
cloud bolt had been trackedtravelling horizontally for
approximately 200 km
(124 mi) over south-east
France. The average
duration for a lightning
bolt is just 0.2 sec.The hottest place on
Earth is the air around
a lightning strike, which
momentarily reaches
30,000ºC (54,032ºF), or
some five times hotter than
the surface of the Sun.Youngest volcano
Parícutin in Mexico is a
volcanic cone that erupted
from a corn field on 20 Feb
1943, and was volcanically
active until 1952. Most of
the activity occurred in
the first year, during which
the volcanic cone grew to
a height of 335 m (1,100 ft).
Parícutin offered geologists
a rare opportunity to
witness the birth, evolution
and death of a volcano.Oldest water
(non-meteoritical)
On 13 Dec 2016, a team of
scientists led by Barbara
Sherwood Lollar (CAN)
presented results at a
meeting of the American
Geophysical Union that
showed the discovery of
2-billion-year-old water
3 km (1.8 mi) below the
Earth’s surface at Kidd
Creek Mine in Timmins,
Ontario, Canada. Ancient
water that becomes trapped
at this depth in the crust
can preserve evidence of
the conditions at the time
at which it became trapped.
Dissolved elements
including helium, neon,
krypton, xenon and argon
allowed analysis of the
age of the water, which
is around eight times
saltier than seawater.Most powerful
tsunami from
an asteroid impact
Sixty-five million
years ago, an asteroid
measuring at least
10 km (6.2 mi) across struck
the Yucatán Peninsulain what is now Mexico.
The impact released
approximately 2 million
times more energy than the
most powerful man-made
nuclear explosion and
resulted in a crater around
180 km (111 mi) across. The
resulting tsunami from this
event has been estimated
to have been around 1 km(0.62 mi) high in places,
and would have been much
taller had the asteroid
landed in the deep ocean
rather than in the shallow
waters of the peninsula.Tallest single wave
The highest officially
recorded sea wave -
dependent on weather orGREATEST HEAT OUTPUT FOR A VOLCANO
From 2000 to 2014, Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano emitted
9.8 x 1016 joules of thermal energy, according to a study
from 28 Jan 2015 by US and UK geologists. Their analysis
used satellite data from Earth’s 95 most active volcanoes.
The inset below was created by using radar data
from Jan 2010 and May 2011. It shows
subtle changes in the landscape as
the volcano inflated or deflated
during and between eruptions.
Each change of colour represents
an uplift of 1.5 cm (0.6 in). The
more concentrated the rings,
the steeper the uplift.HIGHEST TREE
Polylepis tomentella grows at altitudes of 4,000–
5,200 m (13,123–17,060 ft) above sea level. It is found
all across the semi-arid ecosystem of the Altiplano,
which runs through the Central Andes.
The tallest trees are redwoods (genera Sequoia and
Sequoiadendron) and eucalyptuses (genus Eucalyptus),
both of which can top 113 m (370 ft).The speed of the
molten iron in Earth’s
outer core is around
one-fiftieth the average
speed of a sloth in motion- but some 35,000 times
faster than the rate at
which grass grows.
The
study showed
similarities between
the chemistry of this
smog and current
urban air pollution
in China.