EARTHLARGEST
MUD VOLCANO ERUPTION
Since May 2006, a mud volcano has been erupting in
East Java, Indonesia. Expelling a mixture of clay and
water, the eruption and its mudflow has buried more than
6.5 km² (2.5 sq mi) of the city of Sidoarjo in up to 40 m
(131 ft) of mud, displacing nearly 40,000 people. At its
peak, the volcano was discharging around 180,000 m³
(6,356,640 cu ft) of mud per day. That’s the equivalent of
the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt every
two weeks. The eruption is expected to last for 25–30 years.climate - was calculated
to have reached 112 ft
(34 m) from trough to
crest. It was measured
from the USS Ramapo,
proceeding from Manila
in the Philippines to San
Diego, California, USA, on
the night of 6–7 Feb 1933,
during a hurricane that
reached 126 km/h (78 mph).
Remotest spot from land
At 48°52.6'S, 123°23.6’W,
there is a point in the South
Pacific Ocean 2,699 km
(1,450 nautical mi) from
land. It is known as Point
Nemo, or the Pacific Pole
of Inaccessibility. If you
were at this spot, and the
International Space Station
were orbiting directly above,
at an altitude of around
400 km (248 mi), you would
be nearer to its crew than
to anyone on Earth.
LARGEST...
Continent
Of all the continents
(Europe, Africa, Asia,
North America, South
America, Australasia/
Oceania and Antarctica),
Asia is the largest
at 45,036,492 km²
(17,388,686 sq mi).
Africa ranks second
with a land area
of 30,343,578 km²
(11,715,721 sq mi).
Island
Apart from Australia,
which is usually regarded
as a continental land mass,
Earth’s largest island is
Greenland, with an area
of about 2,175,600 km²
(840,000 sq mi).
The largest sand island
in the world is Fraser Island,
located off the south coast
of Queensland, Australia.
It covers some 1,630 km^2
(629 sq mi) and is home to
a sand dune 120 km (75 mi)
long (and more than 100
freshwater lakes). In 1992,
the island was recognizedby the United Nations
Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) as a World
Heritage Site.
The world’s highest
measured sand dunes
are those in the Saharan
sand sea of Isaouane-n-
Tifernine in east central
Algeria. They are 5 km (3 mi)
long and reach a height of
465 m (1,525 ft).Glacier
The Lambert Glacier
in Antarctica covers
an area of 1 million km²
(386,100 sq mi) and delivers
an estimated 33 billion
tonnes (36.3 billion tons) of
ice from the East Antarctic
Ice Sheet to the Southern
Ocean every year.
Extending for more
than 400 km (250 mi), the
Lambert Glacier is also the
world’s longest glacier.Lake database
On 15 Dec 2016, a team of
geographers from McGill
University in Montreal,
Canada, published the
most complete global
database of lakes. Known as
HydroLAKES, the database
contains measurements,
including volume of water
and shoreline length, for
1.42 million lakes larger
than 10 ha (24.7 acres).
The McGill University teamFIRST ESTIMATE OF THE MASS OF THE TECHNOSPHERE
An offshoot of Earth’s biosphere, the technosphere comprises every human
structure and object that may one day become “technofossils”. Everything
from roads and cities (New York City, below) to landfill sites (inset) and vehicles- and all the waste generated by them – counts towards the technosphere. On
28 Nov 2016, an international team led by geologists from the University of
Leicester, UK, presented their estimate of the mass of Earth’s technosphere
in the journal Anthropocene Review. They put the technosphere’s mass at
30 trillion tonnes (33 trillion tons) – or around
90 million Empire
State Buildings.
put the overall volume
of water in these lakes
at around 181,900 km³
(43,640 cu mi). The total
length of shorelines for
the 1.42 million lakes is an
estimated 7,200,000 km
(4,473,870 mi).Lava lake
The shield volcano
Mount Nyiragongo in the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo contains an active
lava lake in its crater around
250 m (820 ft) across. The
volcano has erupted some
34 times since 1882.FIRST GEOLOGICAL EPOCH OF THE MODERN AGE
On 29 Aug 2016, members of the Anthropocene Working
Group of the International Union of Geological Sciences
presented their evidence of a new geological epoch.
The Anthropocene is defined as the point at which human
activities began to impact on Earth’s ecosystems. The
group recommended that the Anthropocene should
formally begin around 1950, when nuclear weapons tests
spread radioactive elements across the planet.The mass of
the technosphere
estimated in the study
(above) is equivalent to
more than 50 kg per m²
(10^ lb^ per sq^ ft) of Earth’s
surface. That’s about the
same as four gold bars,
or 80 basketballs.Subglacial
mountain range
Located in eastern
Antarctica, the Gamburtsev
Mountains extend some
1,200 km (745 mi) across
the continent and are
around 2,700 m (8,860 ft)
tall. No one has ever seen
the mountains first-hand
as they are permanently
buried beneath more
than 600 m (1,970 ft) of
ice. Discovered in 1958
by a Soviet team using
seismic surveys, the
range is believed to be
c. 500 million years old.