9 Strange Things You Didn't Know About Earth

1. There are 24 not hours in a day

Ever since you were in elementary school, you were taught that there are 24 hours in a day. Well, that's not technically true. The earth spins on its axis for 23 hours 56 minutes.

The reason we add an extra 4 minutes is that the distance that the Earth orbits the Sun is so great that it takes extra time for us to face the Sun again. Eventually, the time will catch up and the days will last longer than 24 hours. That's because every few million years, the Earth spins slower and slower.

About million years from now a typical day will last 25.5 hours. I'm going to take a guess and say most of us won't be around to see that

2. A glitch in the Earth's gravity

Hudson Bay is located in Canada. This area has an uneven mass. When there is an uneven mass, there is an uneven gravity.

At one time, there were glaciers in this area. Today, they are melted. However, the burden of gravity, it still remains in ice sheets under the Earth's crust. This has caused the gravity in Hudson Bay to be lower than anywhere else on earth.

If you're planning to visit Hudson Bay, don't think that you can bounce around like you would on the moon. The difference in gravity in this area is only about 0.005%. This amount is so small you probably won't be able to feel the reduction in the gravity. But the good news is if you visit Hudson Bay, you immediately weigh less.

Good news for those of us on a diet.

3. How was the ocean salt created

Everyone knows that there is salt in the oceans of the earth. However, many people don't know exactly how the salt got there.

The salt actually comes from the rocks on the shores of the ocean.

Rainwater is naturally acidic and it causes the rocks to break down. The components are then distributed into the water. The water in the Earth's oceans is so dense that if you were to evaporate all of the water in the oceans, the salt would spread over the entire land 500 feet thick on absolutely everything.

4. The Earth had a twin

There is a theory that when the earth was developing, there was a smaller twin planet nearby called Theia which was about the size of Mars.

About 5 billion years ago, Theia crashed into Earth and most of it was absorbed into the Earth's crust. The rest of the planet drifted off and eventually became our Moon.

Now, the reason that so many scientists and astronomers believe this theory is possible or even true is because normally planets that are the size of the earth don't have moons that are so large. Also, the moon and the Earth share various matters.

5. The Earth is hot

Many people believe that if the Sun were to become permanently blocked by the clouds or if it just drifted away, we would not receive its heat and the human race would quickly become extinct.

Well, that may not be the case.

The Earth's core is just as hot as the surface of the Sun. It's between 5,000 and 7,000 degrees Celsius. So as something tragic word to happen to the Sun and the land on the earth was to freeze, if we were able to harness the energy from the Earth's core, we could keep the human race alive.

It would be dark outside but at least we'd have Heat.

6. Unexplored oceans

Mankind has gone to space numerous times. We've even touched down on the moon unless you're one of those conspiracy theorists people.

Well, most of the earth has been explored except for the ocean. As of now, only about 5 to 10 percent of the ocean has been explored.

We've only discovered about 210,000 underwater creatures and it's estimated that there are probably 20 million more that we've not yet discovered.

7. There are exploding lakes on Earth

There are 3 lakes in Cameroon: Nyos, Monoun, and Kivu. They're located near the border of the Congo and they're often known as the exploding lakes.

In 1984, a group of local villagers was walking to work on a small stretch of road, when a gas cloud appeared and swallowed many of the villagers up and carried them away. Of all the villagers on the road, 37 were killed instantly.

It was discovered that the gas cloud was carbon dioxide that was released when the lakes exploded. The reason they exploded was that they were sitting on volcanic Earth and these lakes still explode today.

8. The supercontinent

When dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a supercontinent called Pangea. It was a continent that joined all of the countries of the world in one big landmass.

In the next 250 million years, there will be another supercontinent formed. It will be called Pangaea Ultima. It will rejoin America and Africa and Africa to Europe. The center of the supercontinent will be an Arid desert that will be prone to extreme weather.

9. The earth isn't round

Now, I'm not saying the earth is flat. 

For a very long time, people thought the earth was flat. Though explorers were worried about falling off the face of the earth on their ships, while eventually, it was discovered that the earth was round but not totally round.

It's not a perfect circle. There is a bulge in the equator that stretches about 20 miles out. This bulge gives the Earth a roundish shape closer to that of an egg.

While you won't fall off the Earth, it's still not completely perfectly round.

Bonus Strange Things

There is gold underwater at the bottom of the Earth's oceans.

There are 20 million tons of gold.

The only reason that nobody's attempted to get the gold is that one liter of water contains just 13 billion of a gram of gold. If it were possible to get gold from the ocean, there would be enough for every person on earth to get 9 pounds of it.