Weird Facts About Earth

Weird Facts About Earth Earth

Life Below the Seafloor“The sediments underlying Earth’s oceans are home to approximately 2.9 x 10^29 microorganisms, ex...
19/03/2023

Life Below the Seafloor

“The sediments underlying Earth’s oceans are home to approximately 2.9 x 10^29 microorganisms, existing at depths as great as 2.5 km below the seafloor. The majority of this deep subseafloor biosphere grows extremely slowly relative to life in the surface world, with estimates of cell division once every 10 to 1000+ years,” Caltech geobiologist Victoria Orphan tells Popular Mechanics.

Scientists are finding new sources of microbial life deeper and deeper below the seafloor than ever before. In March 2020, a team of scientists revealed that they had found traces of bacteria (try 10 billion bacterial cells) in rocks 400 feet below the seafloor—deeper than ever before.

Earth Is RadioactiveIn total, Earth generates as much as 40 terawatts of heat, half of which comes from radioactive deca...
19/03/2023

Earth Is Radioactive

In total, Earth generates as much as 40 terawatts of heat, half of which comes from radioactive decay in its core, according to a 2011 study. Scientists measured particles called antineutrinos that streamed up from Earth’s core and found that half of Earth’s heat is generated through the radioactive decay of certain elements.

Tom Crafford, a Mineral Resources Program Coordinator at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) tells Popular Mechanics: “Most of the internal heat that keeps Earth a living, vibrant planet comes from the radioactive breakdown of elements like thorium, uranium, and potassium.”

Earth’s Core Is as Hot as the Sun’s Surface“Within uncertainty, the temperature at the center of the Earth is the same a...
15/03/2023

Earth’s Core Is as Hot as the Sun’s Surface

“Within uncertainty, the temperature at the center of the Earth is the same as the temperature at the surface of the sun (5800 K),” Caltech geochemist Paul Asimow tells Popular Mechanics. At about almost 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s hot.

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