• In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
  • About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
  • A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
  • Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
  • Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park , USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
  • Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.
  • Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.
  • The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.
  • The world’s windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.
  • In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.
  • American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.
  • The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk.
  • The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name ‘Methuselah’ .
  • It is about 4600 years old.
  • The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California.
  • It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk.
  • The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus.
  • It can grow 10 meters a year.
  • The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.
  • The USA uses 29% of the world’s petrol and 33% of the world’s electricity.
  • The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.
  • Tibet is the highest country in the world.
  • Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.
  • Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.
  • Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.
  • The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade.
  • The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.
  • There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea.
  • The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.
  • The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.
  • Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.
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