Megan Bostic's Creative Chaos: You're weird, planet earth: 20 strange and interesting facts

Seriously,there be strange happenings on our lovely planet. In honor of Earth Day, I will share some with you.

The earth isn't round. Centrifugal force (and other science crap) gives the earth a "spare tire" at the equator. So even our earth is obese.
If you're standing on the equator, you're spinning through space at 1,000 miles an hour. If you're at either pole, you're standing still.
The earth also works its way around the sun at 67K miles per hour. It's a wonder we're not all puking all the time with all the spinning and hurtling going on.
The largest earthquake to shake our globe occurred in Chili, May 22, 1960. It rocked the world at a magnitude of 9.5.
El Azizia, Libya, experienced some seriously Hell on Earth. The highest recorded temperature was 136 degrees Fahrenheit on September 12, 1922. Ouch.
On the flip side, the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth came from

Russia's Vostok Station. The temp was a numbing -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That's the day I would have moved my ass out of Antarctica. No thanks. I'd like my limbs not to freeze and crack off.
You think Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world? Wrong. The actual tallest mountain is Mauna Kea. Everest may be taller above sea level, but Mauna Kea is taller base to summit measuring in at 56,000 feet.
Back in the day, we possibly had a 2nd moon. That is, until it crashed into our other moon and blew the hell up. #survivalofthefittestmoon
Apparently again, we have a 2nd moon. But, it's never the same rock, so it's

more like random acts of orbiting moons. Our earth's pull of gravity traps traveling asteroids in its magnetic field. They stick around for about 3 rotations, or nine months, before going on their merry way where they more than likely meet an untimely demise of being burned up by the sun. (I made that last part up)
I bet you didn't know the world's longest mountain chain is 40,389 miles long. That's right. It's called the mid-ocean ridge and is comprised of lava spewing from the seafloor.
The world has three deadly lakes, in Cameroon, Rwanda, and the Congo. Carbon dioxide is releases into the lakes, which can be released into the air in explosions, asphyxiating anyone walking by.
The earth used to be purple. There are some scientific facts as to why, which I don't get, but it has to do with chlorophyll and retinal and crap like that.
A stroke of lightning can heat the air to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm surprised

we haven't heard about people melting.
95% of the planets seas have not been seen or explored. Seriously? WTF?
Every day 100 tons of space dust sprinkles down onto the earth. It is released from comets vaporizing near the sun. I have nothing more to say about this except "space dust" is a cool term.
The world's most active volcano is the Stromboli Volcano in southern Italy. It has been erupting almost continually for the last 2,000 years.
The largest volcanic eruption on record took place on April 1815, on Mount Tambora. It ranked 7 out of 8, which makes is a super-colossal blow, on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. It was so loud it was heard more than 1,200 miles away on Sumatra Island. Death toll: 71K.
We used to have a twin. Her name was Theia and she was about the size of

Mars. About 4.5 billion years ago, Theia crashed into the Earth and was mostly absorbed. The rest, combined with materials from Earth, created our moon.
If you took all the salt from our oceans and spread it over the earth, you would have a 500 foot layer of salt covering everything.
Our atmosphere consists of many layers, but the one that keeps us alive, the troposphere, is the thinnest at 10 miles high. Let's keep that tropo healthy!! I do not want to die a horrible hot and airless death.