15 Facts about Mother Earth you should know on Earth Day

1. The water of Antarctica is so cold that nothing can rot there.
2. An earthquake on dec 16,1811 caused parts of the Mississippi river to flow backwards.
3. If Antarctica's ice sheets melted, the world's oceans would rise by 60-65 metres everywhere.
4. The Amazon rain forest produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen supply.
5. The Sahara desert expands at about 1km per month or 48 km per year.
6. The north Atlantic gets 2.5cm wider every year.
7. It takes a drop of ocean water more than 1000 years to circulate around the world.
8. Europe is the only continent without  a hot desert.
9. A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere.
10. Plates carrying the continents migrate over the earth's surface a few centimeters per year, about the same speed that a finger nail grows.
11. On average, 20000 earth quakes are located each year world wide.
12. There's zero gravity at the centre of earth.
13. A storm officially becomes a hurricane when cyclone winds reach 119 kmph.
14. Earth is slowing down, in a few million years there won't be a leap year.
15. One cubic mile of sea water contains about 25 kg of gold!