Page 195 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

IT CAN’T BE TRUE! 193

• The Earth takes 24 hours to
complete one rotation on its axis— Tajikistan is the highest
country in the world, with an
in other words, one day. At the average elevation of 10,453 ft
equator (24,900 miles/40,075 km (3,186 m) above sea level.
long), the speed of the Earth’s
rotation is 1,040 mph (1,675
kph)—roughly twice the speed
highest
of a cruising airliner.
EARTH’S ROTATION

• The time taken for each of AND
Earth’s rotations is decreasing, LOWEST
by about 1.4 milliseconds per
100 years. At the moment,
scientists adjust for this by adding The world’s lowest country is
the Maldives, which is a tiny 6 ft
“leap seconds” to standard time (1.8 m) above sea level—the
every few years. height of an average man.
• The driest place on Earth is in Antarctica.
The McMurdo Dry Valleys region has been almost
completely swept free of ice by the extreme winds
rushing over the landscape, melting any snow and ice.
PLA
• The driest non-polar area is the Atacama Desert, in Chile,
which has an average of only 0.04 in (1 mm) of rain a year.
DRIES
Some parts of the desert have seen no rainfall for centuries.
CES
T
BIOMASS SPEED Y

The biomass (the total mass of living T S U N A M I
things in a particular ecosystem) of adult
humans on Earth has been estimated as
365 million tons (332 million metric tons). A tsunami
We are outweighed by tiny Antarctic krill, (which is Japanese for “harbor
which have an estimated total biomass wave”) can cross the
of 420 million tons (380 million Pacific Ocean
metric tons). in less than a day. It zips
across the water at up to
600 mph
(970 kph),
which is faster than a
Boeing 777.

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