Earth's tectonic plates move slowly. Some move as fast as human fingernails grow (1 inch/year), while others may move up to 3 times faster.
There are more people in the world who speak Spanish as a first-language than English. There are even more who speak Chinese, the leading first-language in the world with 1.2 billion speakers.
Alaska sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most seismically active area in the world. There are an estimated 4,000 earthquakes each year in Alaska, more than all other 49 states combined.
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Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is named after Colonel sir George Everest first geographer to survey India.
The state flag of Alaska was designed by a 13 year old boy named Benny Benson. His design was one of 700 submitted in a contest for the best flag.
Australia is the smallest, and also the lowest continent on Earth. About 75% of it's land is unable to produce any kind of crop.
A city the size of New York consumes 1 billion U.S. gallons of water per day; enough to fill 1,480 Olympic sized swimming pools.
Antarctica is the biggest desert on Earth. A desert is an area which receives less than 10 inches (250 millimeters) of rain per year, regardless of temperature.
The Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai is the tallest structure on our planet, measuring 2716 feet (828 meters). Alain Robert (a.k.a "The Spider Man") climbed the tower on the outside in six hours.
The highest permanent settlement in the world is the city of La Rinconada, Peru located at 16,700 ft (5100 m) above sea level. It's inhabited by 50,000 brave souls who illegally mine the mountain for gold.
A hundred years ago, the world population was 1.5 billion. Today it is more than 7 billion.
The jet wash of Boeing 747 taking off is strong enough to flip over a school bus, taxi cab, and a small plane.
Pando, a colony of trees that share their root system in Utah, is believed to be the largest organism on the planet, made up of 40,000 trees and weighing 13 million pounds. Pando means "We belong together."
The largest shopping mall in North America is located in Edmonton, Canada. It is more than 5 million square feet, and attracts more than 32 million visitors each year. It also has a Bitcoin ATM machine.
Ice caps, glaciers and permanent snow store around 65% of all the fresh water on our planet.
Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world uses a 728 ton pendulum to counter the force of wind on the building. It is suspended from the 87th to the 92nd floor.
