Some Things You May Not Know About Planet Earth: Part 2: Lakes Can Explode!

The world's largest earthquake was in Chile.

Originating approximately 100 miles off the coast of southern  of Chile on May 22, 1960, the earthquake hit at 3:11 PM and lasted about 10 minutes.

It was the largest earthquake recorded in the 20th century.

The earthquake caused substantial damage and loss of life both in that country and, as a result of the tsunamis that it generate, in distant Pacific coastal areas.

1,000–7,000 people lost their lives.

Lakes can explode.

In Cameroon and on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo there are Nyos, Monoun and Kivu.

All three are crater lakes that sit above volcanic earth. 

Magma below the surface releases carbon dioxide into the lakes, resulting in a deep, carbon dioxide-rich layer right above the lakebed. 

That carbon dioxide can be released in an explosion, asphyxiating any passersby.

The Earth is losing it's freshwater.
As the climate changes, glaciers are retreating and contributing to rising sea levels.

The Canadian Arctic glacier range lost a volume equivalent to 75 percent of Lake Erie between 2004 and 2009.

Earth use to be purple.

A NASA-supported study indicates that there is a possibility that life on early Earth may have been just as purple as it is green today, thanks to a purple-tinged molecule known as ‘retinal’.

Ancient microbes might have used a molecule other than chlorophyll to harness the sun's rays, one that gave the organisms a violet hue.

The Earth is electric.

Earth has a natural direct current electric field or potential gradient from the ground upwards to the ionosphere.

Speaking of electricity..

A single stroke of lightning can heat the air to around 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the air to expand rapidly. 

That ballooning air creates a shock wave and ultimately a boom,  known as thunder.

Humans have only explored about 5 percent of the world's oceans, meaning 95 percent of the planet's seas have never been seen.

There is treasure in the seas.

These vast seas are rich, holding more than 20 million tons of gold. Each liter of seawater contains, on average, about 13 billionths of a gram of gold. 

Undissolved gold is also tucked away in rocks on the seafloor.

Cosmic dust..
On a daily basis, about 100 tons of interplanetary material drifts down to the Earth's surface. 

Particles are released by comets as their ices vaporize near the sun.