Buzz
Ever since Apollo 8 captured the stunning image of Earth as a radiant blue marble rising above the lunar horizon, curiosity about our planet has only grown. Although scientists have gained extensive knowledge, not every detail reaches the public. This often results in information being misunderstood or distorted, even when it is close enough to the truth for confusion to thrive.
10. Mount Everest Is Shifting Sideways, Not Growing Taller
Around fifty million years ago, the Indian subcontinent decided to move northward, away from the equator, eventually colliding with Asia. This impact led to the creation of the Himalayan mountain range, which includes Mount Everest. Now standing at nearly 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) above sea level, Everest remains Earth's highest mountain. While the collision between India and Asia is still ongoing, many believe Everest is still rising, but is that truly the case?
Scientists disagree, stating that Mount Everest is not actually rising significantly. Giorgio Poretti, a professor at the University of Trieste, discovered in 1995 that the height of Everest hasn’t increased at a noteworthy rate; it’s just that more precise instruments have led to more accurate measurements. According to Poretti, the continuous collision between the Indian and Asian continents is shifting Everest to the northeast at a rate of 42 millimeters (1.6 inches) per year.
So, if you're planning an Everest expedition, you’ll climb roughly the same number of meters as Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay did back in 1953. However, you’ll be doing so almost 3 meters (10 feet) to the north-northeast of where they made their historic achievement.
9. Mauna Loa Is The Tallest Mountain On Earth
Speaking of Everest, it’s not actually the tallest mountain on Earth. Mauna Loa, which means “Long Mountain,” is located on the Hawaiian island of Hawaii. While it doesn’t appear as tall as Everest, that’s only because the majority of it is submerged underwater, with only its summit visible above the surface.
From its peak to its base, Mauna Kea spans a little over 10.2 kilometers (6.3 miles), making it significantly taller than Everest. Moreover, Mauna Loa adds considerable weight to the equation, which plays a crucial role. About half of the Island of Hawaii is covered by Mauna Loa. These types of volcanoes, like Mauna Loa, are known as “shield” volcanoes due to their wide and low-profile shape. They are formed when lava erupts at a high rate, flowing rapidly from the volcano, giving it little time to do anything other than pile up and cool.
Mauna Loa has been erupting frequently for as long as a million years, and it remains highly active. After a million years of eruptions, the volcano has accumulated about 80,000 cubic kilometers (50,000 cubic miles) of volcanic material. The Pacific Ocean is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) deep where Mauna Loa first began its eruptions. Over time, the volcanic buildup has raised the mountain another 4.17 kilometers (2.59 miles) above sea level.
But that’s not all. The immense weight of Mauna Loa has caused the seafloor beneath it to sink by another 8 kilometers (5 miles). When you factor in this sinking, the true height of the volcano reaches over 17 kilometers (10.5 miles), making it the tallest mountain on Earth by far.
8. Tornadoes Are Invisible
When a tornado approaches, people instinctively seek shelter, but how do we even spot a tornado in the first place? After all, air is invisible. In reality, what we see is a condensation cloud formed of water droplets, and occasionally dirt and debris. This cloud forms inside the invisible, funnel-shaped column of air that is the actual tornado.
Tornadoes typically form in supercells—powerful thunderstorms that feature a rotating updraft. The exact cause of the funnel’s downward motion is still uncertain, but it’s thought to be linked to temperature differences along the edge of the nearby downdraft. As the funnel descends, water vapor often condenses inside it, but tornadoes can and often do begin to cause damage long before the funnel is fully visible.
For example, here’s a tornado already on the ground, with the funnel cloud only partially condensed. If it was headed in your direction and you didn’t notice the debris, you might stand there, entranced by the raw spectacle of nature. This, however, could be a fatal mistake.
7. Clouds Are Heavier Than You Think
There are few sights more beautiful than soft, white clouds drifting in a clear blue sky. We often think of these clouds as being as light and insubstantial as fog.
However, clouds are actually quite heavy. A typical cumulus cloud, composed of water droplets, weighs around 550 metric tonnes (500 tons). Despite this immense weight, it can float because the surrounding atmosphere is dense enough to support it. We often forget that both we and the clouds live near the Earth's surface, where air molecules have weight. The air pressure here is approximately 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) per square centimeter, or 17.2 metric tonnes (15.5 tons). This creates quite a bit of force against an average person who is about 168 centimeters (5’6″) tall and weighs 6 kilograms (140 lbs). Yet, we aren’t crushed by this weight because the pressure is applied evenly both inside and outside of our bodies.
Air, like water, behaves as a fluid. This allows Archimedes’ Principle to come into play. The upward buoyant force on the cloud is equal to the weight of the air it displaces. Close to Earth's surface, the massive cloud floats for the same reason a cruise ship floats on water.
6. Earth Experiences Magnetic Tornadoes
NASA scientists were astounded when their Messenger mission to Mercury discovered massive, twisting “tornadoes” spanning over 800 kilometers (500 miles) across the planet’s magnetic field.
These “flux transfer events,” also known as “plasmoids,” form at the intersection where Mercury’s magnetic field meets the Sun’s. Researchers believe this interaction is responsible for Mercury’s thin atmosphere. The tornadoes funnel solar wind—plasma ejected by the Sun—down onto Mercury’s surface, where the electrically charged particles help release gases trapped within the planet’s rocks.
Scientists have long known that Earth’s and the Sun’s magnetic fields are interconnected, which explains the auroras we see. What they didn’t realize until the discovery on Mercury was how turbulent this connection can be. While Earth also experiences similar magnetic events, there's no need to panic. Despite these events occurring about every eight minutes, Earth’s thick atmosphere protects us from potentially harmful radiation.
5. Rocks Are Alive
Have you ever been in a desert or deep within a cave and had the eerie feeling that you weren’t quite alone? Well, you likely weren’t. While rocks might not have eyes or ears, tiny life forms known as endoliths make their homes within them.
Endoliths are a type of extremophile, organisms that thrive in extreme environments. These creatures have been discovered as deep as 3 kilometers (2 miles) into solid rock. Most of them survive by consuming water and nutrients that trickle down through cracks, but some go as far as eating rock itself, excreting acid to break down more stony food.
Temperature is the primary factor that determines how deep life can go into the Earth. Heat from the planet’s core radiates outward, and at about 5 kilometers (3 miles) below the surface, the temperature of the rock can reach as high as 125 degrees Celsius (257°F).
No researcher has yet been able to venture that far beneath the Earth’s surface, but studies of extremophiles found in hot springs show that these organisms struggle to reproduce around that temperature. So, 5 kilometers (3 miles) down could very well be the limit for life as we know it. These organisms are so small that if they are packed deep within the Earth's crust, the majority of the planet’s biomass could actually be underground.
Since the discovery of endoliths, astrobiologists have been conducting underground experiments in planetary exploration spacecraft to search for extraterrestrial life that could be living beneath the surface of other planets, just as it might on Earth.
4. Switzerland Experiences Daily Shifts Of Nearly 25 Centimeters (10 in)
Earth is not only a source of life but also exhibits a certain elasticity. This elasticity is why Mauna Loa, the massive volcano, is capable of compressing the Pacific Ocean floor so dramatically.
This same flexibility allows the Moon and Sun to influence the land, although their effects are not as pronounced as those on the seas. While there may be no shoreline to witness the slow rise and fall, large portions of the Earth’s surface shift subtly each day. And contrary to what you might think, even towering mountain ranges or volcanoes don’t entirely negate this effect—compared to the influence of the Sun and Moon, the Alps are practically insignificant.
In fact, meticulous measurements have shown that the entirety of Switzerland rises and falls daily by about 25 centimeters (10 in) in response to the Earth’s tidal forces. However, this only becomes important when constructing delicate equipment, like a particle accelerator, since Switzerland’s movement is measured in relation to the ‘low tide’ point of the Earth, which is located around 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) away.
3. The Next Supervolcano Eruption Likely Won’t Be At Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park is a hotbed of geothermal activity, featuring geysers, hot springs, and bubbling mud pots. However, in the early 2000s, a shift occurred when geologists discovered the existence of supervolcanoes, and Yellowstone was identified as one of the most prominent examples. Since then, questions have swirled about when it might erupt. However, it turns out that such an event is not expected in any time frame that would concern human civilization. Recent research indicates that while there is a vast amount of magma beneath the surface, it’s not in a form that could trigger an eruption.
There has never been a megacaldera eruption during recorded history, so the signs that could precede one are largely unknown. A surge in earthquakes and other natural disasters could occur, but similar to regular volcanoes, even supervolcanoes may erupt without warning.
One intriguing possibility is Chile’s Laguna del Maule volcano. While it isn’t currently erupting and doesn’t display any threatening behavior at the moment, it has been swelling at a rate of 24–28 centimeters (9.5–11 in) per year, and the cause remains a mystery.
Laguna del Maule, which is roughly the size of California’s Long Valley Caldera, is located along the Argentine border. Over the last 20,000 years, it has experienced at least 36 smaller eruptions. Researchers believe there may be enough magma beneath the surface to produce a VEI 6 eruption (comparable to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo), though they can’t be certain about the full extent of the magma chamber.
2. Giant Earthquakes Unfold Gradually
An earthquake occurs when rocks shift along a fault line. These faults may be small, localized fractures, in which case the shaking is likely to be restricted to the immediate area, or they can be large, involving major tectonic plate boundaries. When plates move, they accumulate immense amounts of energy in the rocks along the boundary, and when this energy is released, the results can be devastating.
While many large earthquakes are preceded by foreshocks, scientists were astonished to discover that rocks can slip past each other with no seismic activity whatsoever. This was discovered after the installation of highly sensitive equipment along the San Andreas Fault in California (where the Pacific and North American plates slide past one another) and the Alpine Fault in New Zealand (where the Pacific plate moves against the Australian continental plate).
The Alpine Fault has experienced significant earthquakes in the past, but its central section has remained unusually quiet. Scientists began monitoring this region with concern, suspecting that it might be accumulating vast amounts of potential energy. However, they discovered something unexpected: seismic tremors, a series of subtle, creeping earthquakes occurring deeper than typical quakes, lasting up to 30 minutes each.
A similar phenomenon has been observed along sections of the San Andreas Fault. While scientists are still uncertain about the cause of these tremors, it’s possible that they are storing up stress for a future earthquake, or they may be releasing some of the accumulated energy, potentially reducing the magnitude of the earthquake that will happen when the fault zone eventually slips.
1. Cyclones Can Dance
While tornadoes are sometimes referred to as cyclones, technically, a cyclone is a low-pressure system with winds spiraling counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. A cyclone can refer to a hurricane or any other type of low-pressure system that follows this wind pattern.
Sakuhei Fujiwhara, a Japanese meteorologist, discovered that when two cyclones draw near enough to each other, they begin to orbit around a shared center, an effect known as the Fujiwhara effect. This phenomenon only occurs if the cyclones are of similar strength. If one cyclone is much larger, it will simply absorb the smaller one.
A notable and costly example of this took place in 2012. Typically, hurricanes in the Caribbean and Atlantic are carried away from North America by westerly winds. Hurricane Sandy followed this pattern initially but then reversed course, heading back toward the US and Canada as Superstorm Sandy. This was due to an upper-level low-pressure system nearby. As the two storms' spinning winds aligned, the Fujiwhara effect caused them to merge, with Sandy being the larger of the two, just as it made landfall—the worst possible scenario.
