Seven Things You Didn’t Know About the Earth

Take a read of our blog and learn seven cool facts about the Earth.

On the 22nd April, people around the globe celebrated Earth Day by helping to promote and raise awareness for the environment.

It’s important to provide people with the knowledge to educate themselves and to inspire action that will help protect the environment and the planet. We are big campaigners of the Earth, which is why we’ve already looked into how we can reduce the amount of water we waste. We even have our own conservation efforts that we incorporate into every part of our work.

For us at SEA LIFE Birmingham, Earth Day is more than just a day – it’s a principle that can be put into practice each and every day of the year. To celebrate this amazing planet, we thought we’d share seven facts you might not have known about the Earth.

The Earth is mostly iron and oxygen

Did you know that 32.1% of the Earth is made up of iron? This iron accounts for around 88% of the Earth’s core. The Earth is also 30.1% oxygen, which makes up about 47% of its crust.

7.4 billion people live on Earth

We already knew there were a lot of humans, but in actual fact there are 7.4 billion of us roaming the planet. It is estimated that by 2100 the population will increase to 11.2 billion.

The largest population in a single country is China, where it's estimated there are more than 1.38 billion people.

71% of the Earth’s surface is water

There’s a reason why Earth is nicknamed ‘the Blue Planet’. 71% of its entire surface is covered by water, with 96.5% of this water being found in the ocean.

If all of the Earth’s water was put into a sphere, it would have a diameter of around 860 miles. This is almost the same amount of distance it would take to travel from Inverness in Scotland to Frankfurt in Germany.

There are more than 400 species of sharks

Sharks have existed for longer than 450 million years. Calculating animal populations is more difficult than counting human populations, but experts believe that there are over 400 different types of sharks in the world. These species include the great white and the black tip reef shark.

A year on Earth isn’t 365 days

Perhaps one of the most surprising facts, a year on Earth isn’t actually the same 365 days we count a year as. It’s actually 365.25 days, which explains why we need to have a Leap Year every four years.

There are five oceans

The Earth contains five oceans: the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern.

The biggest ocean on the planet is the Pacific Ocean, which occupies a third of the Earth's total surface – around 155 million square kilometres. Some of the creatures that call the Pacific Ocean home include clown fish and four species of seahorse.

Earth isn’t the biggest planet

Contrary to what you might think, Earth isn’t actually one of the biggest planets. Whilst it’s bigger than the likes of Venus, Mars, and Mercury, it’s nothing compared to the planetary giants such as Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter has a diameter of around 88,695 miles, which makes it 11.2 times bigger than Earth.

We need to protect our planet now

One of the most important things to know about Earth is that it is in danger. Looking after our planet means that we are not only conserving the environment for future generations but also helping the animals and humans who call Earth home.

See what you can do to help the planet with Earth Day. Take a look into some of the work The SEA LIFE Trust does to help conserve and protect, alongside our own breed, protect and rescue mission.