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. . . that Earth isn't the only planet with
volcanoes? Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system. It was once
active but is now extinct. It's called Olympus Mons and is three times
the size of Mount Everest. |
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. . . that the hot water that gushes out of
sulfide chimneys (black smokers) on the ocean floor can be as as hot as
400 degrees celsius? |
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. . . that it's hotter in the inner core of
the earth, which is made of iron and nickel, than it is on the surface
of the sun? |
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. . . that El Nino is a major change in climate
that occurs every two to seven years in the Pacific Ocean near the equator?
Years ago, fisherman from Peru noticed that the Pacific ocean often became
warmer around Christmas. They nicknamed this change El Nino, which is
Spanish for "Christ Child." |
About the Gottesman Hall
of Planet Earth:
There are 168 specimens on exhibition from 25 countries and 5 ocean floor
regions. Specimens were collected from as far away as Antarctica and as nearby
as New York's Central Park, at 90th Street. 86 tons (172,000 lbs.) of rock were collected on the scientific expeditions
for the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth. Of this, 38 tons (76,000 lbs.) are
on exhibition in the Hall, roughly equaling the weight of six adult African
elephants. The oldest sample in the Hall is a zircon crystal from Australia that is
nearly 4.3 billion years old. The crystal is only .2 billion years younger
than the Earth itself. The youngest sample in the Hall is native sulfur from the active Kawah Ijen
Volcano, Indonesia. The sulfur was collected on the same day that it solidified
on the volcano: June 8, 1998. The sample will celebrate its first "birthday"
just before the Hall opens to the public. The heaviest sample collected was a 17-ton folded muscovite-garnet schist
from Wingdale, New York, roughly the same weight as one hundred adult ostriches. The eclogite from Zermatt, Switzerland, was taken from the highest altitude.
Sulfide chimneys from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the Pacific Ocean were collected
2,200 meters or 7,000 feet beneath the ocean's surface. A diamond embedded in kimberlite is the hardest substance in the Hall. The
most delicate substance is a piece of consolidated, wind-blown dust called
loess.
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