. . . 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.

. . . 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?

. . . 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?

. . . that El Niño 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 Niño, 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 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.