There are some locations on the planet the place issues get bizarre. For example, you ever heard of the Bermuda Triangle? Nicely, it seems there’s nothing bizarre about that little bit of the ocean in any respect — it sees a whole lot of site visitors, however vessels that journey there aren’t any extra in danger than these anyplace else. Yeah, neglect concerning the Bermuda Triangle; we don’t know why we introduced that up.
Gravity Drops Close to Sri Lanka
College students at school be taught that on Earth, gravitational acceleration is the same as 9.81 m/s². That quantity is actually the common gravity throughout the planet, as a result of the pressure varies from place to put. As soon as you realize that, it’s stunning we make youngsters do math with that needlessly precise determine. 9.8 could be a better quantity to take care of (and is a extra correct quantity, in some locations). Even “10” could be an affordable quantity to present to youngsters, if all we have to do is educate them to make use of formulation accurately.
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Gravity varies from place to put — and in some locations, it varies loads. Within the ocean close to Sri Lanka, gravity is a lot weaker than in the remainder of the world that the ocean degree is greater than 300 toes decrease than it could in any other case be. You may think that water ranges would drop in locations with excessive gravity, somewhat than low gravity, as a result of the bottom pulls the water down so laborious, however give it some thought some extra. Low gravity means each different a part of the world is pulling on the ocean more durable, so much less water collects close to the gravity anomaly.
This spot is known as the Indian Ocean Geoid Low. To know why gravity’s so low there, we’d should burrow deep into the planet, and presumably lower it in two, which is inadvisable. Barring that, we do have some good theories. We expect that a part of the Earth has an uncommon quantity of liquid magma, so it’s much less dense. This magma is left over from when the Indian tectonic plate smashed into Asia pretty just lately.
By “pretty just lately,” we imply round 50 million years in the past, which is fairly current, all issues thought-about. The geoid could solely final for one more 100 million years, so that you higher hurry up and go to it when you can.
The Toasty Little bit of Norway
Within the Norwegian Sea, we’ve one disturbing bit referred to as the Lofoten Vortex, the place the water shops an uncommon degree of warmth. The problem right here isn’t current local weather change — this half was absorbing and releasing such a degree of warmth again within the Nineteen Seventies, too. The ocean right here has no ice and even boasts its personal coral reef.
The offender? Anticyclones.
Within the northern hemisphere, massive programs like storms rotate counterclockwise. When the water as an alternative rotates clockwise, we name that an anticyclonic eddy, and within the Lofoten Vortex, it results in excessive temperatures and waters stuffed with stirred-up vitamins. That will not be precisely what you’re searching for if you enterprise as much as the Arctic Ocean, however we’re informed the dolphins there like it.
On High of Paraguay, Magnetism Disappears
We’ve bought one other diagram of the Earth for you, exhibiting how forces change from one space to the following. Right here, we’re trying on the magnetic discipline’s energy. You’ll see the sector all of a sudden plunge someplace over South America.
With out trying on the map, when you needed to guess one spot the place the magnetic discipline will get bizarre, possibly you’d level your finger at one of many poles. However the planet’s rotational axis, which defines the place we put the north and south poles, isn’t the identical as its magnetic axis (which creates the magnetic discipline). Because of this, we’ve this belt of radiation across the globe that dips down and comes near us at this unlikely spot above Paraguay. That results in a weak magnetic discipline and a entire lot of radiation.
We name this the South Atlantic Anomaly, and down on the bottom, we don’t want to fret about it. A “dip” within the inside Van Allen radiation belt nonetheless locations the radiation greater than 100 miles above the Earth’s floor. However after we’re flying via house near Earth, this twist in radiation and magnetism can screw with all the pieces. The Hubble telescope can’t work when it passes via right here, and it passes that manner 10 instances a day.
A satellite tv for pc that value 1 / 4 billion {dollars} cut up aside and exploded in 2016, and the South Atlantic Anomaly was why. Oh, and when the house station orbits round right here, laptops crash. That’s why the computer systems that run the station are a lot easier and extra dependable. They’re slower than the chip you’re utilizing to learn this text, however they don’t shut down each time they cross via house’s thriller spot.
The Tulsa Heart of the Universe
You may not have identified that the middle of the universe is in Tulsa, however that’s what this spot is known as, and Oklahoma wouldn’t mislead us.
Sound goes wonky right here. Make a noise, and it echoes again to you louder than if you made it, however folks exterior a small perimeter don’t hear it in any respect.
Probably the most convincing rationalization about what’s occurring right here is that sound bounces off a wall. You’ll discover many domes worldwide that may echo sound again to you in a stunning method. Solely, this spot isn’t surrounded by a wall. Additionally, we’ve no rationalization for why sound doesn’t journey past a set distance, given the absence of any barrier round it.
We’d go examine ourselves, however that may imply having to spend time in Tulsa. And if we did that, effectively, then we’d have a lot enjoyable going out to dinner with our mates at Mahogany Prime Steakhouse that we’d fully neglect to finish the task that introduced us to city.
The Cave The place Power Comes from Rock
All vitality within the meals chain comes from the Solar. Vegetation get vitality from daylight. We get vitality from consuming crops. Different instances, we eat animals that eat crops, and both manner, the Solar’s finally powering us.
Some tiny biomes obtain no daylight in any respect. For instance, you’ll run into caves which might be completely darkish, and organisms nonetheless dwell in there. That’s as a result of they get a gradual stream of biomass from exterior, and the residents feed on that. Perhaps a stream runs in stuffed with dissolved natural matter. Perhaps bats usually fly in and deposit their guano.
However then you’ve got Movile Collapse Romania. The inside is completely lower off from the surface world, and the creatures in there get no vitality via photosynthesis, both instantly or not directly. As an alternative, the producers of this meals net are micro organism that get their vitality via chemosynthesis. They oxidize the rock of the cave, in addition to methane that comes from the bottom. These micro organism are eaten by fungi, which get eaten by snails…
…and crustaceans…
…and water scorpions:
Dozens of species on this cave are discovered nowhere else on Earth, which is a reduction. It additionally is smart, contemplating the bizarre basis that helps them.
Now that we all know it’s potential for organisms to get vitality with out daylight, maybe we people will have the ability to survive if we blacken the skies sooner or later, to defeat the solar-powered robots. Many theories exist about this plan, however there’s just one approach to discover out for positive.
You realize what to do.
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