*Earth is the densest planet in the solar system and the only one not named after a god.

*Earth orbits the sun at an average speed of 29.79 km/s (18.51 miles/sec), or about 107 000 km/h (about 67,000 miles/hour).

*One year on earth is 365.26 days long. One day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds long. The extra day in a leap year was introduced to compensate for the discrepancy in the Georgian calendar.

*Plates carrying the continents migrate over the earth's surface a few centimetres (inches) per year, about the same speed that a fingernail grows.

*On average, 13,000 earthquakes are located each year.

*The magnetic north pole is near Ellef Ringes Island in northern Canada.

*The magnetic south pole was discovered off the coast of Wilkes Land in Antarctica.

*There is zero gravity at the centre of earth.

*the deepest mine in the world is Western Deep Levels near Charletonville, South Africa. It is 4,2km (2.6 miles) deep.

*The deepest point in the sea: the Mariana Trench off Guam in the Pacific Ocean; it is 10,9 km (6.77 miles) below sea level.

*Earth is slowing down - in a few million years there won't be a leap year.

*The tail of the Great Comet of 1843 was 330 million km long. (It will return in 2356.)

*There are more than 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth.

*About 500 small meteorites fall to earth every year but most fall in the sea and in unpopulated areas.

*There is no record of a person being killed by a meteorite but animals are occasionally hit.

*The Dead Sea is 365 m (1,200 ft) below sea level.

*A storm officially becomes a hurricane when cyclone winds reach 119 km/h (74 mph).