ON THE ROCKS There are about 1,500 potentially active volcanoes on Earth Alaska has more earthquakes than any other U S state Earth’s tectonic plates are moving continuously at about the same rate that human fingernails grow 8
The largest known space rock on the surface of Earth is in Namibia Weighing an estimated 66 tons 60 t the iron-nickel Hoba meteorite was discovered in 1920 by a farmer when he was plowing his field The presidential heads carved in the granite at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota U S A are eroding at a rate of about one inch 2 5 cm every 10,000 years Yellowstone National Park in the western United States sits on top of a massive supervolcano Royalty in ancient China were buried in suits made of jade because it was believed the mineral would help preserve and protect their bodies in the afterlife A fulgurite is a tube-shaped rock structure that forms when lightning strikes sand causing the grains to melt and fuse together
CHAPTER ONE THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
People had always thought of our planet as a special place But it wasn’t until the Apollo astronauts on their missions to the moon took photos of Earth from space that we really saw how extraordinary our home planet is
