Earth’s Improbabilities
April 5, 2007
I’ve mainly devoted this site to talking about things that don’t get their fair share of recognition but most people realize today that our planet is amazingly well-suited to hosting life. So I’ll only spend a short time on this article. I’d like to have a full laundry list of all the remarkable things about this planet with links to articles covering them in detail. I’m suffering a lapse in creativity so I’m declaring my first group project. If you know of any good articles covering a specific subject then please post a comment with a link to the article and I’ll add it to the page. Here are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.
- Unique Properties of Water
- Distance from the Sun
- Lunar Tides
- Protection from Solar Radiation
- Reactive Atmosphere (Nitrogen and Oxygen react)
- Conditions at Cueva de los Cristales were kept at exactly the right temperature for “many hundreds of thousands of years” in order to produce 33 foot long crystals.
- Very specific conditions are required for fossils to form and in this case, conditions were so perfect as to preserve soft tissue in T. Rex for 220 million years.
How about the perfect conditions for 30 foot high gypsum crystals in Mexico caves?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/science/nature/6518161.stm
Giant crystals enjoyed perfection
_Raeliyah, off to class
Few others to consider, the unique position of our Sun in the milky way to be able to see Nebula and the rest of the universe without being blotted out by too much nearby light. Also, there is the brine lake at the bottom of the gulf of Mexico with all the muscles that live around it’s edges, and it has a tide as well, all completely at the bottom of the sea. The fact with water (as you mentioned) that it expands when frozen rather then gets smaller like every other particle out there and what that does. You can also look into the Tectonic plates of the earth and the fact that they float and move and how it relates to the way our weather works and why it’s necessary for mountains to be formed and such. About all I can think of off the top of my head.
One more:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/dinosaur-secrets-are-a-tissue-of-thighs/2007/04/13/1175971347690.html
Because everyone knows DNA can’t survive for more than 100,000 years…
-Raeliyah, out of work at work