Here are 50 facts from FunFact's “Nature & Earth” topic, all checked. Each one cites its source (usgs.gov, earthobservatory.nasa.gov, oceanservice.noaa.gov…) and the date it was checked. This topic is free in the app.
Botanically, the fruit of the coconut palm has three layers: a skin, a fibrous husk and a hard shell around the seed.
A drupe is a stone fruit, with flesh around a hard pit. The coconut's “pit” is its brown shell, and what we eat is the seed inside.
Source: CIRAD FruiTrop — Close-up: Coconut · Checked on October 26, 2026
Because of the equatorial bulge caused by Earth's rotation, its summit is the point on the surface farthest from the planet's center.
Although Everest is higher above sea level, Chimborazo's summit lies more than two kilometers (about 1.2 miles) farther from Earth's center.
Source: NOAA Ocean Service — What is the highest point on Earth? · Checked on October 24, 2026
According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): 1.3 mm per year (0.05 in) from 1901 to 1971, then 3.7 mm per year (0.15 in) from 2006 to 2018; overall a rise of about 20 cm (8 in) between 1901 and 2018.
Two causes: the expansion of water as it warms, and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. Twenty centimeters seem small, but they are enough to worsen coastal flooding during storms and high tides.
Source: GIEC (AR6, résumé pour les décideurs) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Drops under one millimeter (0.04 in) in radius are spherical; beyond that, air flattens them from below, and at around 4.5 mm (0.18 in) in radius they burst.
Surface tension tends to round the drop, while air pressure on the underside flattens it. The “teardrop” drawing probably comes from drops hanging from a roof or a faucet just before they fall.
Source: USGS (Water Science School) · Checked on October 24, 2026
A dense, whitish layer of hydrogen sulfide separates the freshwater above from the heavier salt water at the bottom of the sinkhole.
This hazy halocline is lined with submerged tree trunks and dead leaves, creating an underwater riverbed thirty meters (98 ft) deep.
Source: USGS — Sinkholes and Karst · Checked on October 24, 2026
A parasite of a vine, it can reach about one meter (3 ft) across and gives off a smell of rotting meat to attract flies.
It lives entirely inside its host vine, of the genus Tetrastigma, and only shows itself to bloom, for a few days. Rare and threatened by deforestation, it is hard to observe.
Source: Geo — L'étrange vie de Rafflesia arnoldii, la plus grande fleur au monde · Checked on October 24, 2026
Its stalks come out of the ground already at their final width, then only get longer, which is rare among plants.
Unlike trees, a bamboo stalk doesn’t thicken over the years: it stops getting wider after it grows. It is one of the fastest-growing plants.
Source: FAO — Silviculture and Management of Newly Established Bamboo Plantation · Checked on October 26, 2026
27,000 to 19,000 years ago, the sea was 110 to 120 m (360 to 394 ft) lower: prehistoric artists reached the cave on dry ground through a long passage.
Rising waters later flooded the entrance and part of the cave. It holds more than 500 painted or engraved figures. A replica, the Grotte Cosquer Méditerranée, opened in Marseille in 2022.
Source: FFESSM — L'incroyable destin de la grotte Cosquer · Checked on October 24, 2026
When the Sun is low behind you and your shadow falls on fog, it looks enlarged and surrounded by colored halos.
The phenomenon is named after the Brocken, in Germany, where it has been observed since the 18th century. The colored rings are called the “glory.” It can also be seen from an airplane, over clouds.
Source: WMO International Cloud Atlas — Glory · Checked on October 24, 2026
A very strong electric field makes the air glow around pointed tips.
Unlike a sudden lightning bolt, this continuous glow gives off no destructive heat but makes a faint crackling sound.
Source: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory — Severe Weather 101: Lightning FAQ · Checked on October 24, 2026
According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), storm surge is the main cause of hurricane deaths.
Storm surge is the rise in sea level caused by the storm's winds, which push water toward the coast and flood low-lying areas. It kills far more people than wind does. The exact figures (three-quarters of deaths) are not confirmed.
Source: National Hurricane Center (NOAA) · Checked on October 26, 2026
On the island of Flores in Indonesia, their hues shift from time to time between turquoise, olive green, red and black.
These color changes come from complex chemical reactions between underwater volcanic gases and dissolved minerals.
Source: Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program — Kelimutu · Checked on October 24, 2026
Located on the border between Argentina and Brazil, the falls pour in a horseshoe shape into the gorge known as the Devil’s Throat.
This geological breach formed during massive basaltic lava flows about 130 million years ago.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Iguazu National Park · Checked on October 24, 2026
Seen every spring over the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia, this tube-shaped cloud travels at more than 40 km/h (25 mph) without changing shape.
It is generated when sea breezes from the east and west coasts of the Cape York Peninsula collide, setting off a rippling wave.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory — Morning Glory Cloud, Gulf of Carpentaria · Checked on October 24, 2026
Located in the East African Rift, the bottom of this lake accumulates volcanic carbon dioxide and methane produced by bacteria.
Industrial platforms now draw this flammable gas straight from the deep water to generate electricity.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory — Lake Kivu · Checked on October 24, 2026
Makassar and Mun ebonies are dense enough to sink; once polished, the wood takes on a mirror-like finish.
Ebony comes from several species of the genus Diospyros, the same as the persimmon. It is a fine-grained wood, often cited among the most expensive in the world, used in cabinetmaking and instrument making.
Source: Ventured — 11 Most Expensive Woods in the World · Checked on October 26, 2026
In 2006, researchers showed that its young shoots turn toward the scent of tomato, which they prefer to that of wheat, a poor host.
Dodder has almost no chlorophyll. It coils around its victim and drives in suckers to steal sap and sugars. It grows in France and can devastate crops such as alfalfa.
Source: Penn State — Parasitic plants sniff out hosts, according to Penn State research · Checked on October 24, 2026
About 2,120 km³ in rivers, versus more than 24 million km³ in glaciers and ice sheets, and more than 10 million km³ of groundwater.
Most fresh water is therefore frozen or hidden underground. This figure measures what rivers hold at a given moment: their water is constantly renewed, which is why they matter so much.
Source: USGS (Water Science School) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Located in the Arabika limestone massif in Georgia, this karst pit plunges vertically to a depth of 2,197 meters (7,208 ft).
It was long considered the deepest natural cave in the world until the full exploration of the neighboring Veryovkina cave.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica — Krubera Cave · Checked on October 24, 2026
First appearing about 521 million years ago, these marine animals died out 252 million years ago; more than 22,000 species have been described.
Their calcite shell fossilizes easily, hence the abundance of fossils. They were arthropods, like crabs, insects, and spiders. Non-avian dinosaurs, for their part, ruled for about 165 million years.
Source: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution — Permian trilobites and the applicability of the "living fossil" concept to extinct clades · Checked on October 24, 2026
It's a “climacteric” fruit, like the banana, apple and mango: it keeps ripening after harvest.
Ethylene, a plant hormone, speeds up the process: an avocado placed near apples or bananas ripens faster. On the tree, it reaches maturity but stays firm.
Source: Purdue University NewCROP — Avocado (Fruits of Warm Climates) · Checked on October 26, 2026
During World War II, Colonel Joe Duckworth flew into the eye of a hurricane over Texas in a trainer plane.
Since then, specialized aircraft, and more recently drones, have flown through hurricanes to measure wind, pressure and temperature and improve forecasts.
Source: Popular Mechanics — Into the Eye of the Storm · Checked on October 26, 2026
The “African Humid Period” lasted from about 14,600 to 5,000 years before present; Lake Chad then reached at least ten times its current size.
The return to desert was caused by slow variations in sunlight and happened in stages. Today, the Sahara is still home to millions of people despite the very harsh conditions.
Source: The Conversation — The Sahara desert used to be a green savannah · Checked on October 26, 2026
The name comes from the arrival of warm waters off the coast of Peru around late December, which drove the fish away.
The phenomenon returns roughly every two to seven years and disrupts rainfall and temperatures across much of the planet. Its opposite, colder phase is called La Niña, “the little girl.”
Source: Royal Meteorological Society — El Niño · Checked on October 24, 2026
When humid air crosses a mountain range, standing atmospheric waves form downwind of the terrain.
Water vapor condenses at the crest of the wave and evaporates on the way down, keeping the saucer-shaped cloud in place.
Source: NOAA National Weather Service — Lenticular Clouds · Checked on October 24, 2026
The Richat Structure is a dome of rock, carved out by erosion.
It measures about 40 km (25 mi) wide and is easily visible from space.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory — Richat Structure · Checked on October 24, 2026
The scale is logarithmic: each additional degree multiplies the energy released by about 32.
Going from magnitude 5 to 7 therefore multiplies the energy by about 1,000. A magnitude 9 quake is not “a little stronger” than a magnitude 8: it releases more than 30 times as much energy. Damage also depends on depth and on the ground.
Source: USGS — Earthquake Magnitude, Energy Release, and Shaking Intensity · Checked on October 24, 2026
The grass family has nearly 12,000 species, including sugarcane. About 70% of cultivated plants belong to it.
About 70% of cultivated plants are grasses. Prairies and savannas, dominated by grasses, cover roughly 40% of the planet's land (excluding Antarctica and Greenland).
Source: EurekAlert (UMass Amherst) — Grasses provide most of the world's calories · Checked on October 26, 2026
It stretches over more than 45 km (about 28 miles) north of the Massif Central; its volcanoes have been dormant for over 6,000 years, but not dead forever.
The first eruptions go back about 95,000 years, and most of the puys (the chain’s volcanoes) are less than 70,000 years old. The last eruption was several thousand years ago, which leads scientists to think that renewed activity remains possible one day, on a geological timescale.
Source: The Local France — Auvergne's volcanoes finally granted Unesco World Heritage status · Checked on October 24, 2026
This “thermohaline circulation” is driven by differences in temperature and salinity, which make water more or less dense.
Cold, salty water sinks near Greenland and Antarctica, travels along the seafloor, then rises in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The loop time, on the order of a thousand years, is an estimate.
Source: NOAA National Ocean Service — The Global Conveyor Belt · Checked on October 24, 2026
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the law creating it on March 1, 1872.
The title of “world's first” is widely accepted but not uncontested. Yellowstone is in any case the first national park in the United States, and it is famous for its geysers and hot springs.
Source: U.S. National Archives — Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park (1872) · Checked on October 26, 2026
The “petals” are individual strap-shaped flowers; the central disc gathers other, minuscule flowers.
This head is called a capitulum. The edge flowers (ray florets) and the center ones (disc florets) each have their own shape. The whole aster family (Asteraceae), to which the daisy belongs, works this way.
Source: The Wildlife Trusts — Common daisy · Checked on October 26, 2026
The Lambesc earthquake (magnitude 6.2 according to the historical estimate, revised to about 6.0) damaged about 3,000 buildings in Salon-de-Provence, Lambesc, Rognes, Saint-Cannat... and was felt from Genoa to Perpignan.
It stems from the slow convergence of the African and Eurasian plates, at a depth of about 10 km (6 miles). Few people realize it: some regions of mainland France (the Alps, the Pyrenees, Provence, Alsace) are classified as moderate seismic risk.
Source: Planet-Terre (ENS de Lyon) — Le séisme de Lambesc du 11 juin 1909 · Checked on October 24, 2026
They are sulfur gases that catch fire as they come out of the ground.
Miners there extract sulfur by hand, amid toxic fumes.
Source: Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program — Ijen · Checked on October 24, 2026
All the trunks are connected by the same roots and weigh about 6,000 metric tons (roughly 13 million lb).
All the trunks are clones from a single root system, whose age is debated (thousands of years). Example: if you cut down one trunk, another can grow back; it's the same living organism.
Source: U.S. Forest Service — Pando Clone · Checked on October 24, 2026
This coast redwood in California stands over 115 meters (377 ft) tall in the heart of Redwood National Park.
Its exact location is kept secret by park officials to protect its shallow roots from being trampled by tourists.
Source: U.S. National Park Service — Hyperion · Checked on October 24, 2026
It covered about 9 million hectares (22 million acres) around 1840, versus more than 17 million (42 million acres) today: nearly a third of the country.
Rural flight, the abandonment of farmland, and postwar plantations explain this rebound. France therefore has far more trees than in our great-grandparents’ day, even though some forests are suffering from the climate today.
Source: Ministère de la Transition écologique (SDES) · Checked on October 24, 2026
At Oklo, uranium, water and the right geology set off chain reactions that lasted hundreds of thousands of years.
It was discovered in 1972 by French scientists analyzing Gabonese uranium whose uranium-235 content was abnormally low. At that time, uranium-235 was more abundant (about 3%) than today (0.72%).
Source: Techno-Science.net — Réacteur nucléaire naturel d'Oklo · Checked on October 24, 2026
The average efficiency of the networks is about 80%, with large disparities.
The 2023 Water Plan (Plan eau) targeted about 170 “black spot” municipalities, where efficiency does not exceed 50%. Repairing pipes is expensive, and many small local authorities lack the means.
Source: Gouvernement (Plan eau, 2023), L'Info Durable · Checked on October 24, 2026
In this bay in eastern Canada, the difference in water height between low tide and high tide can reach sixteen meters (52 ft).
This extreme phenomenon is caused by harmonic amplification: the bay's natural oscillation period matches the rhythm of the Atlantic tides.
Source: NOAA Ocean Service — Where is the highest tide? · Checked on October 24, 2026
Stegosaurus lived 155–145 million years ago, Tyrannosaurus 69–66 million years ago: more than 75 million years separate them.
We often picture all dinosaurs in the same scene, but they dominated the Earth for more than 150 million years. T. rex lived at a time much closer to ours than to that of Stegosaurus.
Source: Indiana Public Media — A Moment of Science: Dino eating dino? Not for T. rex and Stegosaurus · Checked on October 24, 2026
This non-clonal tree grows in California's White Mountains and began growing before the Giza pyramids were built.
Its extremely resinous, dense wood lets it withstand insect attacks, fungi and icy high-altitude winds.
Source: U.S. Forest Service — Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest · Checked on October 24, 2026
Under the weight of hundreds of meters of accumulated snow, air is squeezed out of the ice over the centuries.
With no bubbles to scatter light, the dense ice absorbs red wavelengths and lets only blue through.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Vatnajökull National Park · Checked on October 24, 2026
Flemish scientist Jan Baptist van Helmont weighed the soil and the tree and concluded that the matter came from water. We now know it also comes from the CO₂ in the air.
Through photosynthesis, the tree takes carbon dioxide from the air to make sugars, which form its wood. The soil mostly supplies only water and minerals. This experiment ranks among the first quantitative studies of plant growth.
Source: McGill Office for Science and Society — No Sympathy for the "Powder of Sympathy" · Checked on October 26, 2026
A 2018 study estimates its area at 1.6 million km² (618,000 sq mi), nearly three times the size of France, with about 80,000 metric tons of plastic.
Nearly half of the mass comes from abandoned fishing nets. The debris is scattered over a huge area: you can't walk on it, and it is hard to spot from a satellite.
Source: Scientific Reports (Lebreton et al., 2018) · Checked on October 24, 2026
This circular sinkhole, more than 300 meters (984 ft) wide, was a cave on dry land before being flooded by rising oceans.
Divers have found giant stalactites inside, proving that the cavity developed in the open air.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory — Great Blue Hole, Belize · Checked on October 24, 2026
Its wings are hands with very long fingers, connected by a membrane of skin.
There are more than 1,400 species of bats, about a quarter of all mammal species.
Source: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Bats · Checked on October 24, 2026
From an airplane or a summit, you can see the entire circle around the observer's shadow.
Each person sees their own rainbow, centered on the point opposite the Sun from where they stand: two neighbors don't see exactly the same one. You also see a full circle in the mist of a water jet when the Sun is behind you.
Source: Met Office — Rainbows: optical wonders · Checked on October 24, 2026
Rainwater slowly dissolves limestone until a void forms beneath the surface.
When the weakened rock roof can no longer support the weight of the sediments above it, the ground suddenly sinks into a gaping funnel.
Source: USGS — Sinkholes · Checked on October 24, 2026
Light enters the droplet, reflects off the back and exits: the colors separate, with red on the outside of the bow and violet on the inside.
A second, fainter bow sometimes forms about 10° farther out, with the colors reversed. The dark region between the two bows is called Alexander's band.
Source: University of Illinois Physics — Ask the Van: Why are rainbows curved as semicircles? · Checked on October 26, 2026
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