STRANGE BUT TRUE

Wind makes no sound until it blows against some object. A tornado passing through wood and steel sounds like a freight train. A tornado passing through a field sounds like a rushing waterfall.

Wind has no color. We can't see it. Tornadoes would be invisible if they didn't pick up dust and debris. A tornado passing through a field of poppies is bright pink.

Oceans cover three-fourths of our planet, and yet scientists know more about the surface of the moon—even of Venus - than we do about the sea floor.

The height of ocean waves is getting bigger. The average wave used to be four feet. In the last twenty years, the average wave has increased to five feet. No one knows why.

If all the ice in the world melted, the sea would rise two-hundred feet. Most of that increase would come from the sea expanding, because it was warmer, not from the added water.

Without wind and waves we would either freeze or fry.

An earthquake in Chile can send a tsunami to Hawaii in ten hours, to Japan in twenty-four.

Around 1,400 earthquakes rock our planet every day.

Scientists think there are 3,000 active volcanoes on earth, maybe more. About fifty erupt every year.