Why is there a plastic island in the Pacific Ocean? Because of the amount of plastic waste we throw into the sea and because of the point where ocean currents converge. There are plastic islands in all of the oceans on Earth, not just the Pacific. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch just happens to be […]
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When did Britain become an island? It was connected to continental Europe by a land bridge that was destroyed 450,000 years ago. Some of the land bridge returned and that was submerged under the sea in about 6100 BC. If sea levels were a little lower than they are now, a lot more land would
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How thick is the atmosphere? The atmosphere is generally considered to be 10,000 km thick. Our atmosphere is made up of gas. It is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and one percent other gases. Those other gases are argon, carbon dioxide, helium, neon, methane, krypton, and hydrogen. There is water vapor as well, which is a
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Why does it rain in a rainforest? Tropical rainforests cause rain when water is released by the trees, but temperate rainforests form where there is a lot of natural rain. There are tropical rainforests and temperature rainforests. Tropical rainforests form in very hot places, just to the north and the south of the equator. Temperate
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How have sea levels changed over time? Over the last 542 million years they have varied from 130 m lower than their level today to a theoretical 300 m higher than they are today. It is theoretical because the continents move around a lot, and it is difficult to find evidence for where the seas
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Do other planets have tectonic plates? In our Solar System, Earth is the only planet with tectonic plates, but in other solar systems there will probably be planets the same as ours. Out of all the planets in the Solar System, Earth is the only one with tectonic plates. Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter are
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What is a jungle? It is generally an area of dense forest in a tropical climate. Many people think a rainforest is a jungle but they are different because a rainforest is a specific ecosystem, and a jungle is a description of an overgrown and tangled forest. The word “jungle” has come into English from
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What causes a heat wave? It is caused when high-pressure air traps a layer of heat near the surface of the Earth and raises the temperature. A heat wave is called when the average temperature for that time of year is higher than the historical average for more than two days in a row. Recently,
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Why are some beaches rocky and some sandy? It is because of the energy of the sea, the source of the particles, the shape of the shoreline, local weather, and the angle of the seabed, amongst other things. There is no agreement on how much coastline there is in the world. There are estimates of
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Why is sea level where it is? Because the volume of water in the oceans fills all of the valleys that make up the oceans to a certain depth, and that depth is sea level. When water is poured into a container, the surface of the water will always be flat, no matter how flat
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