Amusing and Interesting Facts

Some amazing facts useful to ISC members are given below. Hope everyone likes them.

* Astronauts get taller when they are in space.

* A tree in metropolitan area will survive for approximately eight years.

* A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere.

* According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until the 1730's, India was the only source for diamonds in the world.

* An acre of trees can remove about 13 tons of dust and gases every year from the surrounding environment.

* An estimated 690 million people live in Africa.

* An olive tree can live up to 1500 years.

* Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall, at 979 meters. This waterfall is sixteen times the height of Niagara Falls.

* Canada has more inland waters and lakes than any other country in the world.

* Corals take a long time to grow. Some corals only grow one centimeter in one year.

* Davao City, located at the Southern state of Philippines, is the largest city in the world in terms of area.

* Despite being over 27 times smaller, Norway's total coastline is longer than the USA's.

* Devon, England has about 33,000 miles of hedgerows, more hedgerows than any other country.

* Each day the sun causes about one trillion tons of water to evaporate.

* Even though the rose does not bear any fruit, the rose hips have more Vitamin C than most vegetables and fruits.

* Fine-grained volcanic ash can be found as an ingredient in some toothpaste.

* Finland has 187,888 lakes and 179,584 islands.

* Finland is also known as "the land of of the thousand lakes," because of the over 188,000 lakes found in this country.

* Florida has twice as many lightning injuries and deaths than any other state.

* In 1958, the United States Coast Guard off western Greenland measured the tallest known iceberg at five hundred and fifty feet.

* In 1998, approximately 1.6 billion tree seedlings were planted in the United States. This amounts to about five trees per American.

* In Albania, nodding your head means "no" and shaking your head means "yes."

* In France, the Big Dipper is called the "casserole."
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* In a day, a mature oak tree can draw approximately 50 gallons of water.

* In a year approximately 900 million trees are cut down to make the raw materials needed for American pulp mills and paper.

* In approximately 18 months, the papaya tree can grow to be 20 feet tall.

* In some parts of the Atacama Desert it has never rained.
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* In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.

* In the United States, about 33% of land is covered by forests.

* In the dry valleys region of Antarctica, it has not rained in 2 million years according to scientists