Age: 4.6 billion years
Distance from Sun: 150 million km
Surface area: 510 069 120 sq km
Land surface (approximate) : 148 million sq km/ aprox 29% of total area
Water surface (approximate) : 361.6 million sq km/ approx 71% of total area
Diameter (equator ): 12 757km
Diameter (meridian ) : 12 714km
Ice Kingdom
Ice permanently covers approximately 10% of the land surface of the Earth, with the majority of the ice cover at the South Pole. But there have been several great ice ages in the past, when a much larger part of the Earth’s surface was covered with ice. The most famous, commonly known as ‘ the Ice Age’, was during the Pleistocene period from approximately 2 million years ago to approximately 10 000 years ago.
Composition of the Earth’s crust
Oxygen: 46.60%
Silicon: 27.72%
Aluminium: 8.13%
Iron: 5.00%
Calcium: 3.63%
Sodium: 2.83%
Potassium: 2.59%
Magnesium: 2.09
Others: 1.41%
OCEANS
Water covers approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface. Four oceans were traditionally recognized, with the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) officially delimiting a fifth, the Southern Ocean, in 2000. However, the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacifica Ocean are often divided into the North Atlantic and South Atlantic, and North Pacific and South Pacific leading to the recognition of seven oceans.
| Ocean | Area | Average depth | Greatest depth |
| Arctic | 14 056 000sq km | 1330m | Molloy Deep 5680m |
| Atlantic | 76 762 000sq km | 3700m | Puerto Rico Trench 8648m |
| Indian | 68556 000sq km | 3900m | Java Trench 7725m |
| Pacific | 155 557 000sq km | 4300m | Mariana Trench 11040m |
| Southern | 20 327 000sq km | 4500m | South Sandwich Trench 7235m |
Water, Water, Everywhere
The Pacific Ocean alone covers approximately 28% of the Earth’s surface, making this single ocean bigger than all the land mass of the Earth.
