The Earth spins due to the conservation of angular momentum, a principle from physics that essentially says an object will maintain its spin unless acted upon by an external torque. When the solar system was forming about 4.6 billion years ago, it started as a large cloud of gas and dust called a solar nebula. […]
Christopher Columbus believed that the Earth was spherical mainly due to the scientific knowledge available during the late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance. The idea that the Earth was a sphere dates back to ancient Greek philosophers and astronomers. Around the 6th century BCE, Pythagoras postulated the spherical shape of the Earth. Subsequently, scholars like […]
Earthquakes are natural phenomena that occur due to the movement and interaction of tectonic plates within the Earth’s crust. The Earth’s lithosphere, which is the outermost layer of the planet, is divided into several large and small plates that float on the semi-fluid asthenosphere beneath. These plates are in constant motion, driven by the convective […]