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Environment Trivia

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The most intense hurricane to hit the Caribbean was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Wind gusts were measured at over 200 miles per hour.

On a hot summer day, a large oak tree gives off approximately fifty barrels of water in the form of a fine vapor.

The North Atlantic Deep Water Current is an oceanic "river" that carries twenty times more water than all the rivers of the world put together.

On August 12, 1990, Typhoon Winona, combined with the summer holiday rush, created the longest traffic jam in Japan's history, an 84-mile-long chaotic mess. About 15,000 vehicles were involved.

The northern and southern lights occur whenever sunspot activity is high, but the degree of sunspot activity is erratic. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when they will occur. One can usually notice increased sunspot activity when radio and television reception is disrupted.

On December 12, 1992, more than 2,000 people were killed when a tsunami flooded two volcanic islands, Flores and Babi, in the South Pacific. When the waves swept ashore the islands, they were more than 80 feet high.

The number one recreational pursuit in America is believed to be gardening.

On June 10, 1958, a tornado was crashing through El Dorado, Kansas. The storm pulled a woman out of her house and carried her 60 feet away. Reportedly, she landed, relatively unharmed, next to a phonograph record titled "Stormy Weather."

On June 27, 1957, Hurricane Audrey ravaged Cameron Parish outside Baton Rouge in Louisiana, leaving 525 people dead. There is a monument to those who were killed by the hurricane erected in front of Our Lady Star of Sea Church on Highway 81.

On March 16, 1952, 6 inches of rain fell in one day on the town of Cilaos in the Reunion Islands.

The oak tree can take as long as 30 years to produce its first crop of acorns.

The oldest rocks in the world, the so-called St. Peter and St. Paul stones in the Atlantic Ocean, are over 4 billion years old.

The onion is a lily, botanically.

On September 14, 1988, Hurricane Gilbert hit Mexico, leaving 200 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless throughout the Caribbean. It has been documented as the worst hurricane to hit the area.

The only known common metal that is liquid at room temperature is mercury.

On September 19, 1985, at 7:19 a.m., an earthquake lasted for three minutes off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Its magnitude was 8.1.

The only living parts of a tree are its thin layer beneath the bark called the cambium, its leaves, and the tips of its roots and branches.

On September 8, 1900, Galveston, Texas, was the site of the worst hurricane to ever hit in the United States.

The orchid family is the largest, most diverse plant family in nature.

On the average, tornado paths are only a quarter of a mile wide and seldom more than 16 miles long.

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