Geography Facts for Kids
Geography is the study of the earth and the different physical and human features that make it unique. Learning geography can be fascinating for kids since it helps them understand their place in the world, how different landscapes affect people and animals, and how to read maps to navigate. Here are some fun geography facts that kids will love:
1. Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, stands at an impressive height of 29,029 feet or 8,848 meters. That’s like stacking about 200 school buses on top of one another!
2. The longest river in the world is the Nile, stretching over 4,000 miles or 6,650 kilometers from its source in Burundi, Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. It passes through eleven countries, including Tanzania, Uganda, and Egypt.
3. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system and is located off the coast of Australia. It is home to over 1,500 species of fish and more than 400 species of hard coral.
4. The driest place on earth is the Atacama Desert in Chile. Some areas of the desert have not seen rain in more than 500 years!
5. The Amazon rainforest covers more than 2 million square miles or 5.5 million square kilometers and is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. It is home to thousands of plant and animal species, including jaguars, anacondas, and poisonous dart frogs.
6. There are seven continents on Earth: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Europe and Asia are connected and sometimes considered as one continent, Eurasia.
7. Volcanoes are mountains that have magma or molten rock inside them. When pressure builds up and the magma erupts, it creates lava and ash that can cover the surrounding areas. Some famous volcanoes include Mount Vesuvius in Italy and Mount Fuji in Japan.
8. The world’s largest ocean is the Pacific Ocean, covering over 60 million square miles or 155 million square kilometers. It is also home to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, which goes down more than 36,000 feet or 11,000 meters.
9. The Earth has four layers: the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. The crust is the thinnest layer and is where we live. The outer core is made of liquid metal, and the inner core is solid metal, mostly iron.
10. The North Pole and South Pole are the two ends of the earth’s axis, which is an imaginary line that goes through the center of the planet. The North Pole is covered by the Arctic Ocean and ice, while the South Pole is located on the continent of Antarctica.