During WWII, the UK shipped 1,600 tons of gold worth $160 billion today to Canada to avoid Nazi seizure. “Operation Fish” successfully transported the gold without loss. Money – you can’t take it with you, but you can definitely send it for a long time. The British proved this during World War II, when they […]
The biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history was Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815, which caused a year without summer and killed 10,000 people. The largest eruption in human history was Mt. Toba, and the largest in Earth’s history was the Siberian Traps, which caused the largest mass extinction. The largest volcanic eruption in recorded […]
Companies rent expensive venues for parties, such as Facebook at AT&T Park and LinkedIn at Levi’s Stadium. Airbnb offers renting the Principality of Liechtenstein for $70,000 USD a night, accommodating up to 900 people. Some companies go all out when it comes to renting the biggest and most expensive venues for their parties. For example, […]
The world’s largest roller coaster is a subject of debate among enthusiasts and experts, with criteria such as height and track length determining the title. Kingda Ka and Steel Dragon 2000 are contenders for the title, while The Beast and Son of Beast hold records for wooden coasters. New technology may end the reign of […]
Son Doong Cave on the Laos-Vietnam border has the largest chamber, while Mammoth Cave System in Kentucky is the longest cave. Krubera-Voronja Cave in Georgia is the deepest cave. The winners for the world’s largest caves can be based on several conceptions. If the biggest caves are the ones with the biggest chambers, then there’s […]
The Great Chilean Earthquake in 1960 was the largest earthquake ever recorded, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale and causing an unknown number of deaths and up to $800 billion in damage. The Richter scale is exponential, with each integer value representing a shock with ten times the magnitude of the previous value. Other major […]
The elephant bird, a member of the extinct genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis, was the largest bird to ever walk the Earth, reaching over 3.3 m in height and weighing up to 454 kg. It went extinct around 1649 and lived on Madagascar alongside humans for over a thousand years. The bird was a herbivore and […]
Leedsichthys problematicus, an extinct pachycormid fish, is believed to be the largest fish ever lived, growing up to 22m in length. It was a planktivore and lived during the Late Jurassic period. Its fossils have been found in England and Germany. The largest fish that ever lived is Leedsichthys problematicus. It is thought to have […]
The blue whale is the largest predator by definition, but not typically thought of as one. The sperm whale, Aramberri Monster, Spinosaurus, and Megalodon are also contenders for the title. Spinosaurus was the largest predator of the Mesozoic, while Megalodon is often considered the most ferocious predator of all time. Which is the largest predator […]
Theia, a Mars-sized body that formed over 4 billion years ago, collided with Earth, creating a volume of molten rock that formed the Moon. The largest asteroid to hit Earth was about 6 miles in size, with the largest verified crater being Vredefort in South Africa. The Wilkes Land anomaly in Antarctica may indicate an […]
Submarine communication cables are the largest man-made objects, with the longest stretch being over 5,000 miles. However, scientific experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider and IceCube neutrino detector are also large. The Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest man-made object by weight and 3-D volume. The largest man-made objects in the world […]
The ostrich egg is not the largest biological cell, as there are nerve cells in long animals that can be up to 39 meters long and algae, such as Caulerpa, that can reach 10 meters in length. The ostrich egg is only the heaviest airframe. The largest biological cell is often referred to as the […]
Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest and tallest volcano in the solar system, standing at approximately 17 miles (27 km) high. Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the largest volcano on Earth, while Mount Etna in Italy is the most active. Volcanic rock is the only rock that can float in water. The largest volcano […]
In Australia’s Jurassic Park, paleontologists discovered 21 types of dinosaur tracks, including the largest ever found, a 21-foot-5-inch sauropod footprint. The area also contained evidence of Stegosaurus, and would have been a spectacle 130 million years ago. In 2017, a team of paleontologists unveiled 21 different types of dinosaur tracks found along a 13-kilometer stretch […]
Phoberomys pattersoni, a rodent that lived 8 million years ago in Venezuela, was the second-largest rodent ever to have lived, weighing around 700 kg and measuring 3 m in length. Its large size was a deterrent to predators, and it had saber-sized teeth to defend itself. Its natural predators included crocodiles, saber-toothed cats, and carnivorous […]
The largest impact crater in the Solar System is on Mars, created by an object the size of the Moon. It is also the largest canyon in the Solar System and was only confirmed as an impact crater in 2008. The second largest impact crater is on the Moon, caused by a comet or asteroid […]
Nuclear bombs can have a wide range of yields, with hydrogen bombs being more energetic than atomic bombs. The smallest nuclear explosions are “fizzles,” with the smallest recorded yield being 55 tons. Nuclear explosions with yields of a few tens of tons are still larger than almost all conventional weapon explosions. The largest nuclear explosion, […]
The largest asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter are Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas. If all non-satellite objects in the solar system are included, the largest are Eris, Pluto, and Ceres. An asteroid larger than 12 miles in diameter could kill all complex life on Earth. The Moon is thought to have been […]
Brachiosaurus was a large sauropod that could reach up to 15m tall and 28m long, weighing about 50 tons. It had a giraffe-like build and was herbivorous. Other sauropods, such as Giraffatitan, Argentinosaurus, and Sauroposeidon, were even larger. Bruhathkayosaurus is thought to be the heaviest dinosaur ever, weighing up to 175-220 tons. For many decades, […]
The Azhadrichidae family of pterosaurs, including Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx, were the largest flying animals ever, with wingspans of over 12m. They lived during the Late Cretaceous and were adept walkers. Scientists previously believed each new large pterosaur discovered represented the largest possible flying animal, but this idea has been debunked. The largest flying animal ever […]
