If one wants to create an imaginary thing that is as believable and realistic as possible, it pays to know as much as possible about as many real examples of that class of things as possible. This includes planets. I will use this page as a grab bag of odd, esoteric things I have had to find out about the Earth to reality check my ideas for other worlds. Some of them are less odd or esoteric.
These are things that have helped me to get a better idea of scales of features on alien worlds based on the sizes of equivalent structures on Earth or in some way have helped me to visualize the worlds I create.
This is a work in continuous progress. As I come across additional useful information, I will add it to the mess…
In time, I intend to add pages on other planets in our Solar system, such as Venus, Mars, Jupiter, the Moon and moons of other planets, especially Titan. Information on the Sun and an overview of our entire Solar system will also be of use.
For now, though, I present…
The Earth
- Surface area: 510, 072,000 sq. km
Oceans
Areas in square kilometers
- Pacific Ocean – 165,200,000
- Atlantic Ocean – 82,400,000
- Indian Ocean – 74,900,000
- Arctic Ocean – 14,000,000
- Arabian Sea – 3,864,000
- South China Sea – 3,447,000
- Caribbean Sea – 2,753,000
- Mediterranean Sea – 2,505,000
- Bering Sea – 2,269,000
- Bay of Bengal – 2,173,000
- Sea of Okhotsk – 1,603,000
- Norwegian Sea – 1,546,000
- Gulf of Mexico – 1,544,000
- Hudson Bay – 1,230,000
- Greenland Sea – 1,204,000
- The deepest known point in the Earth’s oceans is the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, 10,911 m (35,797 ft) below sea level.
- The bottom of an oceanic trench is usually 3 to 4 kilometers(1.9 to 2.5 miles) below the depth of the surrounding sea bottom.
- The seaward side of an oceanic trench typically has a slope of about 5°, while the landward slope tends to be about 10 to 16°.
- Where sediment is particularly abundant or where the rate of convergence between plates is slow, “filled trenches,” may occur. In these locations, subduction occurs, but the obvious bathymetric trench is obscured under all the muck.
courtesy of Wikipedia
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- The slope of the shelf is typically about 0.5°, with less than about 20 meters of vertical relief.
- The width of the continental shelf varies. Active continental margins tend to have steep, narrow shelves, while passive continental margins will tend to have very wide, shallow shelves.
- The outer(seaward) edge of the continental shelf lies at a fairly uniform depth of about 140 meters(460 feet).
- The gradient of the continental slope typically varies from 1 to 10°, with an average of about 3°.
- The gradient of the continental rise at the foot of the continental slope is typically about 0.5 to 1°.
Land
Areas in square kilometers
- Asia – 44,900,000
- Africa – 30,300,000
- North America – 24,700,000
- South America – 17,800,000
- Antarctica – 5,400,000
- Europe – 3,800,000
- Australia – 2,966,155
Lakes
Areas in square kilometers
- Caspian Sea – 370,990
- Lake Superior – 82,100
- Lake Victoria – 69,463
- Aral Sea – 64,100
- …
Population history
World population(millions)
- 10,000 B.C. – 1
- 5,000 B.C. – 5
- 2,000 B.C. – 27
- 1,000 B.C. – 50
- 0 A.D. – 200
- 500 A.D. – 300
- 1000 – 400
- 1500 – 500
- 1650 – 600
- 1750 – 750
- 1800 – 900
- 1810 – 1,000
- 1850 – 1,171
- 1900 – 1,608
- 1950 – 2.406
- 2000 – 6,080
