Antarctica. Parts of the continent have seen no rain for two million years.
A desert is technically defined as a place that receives less than 254 mm (10 inches) of rain a year. The Sahara gets just 25 mm (1 inch) of rain a year.
Antarctica’s average annual rainfall is about the same, but 2 per cent of it, known as the Dry Valleys, is free of ice and snow and it never rains there at all. Continue reading
Mauna Kea, the highest point on the island of Hawaii.
The inactive volcano is a modest 4,206 m (13,799 feet) above sea level, but when measured from the seabed to its summit, it is 10,200 m (33,465 feet) high – about three-quarters of a mile taller than Mount Everest. As far as mountains are concerned, the current convention is that ‘highest’ means measured from sea level to summit; ‘tallest’ means measured from the bottom of the mountain to the top. Continue reading
It’s a mushroom.
And it’s not even a particularly rare one. You’ve probably got the honey fungus (Armillaria ostoyae) in your garden, growing on a dead tree-stump. Continue reading
