A bolt of lightning contains enough energy to toast 100,000 slices of bread.

Pompeii was buried so quickly by volcanic ash in 79 AD that many victims were preserved mid-action.

Sharks existed before trees evolved.

Glacier retreat is causing 'peak water' — rivers fed by glaciers will eventually have less water as glaciers disappear.

Plato's cave allegory describes prisoners who mistake shadows on a wall for reality.

The Pantanal in South America is the world's largest tropical wetland area, covering up to 195,000 square kilometers.

The Banyan tree can spread horizontally indefinitely through aerial roots that become new trunks.

A pyrocumulus cloud can form above large wildfires — the heat creates its own thunderstorm that can produce dry lightning.

The mycorrhizal network connecting trees can transfer nutrients and chemical signals across an entire forest.