The United States has lost half its wetlands since European settlement — reducing flood protection and wildlife habitat.

The longest recorded lightning bolt stretched hundreds of miles.

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

Raining fish is a documented phenomenon — tornadoes can lift fish from water bodies and deposit them miles away.

Lichens are not single organisms — they're a symbiosis between fungi and algae (or cyanobacteria).

Hurricanes gain strength from warm ocean water.

Tsunamis can travel across entire ocean basins.

Thunder is a sonic boom caused by superheated air expanding faster than sound.

Humans have a vestigial muscle called the palmaris longus that once helped ancestors climb trees — about 14% of people lack it.