Myths about Earth

In cultures around the world, humans have developed stories to help them understand how the Earth came to be, and why things happen. Many of these stories share interesting similarities, which point, perhaps, to deep common concerns of human beings. Explore the links in this section to find out about myths related to Earth, and phenomena that occur at the Earth’s surface.
A view of the Earth as seen by the <a href="/space_missions/apollo17.html&edu=elem">Apollo
17</a> crew
while traveling to the
<a href="/earth/moons_and_rings.html&edu=elem">Moon</a> on
December 7, 1972.  Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula are
visible, and you can barely make out the
<a href="/earth/polar/antarctica.html&edu=elem">Antarctic</a>,
shrouded in the heavy
<a href="/earth/Atmosphere/cloud.html&edu=elem">cloud</a> cover
in the southern hemisphere.
Arching cloud patterns show the presence of <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/front.html&edu=elem">weather
fronts</a>.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA/Apollo 17.</em></small></p>Does Earth science matter?  The power outage experienced by residents in New York City on 10/30/2012 due to Hurricane Sandy demonstrates the interconnectedness of our society, and the power of the Earth system.  Every person should have an understanding of how the Earth system works so they can live better lives, protect those they love, and make wise choices.  Earth science education is critical!<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Hybirdd, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.</em></small></p>

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