Why is most of the earth’s land located in the northern hemisphere?

Three parts of the earth is water, one part is land. Common proverb. Not a lie, but not entirely true either. The most reliable data available so far says that the Earth is 71% water and 29% soil. That is, water:soil is equal to 2.5:1. Means, two and a half water, one part land!

From this calculation, it can be understood that the amount of soil in the world is somewhat less. But so many people live in it. And how much more diversity! However, most of this soil – in English it is called land mass, in Bengali it should be called terrestrial mass – is in the northern hemisphere. In common sense, the question comes to mind, this is supposed to create an imbalance in the world. On the side with more mass, the gravitational attraction should be greater on the side. This is supposed to affect the Earth’s orbital velocity.

The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle thought so too. His idea was that there must be a large amount of land beyond the equator, that is, in the southern hemisphere. To understand the point, let’s brush up on the concepts of hemisphere and equator.

If you imagine the Earth as a sphere or ball, you can think of a line right through its center. However, in reality there is no such line. But for the convenience of our calculations, geologists divide the earth in two by this line on the map. This line is the equator. On one side of it is the northern part or northern hemisphere of the sphere called Earth (meaning, the northern half of the sphere). And on the other side is the southern hemisphere or southern part.

What I was saying—Aristotle thought there was a huge land in the southern hemisphere. It is almost equal to the northern landmass. That is, a balance of mass is created on both sides of the earth. He named this land ‘Terra Australis’. For about 2 thousand years, people assumed that this land existed. This land is also mentioned in the maps drawn between 15th and 18th centuries.

When European navigator James Cook sailed across the South Pacific in the 1770s, it was known for the first time with certainty that no such land existed. James Cook’s expedition is known as ‘First Voyage of James Cook’ or James Cook’s first expedition. Because, he conducted a total of three such expeditions. One of the goals of that first expedition was the discovery of Terra Australis.

It also aimed to observe the transit of Venus. Venus transit is a rare event. At this time, Venus moves in the same plane, in the same straight line, between the Sun and the Earth (as the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun during a solar eclipse). Venus then looks like a round black spot on the Sun.

However, James Cook’s expedition revealed that Terra Australis does not exist. Most of the Earth’s land is actually in the Northern Hemisphere. So the question may come, why is the world not losing balance?

The topmost layer of the earth is called the crust. The upper crust contains all the earth’s soil and water. The amount of soil that exists on the whole earth, on average, can be called the slightly thicker part above the earth’s crust. And the total volume of this upper part of the Earth’s crust is very small compared to the volume of the entire Earth, only 1 percent. The amount of soil is so low, you understand!

The same is known by analyzing the mass of the Earth from artificial satellites. It has been found that the difference in mass between the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth is negligible. So low that it can be ignored. That is, what we call a huge land – so many continents, how many lives including humans – this mass is very insignificant as the earth. As a result, it has no effect on the mass of the earth.

The matter can be better understood if we think back to about 200 million or 200 million years ago. At that time all the land of the world together formed a continent. Scientists named this continent Pangea. All of that Pangea was in the Southern Hemisphere.

But since the mass of this soil is very small compared to the Earth, it still could not affect the gravitational attraction of the Earth or the orbital velocity or anything like that. Today’s landmasses have been created by the breaking of Pangea. Vibula reminds us once again how small we all are in front of the vastness of this world.