This article lists extreme locations on Earth that hold geographical records or are otherwise known for their geophysical or meteorological superlatives. All of these locations are Earth-wide extremes; extremes of individual continents or countries are not listed.
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These are the longest straight lines [c] that can be drawn between any two points on the surface of the Earth and remain exclusively over land or water; the points need not lie on the same line of latitude or longitude.
As distinct from geodesic lines, which appear straight only when projected onto the spheroidal surface of the Earth (i.e. arcs of great circles), straight lines passing through the Earth's centre can be constructed through the interior of the Earth between almost any two points on the surface of the Earth (some extreme topographical situations such as overhanging cliffs being the rare exceptions[ citation needed ]). A line projected from the summit of Cayambe in Ecuador (see highest points) through the axial centre of the Earth to its antipode on the island of Sumatra results in the longest diameter that can be produced anywhere through the Earth. As the variable circumference of the Earth approaches 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi), such a maximum "diameter" or "antipodal" line would be on the order of 13,000 kilometres (8,000 mi) long.[ citation needed ]
Continent | Elevation (height above/below sea level) A | Air temperature (recorded) [39] B | |||
Highest | Lowest | Highest | Lowest | ||
Africa | 5,893 m (19,334 feet) Kilimanjaro, Tanzania [40] | ![]() | −155 m (−509 feet) Lake Assal, Djibouti [41] | 55 °C (131 °F) (disputed [42] ) Kebili, French Tunisia 7 July 1931 C | −23.9 °C (−11.0 °F) Ifrane, French Morocco 11 February 1935 |
Antarctica | 4,892 m (16,050 feet) Vinson Massif [43] | ![]() | −50 m (−164 feet) [44] Deep Lake, Vestfold Hills (compare the deepest ice section below) | 20.75 °C (69.35 °F) Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station 9 February 2020 | −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) Vostok Station 21 July 1983 |
Asia | 8,848.86 m (29,032 feet) Mount Everest, Tibet–Nepal Border [45] | ![]() | −424 m (−1,391 feet) Dead Sea, Israel–Jordan–Palestine [46] | 54 °C (129 °F) Tirat Zvi, Israel (then in the British Mandate of Palestine) 21 June 1942 | −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F) Measured Oymyakon, Siberia, Soviet Union 6 February 1933 [47] [48] |
54 °C (129 °F) Ahvaz Airport, Iran 29 June 2017 [49] | −71.2 °C (−96.2 °F) Extrapolated Oymyakon, Siberia, Soviet Union 26 January 1926 [50] | ||||
Europe | 5,642 m (18,510 feet) Mount Elbrus, Russian Federation [51] | ![]() | −28 m (−92 feet) Caspian Sea shore, Russian Federation [52] | 48.8 °C | −58.1 °C (−72.6 °F) Ust-Shchuger, Soviet Union 31 December 1978 |
North America | 6,190.5 m (20,310 feet) Denali (federally designated as Mount McKinley), Alaska, United States [53] | ![]() | −85 m (−279 feet) Badwater Basin, California, United States [54] | 56.7 °C (134.1 °F) Furnace Creek (then named Greenland Ranch), Death Valley, California, United States 10 July 1913 C ( disputed while still official, but up to 54.4 °C (129.9 °F) [42] has also been recorded there in 2020 and 2021, not yet verified by WMO; and 54.0 °C (129.2 °F) which is verified.) | -69.6 °C (-93.3 °F) Summit Camp, Greenland |
Oceania | 4,884 m (16,024 feet) Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), Indonesia (compare Mount Wilhelm, Aoraki / Mount Cook and Mount Kosciuszko) [55] | ![]() | −15 m (−49 feet) Lake Eyre, South Australia, Australia [56] | 50.7 °C (123.3 °F) Oodnadatta, South Australia, Australia 2 January 1960 G 50.7 °C (123.3 °F) 13 January 2022 [57] | −25.6 °C (−14.1 °F) Ranfurly, Otago, New Zealand 17 July 1903 |
South America | 6,962 m (22,841 feet) Aconcagua, Mendoza, Argentina [58] | ![]() | −105 m (−344 feet) Laguna del Carbón, Argentina [59] | 48.9 °C (120.0 °F) Rivadavia, Salta Province, Argentina 11 December 1905 | −32.8 °C (−27.0 °F) Sarmiento, Chubut Province, Argentina 1 June 1907 |
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In contrast to places with the highest density of life, like terrestrial [66] tropical regions, and beside local extreme conditions, which might only be overcome by extremophiles, there are areas of extreme low amounts of life.
Next to terrestrial lifeless areas like the Antarctic desert's McMurdo Dry Valleys and its Don Juan Pond, the most lifeless area in the ocean studied (other than the more general dead zones) is the South Pacific Gyre, [67] corresponding to the oceanic pole of inaccessibility.
The oceanic pole of inaccessibility is also the antipodal area of the human center of population which lies today around southern Central Asia. Similarly the world's economic center of gravity has been drifting since antiquity from Central Asia to Northern Europe and contemporarily back to Central Asia. [68] The related centre of gravity of the worlds carbon emission has shifted from Britain during the Industrial Revolution to the Atlantic, back again and contemporarily into Central Asia. [69]
Each continent has its own continental pole of inaccessibility, defined as the place on the continent that is farthest from any ocean. Similarly, each ocean has its own oceanic pole of inaccessibility, defined as the place in the ocean that is farthest from any land.
Since the Earth is a spheroid, its centre (the core) is thousands of kilometres beneath its crust. Still, there have been attempts to define various "centrepoints" on the Earth's surface.
Greatest purely vertical drop | 1,200 m (4,100 ft) Mount Thor, Auyuittuq National Park, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada (summit elevation 1,675 m (5,495 ft)) [79] [80] | ![]() |
Greatest nearly vertical drop | 1,340 m (4,396 ft) Trango Towers, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan (summit elevation 6,286 m (20,623 ft)) | ![]() |
Greatest mountain face | 4,600 m (15,092 ft) Nanga Parbat, Rupal Face, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan | |
Greatest ocean cliff | Kermadec Trench, with cliffs around 8,000 m (26,000 ft) tall | ![]() |
Deepest mine below ground level | 4,000 m (13,000 ft) Mponeng Gold Mine, Gauteng Province, South Africa |
Deepest mine below sea level | 2,733 m (8,967 ft) below sea level Kidd Mine, Ontario, Canada |
Deepest open-pit mine below ground level | 1,200 m (3,900 ft) Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah, United States |
Deepest open-pit mine below sea level | 293 m (961 ft) below sea level Tagebau Hambach, Germany |
Deepest cave (measured from the entrance) | 2,204 m (7,231 ft) Veryovkina, Arabika Massif, Abkhazia, Georgia [82] |
Deepest pitch (single vertical drop) | 1,026 m (3,366 ft) Tian Xing Cave, China [83] |
Deepest borehole | 12,261 m (40,226 ft) Kola Superdeep Borehole, Russia [84] |
Deepest borehole by depth below sea level | 11,944 m (39,186 ft) (10,685 m well at 1,259 m deep seabed) The Tiber well, Gulf of Mexico, United States [85] |
Atlantic Ocean | 8,376 m (27,480 ft) [86] Milwaukee Deep (within the Brownson Deep), Puerto Rico Trench |
Arctic Ocean | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) [87] Molloy Deep, Fram Strait |
Indian Ocean | 7,192 m (23,596 ft) [88] Sunda Trench |
Mediterranean Sea | 5,267 m (17,280 ft) Calypso Deep, Hellenic Trench |
Pacific Ocean | 10,928 m (35,853 ft) [89] Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench [90] |
Southern Ocean | 7,433.6 m (24,388 ft) [91] South Sandwich Trench (southernmost portion, at 60°28.46′S025°32.32′W / 60.47433°S 25.53867°W ) |
Ice sheets on land, but having the base below sea level. Places under ice are not considered to be on land.
Denman Subglacial Trench | −3,500 m (−11,500 ft) | Antarctica |
Trough beneath Jakobshavn Isbræ | −1,512 m (−4,961 ft) [92] | Greenland, Denmark |
Hottest inhabited place | Dallol, Ethiopia (Amharic: ዳሎል), whose annual mean temperature was recorded from 1960 to 1966 as 34.4 °C (93.9 °F). [93] The average daily maximum temperature during the same period was 41.1 °C (106.0 °F). [94] |
Coldest inhabited place | Oymyakon (Russian: Оймяко́н), a rural locality (selo) in Oymyakonsky District of the Sakha Republic, the Russian Federation, has the coldest monthly mean, with −45.7 °C (−50.3 °F) the average temperature in January, the coldest month. Eureka, Nunavut, Canada has the lowest annual mean temperature at −19.7 °C (−3.5 °F). [95] |
The South Pole and some other places in Antarctica are colder and are populated year-round, but almost everyone stays less than a year and could be considered visitors, not inhabitants. |
Temperatures measured directly on the ground may exceed air temperatures by 30 to 50 °C. [96] A ground temperature of 84 °C (183.2 °F) has been recorded in Port Sudan, Sudan. [97] A ground temperature of 93.9 °C (201 °F) was recorded in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California, United States on 15 July 1972; this may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded. [98] The theoretical maximum possible ground surface temperature has been estimated to be between 90 and 100 °C for dry, darkish soils of low thermal conductivity. [99]
Satellite measurements of ground temperature taken between 2003 and 2009, taken with the MODIS infrared spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite, found a maximum temperature of 70.7 °C (159.3 °F), which was recorded in 2005 in the Lut Desert, Iran. The Lut Desert was also found to have the highest maximum temperature in 5 of the 7 years measured (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009). These measurements reflect averages over a large region and so are lower than the maximum point surface temperature. [96]
Satellite measurements of the surface temperature of Antarctica, taken between 1982 and 2013, found a coldest temperature of −93.2 °C (−136 °F) on 10 August 2010, at 81°48′S59°18′E / 81.8°S 59.3°E . Although this is not comparable to an air temperature, it is believed that the air temperature at this location would have been lower than the official record lowest air temperature of −89.2 °C. [100] [101]