Extremes on Earth

Further information: World record, List of extreme points lists, and Extreme points of Earth

This article describes extreme locations on Earth. Entries listed in bold are Earth-wide extremes.

Extreme elevations and temperatures per continent

Further information: List of highest mountains, Seven Summits, and List of weather records

Continent	Elevation (height above/below sea level)			Temperature (recorded)
	Highest		Lowest	Highest	Lowest
Africa	5,893 m (19,334 ft) Kilimanjaro, Tanzania		−155 m (−509 ft) Lake Assal, Djibouti	57.8 °C (136.0 °F) 'Aziziya, Libya 13 September 1922. (Disputed)	−23.9 °C (−11.0 °F) Ifrane, Morocco 11 February 1935
Antarctica	4,892 m (16,050 ft) Vinson Massif		−50 m (−164 ft) Deep Lake, Vestfold Hills (compare the deepest ice section below)	15 °C (59 °F) Vanda Station 5 January 1974	−89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) Vostok Station 21 July 1983
Asia	8,848 m (29,029 ft) Mount Everest, Nepal		−424 m (−1,391 ft) Dead Sea shore, Israel - Jordan	55 °C (131 °F) Mitraba, Kuwait 15 June 2010	−67.8 °C (−90.0 °F) Measured Verkhoyansk, Siberia, Russia (then in the Russian Empire) 5 February 1892
					−71.2 °C (−96.2 °F) Extrapolated Oymyakon, Siberia, Russia (then in the Soviet Union) 26 January 1926
Europe	5,642 m (18,510 ft) Mount Elbrus, Russia (compare Mont Blanc)		−28 m (−92 ft) Caspian Sea shore, Russia (compare the Tagebau Hambach)	48.0 °C (118.4 °F) Athens, Greece (and Elefsina, Greece) 10 July 1977	−58.1 °C (−72.6 °F) Ust-Shchuger, Russia 31 December 1978
North America	6,198 m (20,335 ft) Denali (Mount McKinley), Alaska, U.S.A.		−86 m (−282 ft) Death Valley, California, U.S.A. (compare the deepest ice section below)	56.7 °C (134.1 °F) Death Valley, California, U.S.A. 10 July 1913	−63 °C (−81.4 °F) Snag, Yukon, Canada 3 February 1947
					−66.1 °C (−87.0 °F) North Ice, Greenland 9 January 1954[citation needed]
Oceania (Australia)	4,884 m (16,024 ft) Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), Indonesia (compare Mount Wilhelm and Mount Kosciuszko)		−15 m (−49 ft) Lake Eyre, South Australia, Australia	50.7 °C (123.3 °F) Oodnadatta, South Australia, Australia 2 January 1960	−25.6 °C (−14.1 °F) Ranfurly, New Zealand 18 July 1903
South America	6,962 m (22,841 ft) Aconcagua, Mendoza, Argentina		−105 m (−344 ft) Laguna del Carbón, Argentina	48.9 °C (120.0 °F) Rivadavia, Salta Province, Argentina 11 December 1905	−32.8 °C (−27.0 °F) Sarmiento, Argentina 1 June 1907
A.^ All temperatures from the World Meteorological Organization unless noted. B.^ Height above sea level is the usual choice of definition for elevation. In terms of the point farthest away from the centre of the Earth, Chimborazo in Ecuador (6,267 m (20,561 ft)) can be considered the planet's most extreme high point. This is due to the Earth's oblate spheroid shape, with points near the Equator being farther out from the centre than those at the poles. C.^ This is the highest recorded air temperature. Higher surface temperatures have been recorded, for example, 70.7 °C (159.3 °F) in 2004 and 2005 in the Lut desert, Iran. D.^ Temperatures greater than 50 °C (122 °F) in Spain and Portugal were recorded in 1881, but the standard with which they were measured and the accuracy of the thermometers used are unknown; therefore, they are not considered official. Unconfirmed reports also indicate that a set of Spanish stations may have hit 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) during the 2003 heat wave. E.^ A temperature of 53.1 °C (127.6 °F) was recorded in Cloncurry, Queensland on 16 January 1889 under non-standard exposure conditions and is therefore not considered official.

F ^ The above information needs to be updated to reflect satellite data released in April 2012 indicating that, in 2005, the land surface temperature in the Lut Desert in Iran reached 70.7 °C (159.3 °F). Numerous other recorded temperatures over 66.8 °C (152.2 °F) were recorded in other places as well

Greatest vertical drop

Greatest purely vertical drop	1,250 m (4,101 ft) Mount Thor, Auyuittuq National Park, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada (summit elevation 1,675 m (5,495 ft))
Greatest nearly vertical drop	1,340 m (4,396 ft) Trango Towers, Pakistan (summit elevation 6,286 m (20,623 ft))

Subterranean

Further information: Mining#Records

Deepest mine	4,000 m (13,123 ft) Mponeng Gold mine, South Africa
Deepest mine under sea level	2,733 m (8,967 ft) under sea level Kidd Mine, Ontario, Canada
Deepest open-pit mine	1,200 m (3,937 ft) Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah, USA
Deepest open-pit mine under sea level	293 m (961 ft) under sea level Tagebau Hambach, Germany
Deepest cave	2,193 m (7,195 ft) Voronya Cave, Arabika Massif, Georgia
Deepest pitch (single vertical drop)	603 m (1,978 ft) Vrtoglavica Cave, Slovenia

Greatest oceanic depths

Atlantic Ocean	8,648 m (28,373 ft) Milwaukee Deep, Puerto Rico Trench
Arctic Ocean	5,450 m (17,881 ft) Litke Deep, Eurasian Basin
Indian Ocean	7,258 m (23,812 ft) Java Trench
Pacific Ocean	10,971 m (35,994 ft) Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench
Southern Ocean	7,235 m (23,737 ft) South Sandwich Trench (southernmost portion, at 60°S)

Deepest ice

Ice sheets on land, but having the base below sea level. Places under ice are not considered to be on land.

Bentley Subglacial Trench	−2,555 m (−8,383 ft)	Antarctica
Trough beneath Jakobshavn Isbræ	−1,512 m (−4,961 ft)	Greenland

Coldest and hottest inhabited places on Earth

Hottest inhabited place	Dallol, Ethiopia, whose annual mean temperature was recorded from 1960 to 1966 as 34.4 °C (93.9 °F). The average daily maximum temperature during the same period was 41.1 °C (106.0 °F).
Coldest inhabited place	Oymyakon (Russian: Оймякон), a village (selo) in Oymyakonsky Ulus of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located along the Indigirka River. It has the coldest monthly mean with −46 °C (−51 °F) as the daily average in January, the coldest month. Eureka, Nunavut, Canada has the lowest annual mean temperature at −19.7 °C (−3.5 °F).
	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.

Northern and southernmost points of land on Earth

See also: Northernmost settlements and Southernmost settlements

Northernmost point on land	Kaffeklubben Island, east of Greenland (83°40′N 29°50′W) Various shifting gravel bars lie further north, the most famous being Oodaaq
Southernmost point on land	The geographic South Pole

See also

• Extreme points of Earth
• List of extrasolar planet extremes
• List of northernmost items
• List of southernmost items
• List of weather records
• Northernmost settlements
• Southernmost settlements
• Weather extremes in Canada

External links

• United States National Climatic Data Center
• AWOW Top List World Top 10 Hottest Places