Extremes on Earth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article describes extreme locations on Earth. Entries listed in bold are Earth-wide extremes.
Extreme elevations and temperatures per continent
Continent | Elevation (height above/below sea level)A | Air Temperature (recorded)[1]B | |||
Highest | Lowest | Highest | Lowest | ||
Africa | 5,893 m (19,334 ft) Kilimanjaro, Tanzania[2] | −155 m (−509 ft) Lake Assal, Djibouti[3] | 55 °C (131 °F) Kebili, Tunisia 7 July 1931C | −23.9 °C (−11.0 °F) Ifrane, Morocco 11 February 1935 | |
Antarctica | 4,892 m (16,050 ft) Vinson Massif[4] | −50 m (−164 ft)[5] Deep Lake, Vestfold Hills (compare the deepest ice section below) | 15 °C (59 °F) Vanda Station 5 January 1974 | (remote) −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) by Landsat 8 81°48′S 59°18′E / 81.8°S 59.3°E 10 August 2010[6] (inhabited) −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) Vostok Station 21 July 1983I | |
Asia | 8,848 m (29,029 ft) Mount Everest, China Nepal Border [7] | −424 m (−1,391 ft) Dead Sea shore, Israel - West Bank - Jordan[8] | 54 °C (129 °F) Tirat Zvi, Israel (then in the British Mandate of Palestine) 21 June 1942D | −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[9] | |||||
Europe | 5,642 m (18,510 ft) Mount Elbrus, Russian Federation (compare Mont Blanc)[10] | −28 m (−92 ft) Caspian Sea shore, Russian Federation (compare the Tagebau Hambach)[11] | 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) Athens, Greece (and Elefsina, Greece) 10 July 1977 E | −58.1 °C (−72.6 °F) Ust-Shchuger, Russian Federation 31 December 1978 | |
North America | 6,198 m (20,335 ft) Mount McKinley (Denali), Alaska, U.S.A.[12] | −86 m (−282 ft) Death Valley, California, U.S.A. (compare the deepest ice section below)[13] | 56.7 °C (134.1 °F) Death Valley, California, U.S.A. 10 July 1913C | −66.0 °C (−86.8 °F) North Ice, Greenland | |
Oceania (including Australia) | 4,884 m (16,024 ft) Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), Indonesia (compare Mount Wilhelm, Mount Cook and Mount Kosciuszko)[14] | −15 m (−49 ft) Lake Eyre, South Australia, Australia[15] | 53 °C (127 °F) Bourke, Australia | −23 °C (−9 °F) Charlotte Pass, New South Wales, Australia 29 June 1994H | |
South America | 6,962 m (22,841 ft) Aconcagua, Mendoza, Argentina[16] | −105 m (−344 ft) Laguna del Carbón, Argentina[17] | 48.9 °C (120.0 °F) Rivadavia, Salta Province, Argentina 11 December 1905 | −32.8 °C (−27.0 °F) Sarmiento, Argentina 1 June 1907 | |
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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))[28][29] |
Greatest nearly vertical drop | 1,340 m (4,396 ft) Trango Towers, Pakistan (summit elevation 6,286 m (20,623 ft)) |
Subterranean
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[30] |
Pacific Ocean | 10,971 m (35,994 ft) Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench[31] |
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)[32] | 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).[33] The average daily maximum temperature during the same period was 41.1 °C (106.0 °F).[34] |
Coldest inhabited place | Oymyakon (Russian: Оймякон), a village (selo) in Oymyakonsky Ulus of the Sakha Republic, the Russian Federation, located along the Indigirka River.[35] 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).[36] |
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
Northernmost point on land | Kaffeklubben Island, east of Greenland (83°40′N 29°50′W / 83.667°N 29.833°W) Various shifting gravel bars lie further north, the most famous being Oodaaq |
Southernmost point on land | The geographic South Pole |
See also
References
- ↑ Global Weather & Climate Extremes World Meteorological Organization
- ↑ The Kilimanjaro 2008 Precise Height Measurement Expedition. Precise Determination of the Orthometric Height of Mt. Kilimanjaro
- ↑ Harter, Pascale (2010-12-04). "A life of constant thirst beside Djibouti's Lake Assal". BBC News. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "Mount Vinson". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- ↑ Indicator 62 - Water levels of Deep Lake, Vestfold Hills, Australian Antarctic Data Centre. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
- ↑ Jonathan Amos (2013-12-09). "Coldest spot on Earth identified by satellite". BBC News Science & Environment. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
- ↑ "The 'Highest' Spot on Earth?". Npr.org. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "Lowest Elevation: Dead Sea". Extremescience.com. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "Life Is a Chilling Challenge in Subzero Siberia from the National Geographic". News.nationalgeographic.com. 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ Mount Elbrus at peakbagger.com
- ↑ The Handy Geography Answer Book: Second Edition. Books.google.ca. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ Mount McKinley, Alaska at peakbagger.com
- ↑ DesertUSA.com. "Death Valley National Park". Desertusa.com. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia at peakbagger.com
- ↑ "Oceaina". Worldatlas.com. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ Aconcagua, Argentina at peakbagger.com
- ↑ "Lowest Points on Land". Geography.about.com. 2013-06-20. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ PWMU. "Ninety-year-old World temperature record in El Azizia (Libya) is invalid Improved data strengthens Climate knowledge". Wmo.int. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "The Hottest Spot on Earth". Earthobservatory.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ Robert C. Cowen. "Satellites seek global hot spots". csmonitor.com. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ The Ceaseless Buzzing of Kinetic Energy, Daniel Engber, May 30, 2007, Discover, on line; accessed May 9, 2008.
- ↑ New Images - The Hottest Spot on Earth, news, Earth Observatory, NASA. Accessed on line May 9, 2008.
- ↑ Europe: Highest Temperature WM0
- ↑ "Western Hemisphere: Lowest Temperature". Wmo.asu.edu. 1954-01-09. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "Transcript of report on the highest temperature". Abc.net.au. 2003-12-24. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "New Zealand’s coldest recorded temperature". Niwa.co.nz. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "NASA-USGS Landsat 8 Satellite Pinpoints Coldest Spots on Earth". www.nasa.gov. 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
- ↑ "Mount Thor -The Greatest Vertical Drop on Earth!". Dailygalaxy.com. 2010-03-09. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ↑ "Thor Peak". Bivouac.com. http://www.bivouac.com/MtnPg.asp?MtnId=4155. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
- ↑ Indian Ocean, CIA World Factbook. Accessed on line December 26, 2008.
- ↑ "Daily Reports for R/V KILO MOANA June and July 2009". University of Hawaii Marine Center. 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ↑ Plummer, Joel. Jakobshavn Bed Elevation, Center for the Remote Sensing of the Ice Sheets, Dept of Geography, University of Kansas.
- ↑ p. 9, Weather Experiments, Muriel Mandell and Dave Garbot, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2006, ISBN 1-4027-2157-9.
- ↑ Average of table on p. 26, Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book, Christopher C. Burt and Mark Stroud, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, ISBN 0-393-33015-X.
- ↑ p. 57, Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book, Christopher C. Burt and Mark Stroud, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, ISBN 0-393-33015-X.
- ↑ "Canadian Climate Normals 1971-2000". Climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca. 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
External links
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