This is a list of places on land below mean sea level. Places artificially created such as tunnels, mines, basements, and dug holes, or places under water, or existing temporarily as a result of ebbing of sea tide etc., are not included. Places where seawater and rainwater is pumped away are included. Fully natural places below sea level require a dry climate; otherwise, rain would exceed

evaporation Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. High concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evaporation, such as when humidi ...

and fill the area. All figures are in meters below mean sea level (as locally defined), arranged by depth, lowest first:

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Europe

North America

Oceania

South America

Historic and ice-covered areas

Deeper and larger than any of the trenches in the list above is the

Bentley Subglacial Trench The Bentley Subglacial Trench is a vast topographic trench in Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, 80°S, 115°W. At 2,555 meters (8,382 ft) below sea level, it (along with the deepest points within the adjacent Byrd Subglacial Basin) is am ...

in Antarctica, at a depth of . It is subglacial, covered permanently by the largest glacier in the world. Therefore, it is not included in any list on the page. If the ice melted it would be covered by sea. The biggest dry land area below sea level that has been known to exist during the geological past, as measured by continuous volume of atmospheric air below sea level, was the dry bed of the Mediterranean Sea of the late

Miocene period The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

during the Messinian salinity crisis.

References

External links

* * * {{cite web, url=http://geology.com/below-sea-level/ , website=geology.com, title=Land Below Sea Level Elevation Elevation Elevation Sea Level * *