Extremes On Earth

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.

Latitude and longitude

Northernmost

* The northernmost point on Earth is the Geographic North Pole, in the Arctic Ocean.
** The northernmost point of land is the northern tip of Kaffeklubben Island, north of Greenland (), which lies slightly north of Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland (). Various shifting gravel bars lie farther north, the most famous being Oodaaq. There have been other islands more northern such as 83-42 and ATOW1996 but they have not been confirmed as permanent.

Southernmost

* The southernmost point on Earth and the southernmost point on land is the Geographic South Pole, which is on the continent of Antarctica.
** The southernmost continental point of land outside Antarctica is in South America at Cape Froward, Magallanes Region, Chile ().
** The southernmost point of (liquid) water is a bay on the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf along the coast of Antarctica (), about south of Berkner Island.
*** The southernmost point of ocean is located on the Gould Coast ().
*** The southernmost point of open ocean is in the Bay of Whales, also part of the Ross Sea, at 78°30'S, at the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.
*** The southernmost island is considered to be Deverall Island, near the Shackleton Coast, surrounded by the Ross Ice Shelf.

Easternmost and westernmost

* The easternmost and westernmost points on Earth, based on the east–west standard for describing longitude, can be found anywhere along the 180th meridian, which passes through the Arctic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans, as well as parts of Siberia (including Wrangel Island), Antarctica, and three islands of Fiji (Vanua Levu's eastern peninsula, the middle of Taveuni, and the western part of Rabi Island).
** Using instead the path of the International Date Line (which is not a straight line), the westernmost point on land is Attu Island, Alaska, and the easternmost point on land is Caroline Island, Kiribati.

Longest grid lines

Along constant latitude

* The longest continuous east–west distance on land is along the latitude 48°24'53"N, from the west coast of France (Pointe de Corsen, ) through Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China, to a point on the east coast of Russia ().
* The longest continuous east–west distance at sea is along the latitude 55°59'S, south of Cape Horn, South America.
** The longest continuous east–west distance at sea between two continents is along the latitude 18°39'12"N, from the coast of Hainan, China () across the Pacific Ocean to the coast of Michoacán, Mexico ().

Along constant longitude

* The longest continuous north–south distance on land is along the meridian 99°1'30"E, from the northern tip of Siberia in the Russian Federation (), through Mongolia, China, and Myanmar, to a point on the south coast of Thailand ().
** The longest in Africa is along the meridian 20°12'E, from the north coast of Libya (), through Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Namibia, and Botswana, to the south coast of South Africa ().
** The longest in South America is the length along the meridian 70°2'W, from the north coast of Venezuela (), through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, to the southern tip of Argentina ().
** The longest in North America is along the meridian 97°52'30"W, from northern Canada (), through the United States, to southern Mexico ().
* The longest continuous north–south distance at sea is along the meridian 34°45'45"W, from the coast of Eastern Greenland () across the Atlantic Ocean to the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, on the coast of Antarctica (). The longest in the Pacific Ocean is along the meridian 172°8'30"W, from the coast of Siberia () to the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica ().
* The meridian that crosses the greatest total distance on land (disregarding intervening bodies of water) is still to be determined. It is likely located in the vicinity of 22°E, which is the longest integer meridian that fits that criterion, crossing a total of of land through Europe (), Africa (), and Antarctica (). More than 65% of this meridian's length is located on land. The next six longest integer meridians by total distance over land are, in order:
** 23°E: through Europe (), Africa (), and Antarctica ()
** 27°E: through Europe (), Asia (), Africa (), and Antarctica ()
** 25°E: through Europe (), Africa (), and Antarctica ()
** 26°E: through Europe (), Africa (), and Antarctica ()
** 24°E: through Europe (), Africa (), and Antarctica ()
** 28°E: through Europe (), Asia (), and Africa ()

Along any geodesic

These are the longest straight lines 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.
* The longest continuous straight-line (great circle) path over land is between Jinjiang, Fujian, China, and near Sagres, Portugal, at . A longer line meeting the same criteria has also been suggested: at , it begins on the West African coast near Greenville, Liberia (), passes over the Suez Canal, and ends at the top of a peninsula approximately northeast of Wenzhou, China ().
** The longest continuous straight-line land distance solely within continental Africa is , along a line that begins just east of Tangier, Morocco, and ends east of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This line passes through Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.
** The longest continuous straight-line land distance solely within continental Asia is , along a line that begins on the Indian coast near Kanyakumari and ends at the Bering Sea coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in Russia. This line passes through India, Nepal, China, Mongolia, and Russia.
** The longest continuous straight-line land distance solely within continental Europe (defining the Ural Mountains as the border between Europe and Asia) is , along a line that begins at Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, and ends at the Urals, near the town of Perm, Russia. This line passes through Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia.
** The longest continuous straight-line land distance solely within continental North America is , along a line that begins at Point Hope, Alaska, United States, and ends southwest of the town of Salina Cruz, Mexico. This line passes through Alaska, Canada, the contiguous United States, and Mexico.
** The longest continuous straight-line land distance solely within continental South America is , along a line that begins northeast of Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela, and ends south of the town of Punta Arenas, Chile. This line passes through Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Argentina.
** The longest continuous straight-line land distance solely within continental Australia is , along a line that begins at the southern end of Cape Range National Park in Western Australia and ends at the town of Byron Bay in New South Wales.
* There are several possible candidates for the longest continuous straight-line distance in any direction at sea, as there are many possible ways to travel along a great circle for more than the antipodic length of . Some examples of such routes would be:
** From the south coast of Balochistan province somewhere near Port of Karachi, Pakistan () across the Arabian Sea, southwest through the Indian Ocean, near Comoros, passing Namaete Canyon, near the South African coast, across the South Atlantic Ocean, then west across Cape Horn, then northwest across the Pacific Ocean, near Easter Island, passing the antipodal point near Amlia island, through the South Bering Sea and ending somewhere on the northeast coast of Kamchatka, near Ossora (). This route is long. This route was confirmed to be the longest (at about 32090 km) given map data at a 1.8 km level of resolution.
** From the south coast of Hormozgan province, Iran () across the Gulf of Oman, southeast across the Arabian Sea, passing south of Australia and New Zealand, near the Antarctic coast, then northeast across the South Pacific Ocean, passing the antipodal point and ending on the southwest coast of Mexico somewhere near Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas (). This route is long.
** From Invercargill, New Zealand () across Cape Horn, then off the coast of Brazil close to Recife, passing north of Cape Verde, passing the antipodal point and ending somewhere on the southwest coast of Ireland (). This route is long.

Along any diameter (truly straight line)

As distinct from geodesic lines, which appear straight only when projected onto the spheroidal surface of the Earth (i.e. arcs of great circles), Line (geometry), straight lines can be constructed through the interior of the Earth between almost any two points on the surface of the Earth (some extreme topographical situations being the rare exceptions). A line projected from the summit of Cayambe (volcano), Cayambe in Ecuador (see #Highest_points, highest points) through the axial centre of the Earth to its antipodes, 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 , such a maximum "diameter" or "antipodal" line would be on the order of long.

Elevation

Highest points

* The highest point on Earth's surface measured from sea level is the summit of Mount Everest, on the border of Nepal and China. While Mount Everest#Surveys, measurements of its height vary slightly, the elevation of its peak was most recently established in 2020 by the Nepali and Chinese authorities as above sea level. The summit was first reached by Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa of Nepal in 1953.
* The point farthest from Earth's centre is the summit of Chimborazo (volcano), Chimborazo in Ecuador, at from Earth's centre; the peak's elevation relative to sea level is . Because Earth is an flattening, oblate spheroid rather than a perfect spherical Earth, sphere, it is equatorial bulge, wider at the equator and narrower toward each geographical pole, pole. Therefore, the summit of Chimborazo, which is near the Equator, is farther away from Earth's centre than the summit of Mount Everest is; the latter is closer, at from Earth's centre. Peru's Huascarán (at ) contends closely with Chimborazo, though the former is a mere closer to the Earth's centre.
* The fastest point on Earth or, in other words, the point farthest from Earth's rotational axis is the summit of Cayambe (volcano), Cayambe in Ecuador, which revolves around Earth's axis at a speed of and is from the axis. Like Chimborazo, which is the fourth-fastest peak at , Cayambe is close to the Equator and takes advantage of the oblate spheroid figure of Earth. More important, however, Cayambe's proximity to the Equator means that the majority of its distance from the Earth's centre stems from Cayambe's distance from the Earth's axis.

Highest geographical features

* The highest volcano is Ojos del Salado on the Argentina–Chile border. It has the highest summit, , of any volcano on Earth.
* The highest natural lake is an unnamed crater lake on Ojos del Salado at , on the Argentina side. Another candidate was Lhagba Pool on the northeast slopes of Mount Everest, Tibet, at an elevation of , which has since dried up.
* The highest navigable lake is Lake Titicaca, on the border of Bolivia and Peru in the Andes, at .
* The highest glacier is the Khumbu Glacier on the southwest slopes of Mount Everest in Nepal, beginning on the west side of Lhotse at an elevation of .
* The highest river is disputed; one candidate from many possibilities is the Ating Ho, which flows into the Aong Tso (Hagung Tso), a large lake in Tibet, and has an elevation of about at its source at . Another very large and high river is the Yarlung Tsangpo or upper Brahmaputra River in Tibet, whose main stem, the Maquan River, has its source at about above sea level at . Above these elevations, there are no constantly flowing rivers since the temperature is almost always below freezing.
* The highest island is one of a number of islands in the Orba Co lake in Tibet, at an elevation of .

Highest points attainable by transportation

* The highest point accessible...
**...by land vehicle is an elevation of on Ojos del Salado in Chile, which was reached by the Chilean duo of Gonzalo and Eduardo Canales Moya on 21 April 2007 with a modified Suzuki Samurai, setting the high-altitude record for a four-wheeled vehicle.
** ...by road (dead end) is on a mining road to the summit of Aucanquilcha in Chile, which reaches an elevation of . It was once usable by 20-tonne mining trucks. The road is no longer usable.
** ...by road (mountain pass) is disputed; there are a number of competing claims for this title due to the definition of "motorable pass" (i.e. a surfaced road or one simply passable by a vehicle):
*** The highest asphalt concrete, asphalted road crosses Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet's Semo La pass at . It is used by trucks and buses regularly. The Ticlio pass, on the Central Road of Peru, is the highest surfaced road in the Americas, at an elevation of .
*** The highest unsurfaced road has several different claimants. All are unsurfaced or gravel roads including the road over Umling La west of Demchok, Ladakh, Demchok in Ladakh, India, which reaches ("19,300 feet" according to a Border Roads Organisation sign there that recognizes it as the "World's Highest Motorable Pass"), and Mana Pass, between India and Tibet, which is crossed by a gravel road reaching . The heavily trafficked Khardung La in Ladakh lies at . A possibly motorable gravel road crosses Marsimik La in Ladakh at .
** ...by train is Tanggula Pass, located on the Qinghai–Tibet Railway, Qinghai–Tibet (Qingzang) Railway in the Tanggula Mountains of Qinghai/Tibet, China, at . The Tanggula railway station is the world's highest railway station at . Before the Qingzang Railway was built, the highest railway ran between Lima and Huancayo in Peru, reaching at Ticlio.
** ...by oceangoing vessel is a segment of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal between the Hilpoltstein and Neumarkt (district), Bachhausen locks in Bavaria, Germany. The locks artificially raise the surface level of the water in the canal to above mean sea level, higher than any other lock (water navigation), lock system in the world, making it the highest point currently accessible by oceangoing commercial watercraft.

* The highest commercial airport is Daocheng Yading Airport, Sichuan, China, at . The proposed Nagqu Dagring Airport in Tibet, if built, will be higher at .
* The highest helipad is Sonam, Siachen Glacier, India, at a height of above sea level.
* The highest permanent human settlement is La Rinconada, Peru, , in the Peruvian Andes.
* The farthest road from the Earth's centre is the Chimborazo#Huts, Road to Carrel Hut in the Ecuadorian Andes, at an elevation of above sea level and a distance of from the centre of the Earth.

Lowest points

Lowest natural points

* The lowest point on Earth's surface is Challenger Deep, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, below sea level. Only six humans have reached the bottom of the trench: Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh in 1960 aboard the bathyscaphe ''Bathyscaphe Trieste, Trieste'', filmmaker James Cameron in 2012 aboard ''Deepsea Challenger'', and Victor Vescovo, Patrick Lahey, and Jonathan Struwe aboard the ''Deep-submergence vehicle#Limiting Factor, DSV Limiting Factor'' in 2019.
* The lowest point underground is in the Veryovkina Cave in Abkhazia, where the altitude difference between the cave's entrance and the deepest explored point (the maximum depth) is . The world record was broken in 2017 by the Perovo-speleo team reaching a depth of ; the team set the current world record in 2019.
* The lowest point on land not covered by liquid water is the canyon under Denman Glacier in Antarctica, with the bedrock being below sea level.

* The lowest point on dry land is the shore of the Dead Sea, shared by Israel, State of Palestine, Palestine, and Jordan, below sea level. As the Dead Sea waters are receding, the water surface level drops more than per year.
* The point on the surface closest to the Earth's centre (interpreted as a natural surface of the land or sea that is accessible by a person) is the surface of the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole#Geographic North Pole, Geographic North Pole ().
** The point on the ground closest to the Earth's centre (interpreted as a land surface or sea floor) is the bottom of Litke Deep, in the Arctic Ocean, at from Earth's centre; the deep's depth relative to sea level is . Because Earth is an flattening, oblate spheroid rather than a perfect spherical Earth, sphere, it is equatorial bulge, wider at the equator and narrower toward each geographical pole, pole. Therefore, the bottom of Litke Deep, which is near the North Pole, is closer to Earth's centre than the bottom of Challenger Deep is; the latter is further, at from Earth's centre. Molloy Deep, also in Arctic Ocean (at ) from Earth's centre contends closely with Litke Deep, the difference from Earth's centre being just .

* The slowest point on Earth or, in other words, the point nearest to Earth's rotational axis are the North and South Poles which are stationary around Earth's axis. They do not revolve around Earth's axis as they lie on axis itself.

Lowest artificial points

* The lowest point underground ever reached was deep (SG-3 at the Kola Superdeep Borehole, which has since been enclosed).
* The lowest human-sized point underground is below ground at the TauTona Mine, Carletonville, South Africa.
* The lowest (from sea level) artificially made point with open sky may be the Hambach surface mine, Germany, which reaches a depth of below sea level.
* The lowest (from surface) artificially made point with open sky may be the Bingham Canyon Mine, Bingham Canyon open-pit mine, Salt Lake City, United States, at a depth of below surface level.
*The lowest point underwater is the -deep (as measured from the subsea wellhead) oil well, oil and gas well drilled on the Tiber Oil Field in the Gulf of Mexico. The wellhead of this well is an additional underwater, for a total distance of as measured from sea level.

Lowest points attainable by transportation

* The lowest point accessible...
** ...by road, excluding roads in mines, is any of the roads alongside the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan, which are the lowest on Earth at below sea level.
*** The lowest undersea highway tunnel is the Ryfast tunnel in Norway, at below sea level.
** ...by train, excluding tracks in mines, is located in the Seikan Tunnel in Japan, at below sea level. For comparison, the undersea Channel Tunnel between England and France reaches a depth of below sea level.
** Some mines have roads accessible from outside or rail tracks, located more than two thousand metres below sea level, for example in some South African gold mines.
* The lowest railroad station was formerly the Japanese Yoshioka-Kaitei Station, at below sea level, but it closed in 2014. The lowest railroad station not inside a tunnel is below sea level, at Beit She'an railway station in Israel.
* The List of lowest airports, lowest airfield is the Bar Yehuda Airfield, near Masada, Israel, at below sea level.
* The lowest international airport is Atyrau Airport, near Atyrau, Kazakhstan, at below sea level, in the basin of the Caspian Sea.
* The lowest major city is Baku, Azerbaijan, located below sea level, which makes it the lowest-lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level.

Table of extreme elevations and air temperatures by continent

Humans and Biogeography

In contrast to places with the highest density of life, like terrestrial 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 zone (ecology), dead zones) is the South Pacific Gyre, corresponding to the Point Nemo, oceanic pole of inaccessibility.

The oceanic pole of inaccessibility is also the Antipodes, antipodal area of the human center of population which lies today around southern Central Asia. Similarly the world economy, world's economic center of gravity has been drifting since Classical antiquity, antiquity from Central Asia to Northern Europe and contemporarily back to Central Asia. 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.

Remoteness

Poles of inaccessibility

Each continent has its own Pole of inaccessibility#Continental poles of inaccessibility, continental pole of inaccessibility, defined as the place on the continent that is farthest from any ocean. Similarly, each ocean has its own Pole of inaccessibility#Oceanic pole of inaccessibility, oceanic pole of inaccessibility, defined as the place in the ocean that is farthest from any land.

Continental

* The most distant point from an ocean is the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility (or "EPIA") , in China's Xinjiang region near the border with Kazakhstan. Calculations have shown that this point, located in the Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert, is from the nearest coastline. The nearest settlement to the EPIA is Suluk at , about to the east. A 2007 study suggests that the historical calculation of the EPIA failed to recognize the point where the Gulf of Ob joins the Arctic Ocean, and proposes instead that varying definitions of coastline could result in other locations for the EPIA:
** EPIA1, somewhere between and , is about from the nearest ocean.
** EPIA2, somewhere between and , is about from the nearest ocean.
:If adopted, this would place the final EPIA roughly closer to the ocean than the point that is currently agreed upon. Coincidentally, EPIA1, or EPIA2, and the most remote of the Pole of inaccessibility#Oceanic pole of inaccessibility, Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility (specifically, the point in the South Pacific Ocean that is farthest from land) are similarly remote; EPIA1 is less than closer to the ocean than the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility is to land.
* The continental poles of inaccessibility for the other continents are as follows:
** Africa: , close to the tripoint of the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
** Australia: either , or , near Papunya, Northern Territory
** North America: , between Kyle, South Dakota and Allen, South Dakota, United States.
** South America: , near Arenápolis, Mato Grosso, Brazil

Oceanic

* The most distant point from land is the Pacific pole of inaccessibility (also called "Point Nemo", at a region known as the spacecraft cemetery), which lies in the South Pacific Ocean at , approximately from the nearest land (equidistant from Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands to the north, Motu Nui off Rapa Nui to the northeast, and Maher Island off Siple Island near Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, to the south). The centre of the Pacific Ocean and the Water Hemisphere lie west to it, closer to Oceania, off the coast of Kiribati at and New Zealand at respectively.

Other places considered the most remote

* The most remote island is Bouvet Island, a small, uninhabited island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is a dependencies of Norway, dependency of Norway. It lies at coordinates . The nearest land is the uninhabited Queen Maud Land, Antarctica (also claimed by Norway), over to the south. The nearest inhabited lands are Gough Island, away, Tristan da Cunha, away, and the coast of South Africa, away.
* The title for most remote inhabited island or archipelago (the farthest away from any other permanently inhabited place) depends on how the question is interpreted. If the south Atlantic island Tristan da Cunha (population about 300) and its dependency Gough Island (with a small staffed research post), which are from each other, are considered part of the same archipelago, or if Gough Island is not counted because it has no permanent residents, then Tristan da Cunha is the world's most remote inhabited island/archipelago: the main island, also called Tristan da Cunha, is from the island Saint Helena, from South Africa, and from South America. It is away from uninhabited Bouvet Island. However, if Gough and Tristan da Cunha are considered separately, they disqualify each other, and the most remote inhabited island is Easter Island in the South Pacific Ocean, which lies from Pitcairn Island (about 50 residents in 2013), from Rikitea on the island of Mangareva (the nearest town with a population over 500), and from the coast of Chile (the nearest continental point and the country of which Easter Island is part). The Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean are another contender, lying from the small Alfred Faure scientific station in Île de la Possession, but otherwise more than from the coast of Madagascar (the nearest permanently inhabited place), northwest of the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands (both a part of Australia), and from the non-permanent scientific station located in Île Amsterdam.
* Remote Cities
** The most remote city with a population in excess of one million from the nearest city with a population in excess of one million is Auckland, New Zealand. The nearest city of comparable size or greater is Sydney, Australia, away.
** The most remote city with a population in excess of one million from the nearest city with a population above 100,000 is Perth, Australia, located away from Adelaide, Australia.
** The most remote city with a population in excess of 100,000 from the nearest city with a population in excess of 100,000 is Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. The nearest city of comparable size or greater is San Francisco, away.
** The most remote national capitals are Wellington, New Zealand, and Canberra, Australia, which are apart from each other and neither is closer to another capital.
* The most remote airport in the world from another airport is Mataveri International Airport (IPC) on Easter Island, which has a single runway for military and public use. It is located from Totegegie Airport (GMR; very few flights) in the Gambier Islands, French Polynesia and from Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, Santiago, Chile (SCL; a fairly large airport). In comparison, the airport at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station (NZSP) is not very remote at all, being located only from Williams Field (NZWD) near Ross Island.

Farthest-apart cities

The pairs of cities (with a population over 100,000) with the greatest distance between them (antipodes) are:
# Xinghua, China to Rosario, Argentina:
# Lu'an, China to Río Cuarto, Argentina:
# Subang Jaya, Malaysia to Cuenca, Ecuador:
# Shanghai, China to Concordia, Entre Ríos, Concordia, Argentina:
# Rancagua, Chile to Xi'an, China:
# Rui'an, Rui'an, China to Resistencia, Chaco, Resistencia, Argentina:
# Yantai, Yantai, China to Tandil, Tandil, Argentina:
# Lichuan, Hubei, Lichuan, China to Coquimbo, Coquimbo, Chile:
# Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia to Piedecuesta, Piedecuesta, Colombia:
# Salamanca, Spain to Lower Hutt, New Zealand:

The pair of airports with scheduled flights having the greatest distance between them has been measured to be Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport, which serves Palembang, Indonesia, and Benito Salas Airport, which serves Neiva, Huila, Neiva, Colombia, located about 10,819 nautical miles (20,037 km) apart.

Centre

Since the Earth is a spheroid, its centre (the core of the Earth, core) is thousands of kilometres beneath its Crust (geology), crust. Still, there have been attempts to define various "centrepoints" on the Earth's surface.
* The centre of the standard geographic model as viewed on a traditional world map is the point 0°, 0° (the coordinates of zero degrees latitude by zero degrees longitude), which is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of Accra, Ghana, in the Gulf of Guinea. It lies at the intersection of the Equator and the IERS Reference Meridian, Prime Meridian, is marked with a buoy and sometimes called Null Island. However, the selection of the Prime Meridian as the 0° longitude meridian depended on cultural and historical factors and is therefore geographically arbitrary (any of the Earth's meridians could, in principle, be defined as 0° longitude); consequently, the position of the "Null Island" centrepoint is also arbitrary.
* The Centre of population#World, centre of population, the place to which there is the shortest average route for every individual human being in the world, could also be considered a "centre of the world". This point is located in the north of the Indian subcontinent, although the precise location has never been calculated and is constantly shifting due to changes in the distribution of the human population across the planet.

Geophysical extremes

Greatest vertical drop

Subterranean

Greatest oceanic depths

Deepest ice

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

Meteorological extremes

Coldest and hottest inhabited places on Earth

Ground temperatures

Temperatures measured directly on the ground may exceed air temperatures by 30 to 50 °C. A ground temperature of 84 °C (183.2 °F) has been recorded in Port Sudan, Sudan. A ground temperature of 93.9 °C (201 °F) was recorded in Furnace Creek, California, Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California, United States on 15 July 1972; this may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded. 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.

Satellite measurements of ground temperature taken between 2003 and 2009, taken with the MODIS infrared spectroradiometer on the Aqua (satellite), 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.

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 . 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.

Extreme points by region

Afro-Eurasia

*Extreme points of Afro-Eurasia
**Extreme points of Africa, Africa
**::
** Extreme points of Eurasia, Eurasia
***Extreme points of Asia, Asia
***:
***Extreme points of Europe, Europe
***:

The Americas

*Extreme points of the Americas
**Extreme points of North America, North America
**::
***Extreme points of Central America, Central America
***:
***Extreme points of the Caribbean, The Caribbean
***:
**Extreme points of South America, South America
**::

Oceania

*Extreme points of Oceania
*:::

Antarctica

*Extreme points of Antarctica

Arctic

*Extreme points of the Arctic

See also

* Geographical centre
* Lists of extreme points
; Latitude and longitude
* List of northernmost items (city, capital, island, etc.)
* List of southernmost items (city, capital, island, etc.)
* List of countries by northernmost point
* List of countries by southernmost point
* Northernmost settlements
* Southernmost settlements
; Elevation
* List of elevation extremes by country
* List of elevation extremes by region
* List of highest towns by country
* Extreme points of the Commonwealth of Nations
; Geophysical features
* List of deepest caves
* Oceanic trench#Deepest oceanic trenches, List of deepest oceanic trenches
* List of deserts by area
* List of highest mountains on Earth
** List of volcanoes by elevation
* List of impact craters on Earth
* List of islands by area
* List of lakes by area
* List of lakes by depth
* List of rivers by length
* List of waterfalls by height
; Meteorology and climate
* List of weather records
; Beyond Earth
* List of Solar System extremes
* List of extrasolar planet extremes

Notes

References

External links

United States National Climatic Data CenterAWOW Top List World Top 10 Hottest Places

{{Earth

Mountains
Extreme points of Earth,
Weather extremes of Earth, Earth
Lists of extreme points, *