This article lists extreme locations on Earth that hold geographical records or are otherwise known for their geophysical or meteorological superlatives.
Floridia, Italy 11 August 2021 Summit Camp, Greenland22 December 1991 50.7 °C (123.3 °F)Onslow, Western Australia, Australia 13 January 2022[57] 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.
[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.
[110] 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.
While
Everest
is Earth's highest elevation (green) and
Mauna Kea
is tallest from its base (orange),
Cayambe
is farthest from Earth's axis (pink) and
Chimborazo
is farthest from Earth's centre (blue). Not to scale
On land, vegetation appears on a scale from brown (low vegetation) to dark green (heavy vegetation); at the ocean surface, phytoplankton are indicated on a scale from purple (low) to yellow (high).
For representational purposes only: The point on earth closest to everyone in the world on average was calculated to be in Central Asia, with a mean distance of 5,000 kilometers (3,000 mi). Its
antipodal point
is correspondingly the
farthest
point from everyone on earth, and is located in the
South Pacific
near
Easter Island
, with a mean distance of 15,000 kilometers (9,300 mi). The data used by this figure is lumped at the country level, and is therefore precise only to country-scale distances, larger nations heavily skewed. Far more granular data -- kilometer level, is now available -- compares with this old "textbook" example.
Map of distance to the nearest coastline
[
70
]
(including oceanic islands, but not lakes) with red spots marking the poles of inaccessibility of main
landmasses
,
Great Britain
, and the
Iberian Peninsula
, and a blue dot marking the oceanic pole of inaccessibility. Thin isolines are 250 km (160 mi) apart; thick lines 1,000 km (620 mi).
Mollweide projection
.
