Geographical Records
Amazing Geographical Records List
It’s often hard to verify geographical records, partly because they change over time and partly because of conflicting information from different sources. We’re always on the lookout for new geographical records to add to the list so please do add your suggestions.
- ADDucation’s geographical records list was compiled by Robert Junker, last updated .
| Superlative | Geographical Records |
|---|---|
| Highest mountain | Mount Everest in the Himalayas (Nepal, Tibet): 29,000 feet (8,848 m). |
| Second highest mountain | K2 in the Karakoram (Pakistan): 28,250 feet (8,611 m). |
| Biggest mountain range | The Himalayas: 1,550 miles (2,500 km) long and 95-175 miles (150-280 km) wide. |
| Longest mountain range | Longest mountain range above sea level: Andes, about 4,300 miles (7,500 km) long. |
| Longest mountain chain | Longest mountain chain below sea level: Mid-ocean ridge (Atlantic): up to 4,970 miles (8,000 km) long and 3,730 miles (6,000 m) high. |
| Highest active volcano | Ojos del Salado (Chile, Atacama): 22,595 feet (6,887 m). |
| Longest river | Nile (Source: Ruandaberge): 4,145 miles (6,671 km) long. |
| Largest river by area | Amazon: about 2,7 million square miles (7 million km2). |
| Highest waterfall | Angel Falls (Venezuela): 3,209 feet (978 m). |
| Biggest ocean | Pacific Ocean: 70 million sq miles (181.4 million km2). |
| Biggest lake | Caspian Sea (RUS / KAZ / IRAN): 149,000 sq miles (386,500 km2). |
| Largest freshwater lake | Lake Superior in Canada: 84,130 km2. |
| Saltiest lake | Don Juan Lake in East Antarctica: 44.2% (compared with the Dead Sea: 27%). |
| Deepest lake | Lake Baikal (Russia): -5,375 feet (-1,638 m). |
| Largest lake in the world | Caspian Sea: 18,880 cubic miles (78,700 km3). |
| Largest tropical rainforest | Amazon rainforest (aka Amazonia): Covers 2,123,562 sq miles (5,500,000 km2) including parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Suriname. |
| Largest tropical wetland | Pantanal: Between 54,000 and 75,000 square miles (140,000 to 195,000 km2) located mostly in western Brazil extending into Bolivia and Paraguay. |
| Largest island | Greenland, part of Denmark: 822,500 sq miles (2.13 million km2). |
| Largest island and continent | Australia: 2,934,375 sq miles (7.6 million km2). |
| Largest island in a lake | Manitoulin in Lake Huron in Canada: 1,072 sq miles (2,777 km2). |
| Biggest country | Russia: 6,592,695 sq miles (17,075,000 km2). |
| States on Earth | 206, of which 193 are recognized states of the United Nations (UN). |
| Largest city in the world |
Tokyo is the largest city (metropolis) with a population around 38 million (December 2016). |
| Largest continent | Asia: 17,220,156 sq miles (44.61 million km2), 47 countries with a total of 4 billion people (60.5%). |
| Second largest continent | Africa: 11,698,900 sq miles (30.3 million km2), 54 countries with a total of 1 billion people (15%). |
| Largest canyon | Grand Canyon: Between 3,280-5,905 feet (1,000-1,800 m) deep and between 277-217 miles (446-350 km) long. |
| Deepest canyon | It depends what you mean by deepest and where you measure from. The Indus gorge (at the confluence of the Indus and Gilgit rivers) is 23,360 ft (7,120 m) deep from peak to river which is 2,000 ft (600 m) deeper than the Kali Gandaki Gorge and 5,000 ft (1,500 m) deeper than the Yarlung Tsangpo Gorge which measures 19,714 feet (6,009 m) at its deepest point. These make up the three deepest canyons in the world – probably! |
| Deepest point on Earth | Vitiaz Deep (formerly Challenger Deep) in the Mariana Trench (western Pacific): -36,000 feet (-11,000 m). |
| Hottest places | Al Azizia in Libya: 58° (measured Sep 13, 1922) and Death Valley (USA): 56.7°. |
| Coldest places | Probably “Ridge A” located between Dome Argus (Dome A) and Dome Fuji in Antarctica where -93.2°C (-135.76 F) was measured by satellite data on 10 August 2010. Vostok Station, Antarctica directly measured -89.2°C (-128.6 F) at ground level on 21 July 1983. |
| Wettest location | Mount Waialeale on Kauai in Hawaii: 493 inches (1254 cm) rain/year. |
| Driest area | Atacama (Chile): virtually no rain. |
| Biggest desert | Sahara: 3,500,000 sq miles (9 million km2) which is almost as large as the entire USA or 37 times larger than the UK. |
| Temperatures in the Sahara | Daytime up to 60 °C, nights below 0°. |
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- Spotted a mistake? Have any other geographical records we can add to this list? Please add your comments below…
Great facts, really helpful
Thank you very much for such important information.
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon
The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon (or Tsangpo Canyon), along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, is regarded by some as the deepest canyon in the world at 5,500 m (18,000 ft). It is slightly longer than the Grand Canyon in the United States
Hi Romeo, thanks for your follow up. I’ve now added a Deepest canyon entry and listed the three contenders.
the most populated city is tokyo not shangai
Hi Romeo, thanks for pointing out Tokyo is the largest city. Tokyo is really a massive metropolitan area covering three Japanese prefectures (Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama) and includes dozens of other cities including the six large cities of Saitama, Chiba, Kawasaki, Yokohama and Sagamihara. Finding up to date and comprehensive stats covering all those sources to arrive at an exact figure is beyond the scope of this list.
You only mention 3 biomes – desert, mountains, ocean. How about largest tropical rain forest, largest deciduous forest, largest temperate rain forest, largest coniferous forest, largest wetlands, largest grasslands, etc.?
Hi Juliet, thanks very much for your suggestions. I’ve added the largest tropical rainforest and largest tropical wetland to the list. Researching the single largest grassland (including steppe, savanna and prairie grasslands) has so far proven elusive. A list of Biames would be a useful ADDucation page so I’ve added that to our todo list. Thanks!