Continent - Highest and Lowest Points

Highest and Lowest Points

See also: Extremes on Earth, Extreme points of Earth, and Seven Summits

The following table lists the seven continents with their highest and lowest points on land, sorted in decreasing highest points.

Continent Highest point Elevation (m) Elevation (ft) Country or territory containing highest point Lowest point Elevation (m) Elevation (ft) Country or territory containing lowest point
Asia Mount Everest 8,848 29,029 China and Nepal Dead Sea -422 −1,384.5 Israel, Jordan and Palestine
South America Aconcagua 6,960 22,830 Argentina Laguna del Carbón -105 −344.5 Argentina
North America Mount McKinley 6,198 20,335 United States Death Valley † -86 −282.2 United States
Africa Mount Kilimanjaro 5,895 19,341 Tanzania Lake Assal -155 −508.5 Djibouti
Europe Mount Elbrus 5,633 18,481 Russia Caspian Sea -28 −91.9 Russia
Antarctica Vinson Massif 4,892 16,050 Antarctica Deep Lake, Vestfold Hills † -50 −164.0 Antarctica
Australia Puncak Jaya 4,884 16,024 Indonesia (Papua) Lake Eyre -15 −49.2 Australia

† The lowest exposed points are given for North America and Antarctica. The lowest non-submarine bedrock elevations in these continents are the trough beneath Jakobshavn Isbræ (−1,512 metres (−4,960.6 ft)) and Bentley Subglacial Trench (−2,540 metres (−8,333.3 ft)), but these are covered by kilometers of ice.

Some sources list the Kuma-Manych Depression (a remnant of the Paratethys) as the geological border between Europe and Asia. This would place the Caucasus outside of Europe, thus making Mont Blanc (elevation 4810 m) in the Graian Alps the highest point in Europe - the lowest point would still be the shore of the Caspian Sea.

Read more about this topic:  Continent

Famous quotes containing the words highest and, highest, lowest and/or points:

    Let a man attain the highest and broadest culture that any American has possessed, then let him die by sea-storm, railroad collision, or other accident, and all America will acquiesce that the best thing has happened to him; that, after the education has gone far, such is the expensiveness of America, that the best use to put a fine person to is to drown him to save his board.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Lords and Commoners of England, consider what nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors; a nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to.
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    Every man needs slaves like he needs clean air. To rule is to breathe, is it not? And even the most disenfranchised get to breathe. The lowest on the social scale have their spouses or their children.
    Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their constituents what they should say, but are themselves the country which they represent: nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and so true as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)