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, lowest and/or points:

    How many young hearts have revealed the fact that what they had been trained to imagine the highest earthly felicity was but the beginning of care, disappointment, and sorrow, and often led to the extremity of mental and physical suffering.
    Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)

    We select granite for the underpinning of our houses and barns; we build fences of stone; but we do not ourselves rest on an underpinning of granitic truth, the lowest primitive rock. Our sills are rotten.
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    A bath and a tenderloin steak. Those are the high points of a man’s life.
    Curtis Siodmak (1902–1988)