EXTREMES ON THE EARTH

Here you can find answers to questions about extremes on the Earth

The largest islands in the world

The largest island in the world is Greenland. It is located between the Arctic and the North Atlantic Ocean. It includes the northwest of Canada and Iceland. So three quarters of the country lies within the Arctic Circle.
Greenland is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean which lies in the southwest of Greenland, Greenland Sea borders the east, the Arctic Ocean is to the north and the Baffin Bay is to the west.

Some sources note Australia as the largest island in the world. It is the question if it is the continent or an island.

1. Greenland - 2,175,600 sq km
2. New Guinea - 808,510 sq km
3. Borneo - 745,561 sq km
4. Madagascar - 587,040 sq km
5. Baffin Island - 507,451 sq km
6. Sumatra - 473,606 sq km
7. Honshu - 227,414, sq km (belongs to Japan)
8. Great Britain - 218,476 sq km
9. Victoria Island - 217,291 sq km
10. Ellesmere Island - 196,236 sq km

The largest islands in Europe

1. Great Britain - 229,957 sq km
2. Iceland -103,000 sq km
3. Ireland - 83,766 sq km
4. West Spitsbergen - 39,368 sq km
5. Sicily - 25,400 sq km (belongs to Italy)
6. Sardinia - 23,800 sq km (belongs to Italy)
7. North East Land - 15,000 sq km
8. Cyprus - 9,251 sq km
9. Corsica - 8,720 sq km (belongs to France)
10. Crete - 8,260 sq km (belongs to Greece)

The largest continents

As there are only seven continent the list of them is very short. If you think there are only six continents the reason is that North and South America are considered to be a continent of America. Sometimes you can read also about Eurasia. Europe is divided from Asia by Ural Mountains and therefore there are notices about the joined landmass. The continent definition speaks about the major landmass and in this case it is questionable.

1. Asia - 44,391,162 square km
2. Africa - 30,244,049 square km
3. North America - 24,247,039 square km
4. South America - 17,821,029 square km
5. Antarctica - approx 14,245,000 square km
6. Europe - 10,354,636 square km
7. Australia - 7,686,884 square km

The largest cities in the world

There is so many list of the largest cities that we think it is impossible to stipulate the unambiguous answer. Therefore we present the list of the lasrgest cities in the world as we think it can be used:

1. Tokyo in Japan
2. Mexico City in Mexico
3. Seoul in South Korea
4. New York in United States of America
5. Sao Paulo in Brazil
6. Mumbai in India
7. Delhi in India
8. Shanghai in China
9. Kolkata in India
10. Jakarta in Indonesia

We would like to add also these largest urban areas: Cairo in Egypt, Los Angeles in USA, Buenos Aires in Argentina , Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Moscow in Russia.

The largest countries in the world

The smallest countries in the world

The smallest countries in the world are very popular between travelers. Many of them are located in Europe. Here you can see the list of the smallest countries in the world:
1. Vatican - 0,44 square km
Vatican City is the world's smallest country. Vatican is located within the city of Rome in Italy.
2. Monaco - 1,95 square km
3. Nauru - 21 square km
4. Tuvalu - 26 square km
5. San Marino - 61,2 square km
6. Liechtenstein - 160 square km
7. Saint Kitts and Nevis - 261 square km
8. Maldives - 300 square km
9. Malta - 316 square km
10. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - 389 square km

The highest mountains in the world

There are many high mountains in the world. The highest of all of them is Mount Everest in Asia. Mount Everest is also known as Chomolungma and also as Sagarmatha.

The highest mountain in North America
McKinley 6,194 meters (location: Alaska in USA)

The highest mountain in South America
Aconcagua 6,960 meters (location: Argentina)

The highest mountain in Europe
Elbrus, Russia (Caucasus): 18,510 feet / 5642 meters (location: Russia)
Some sources note as the highest mountain in Europe Mont Blanc, the mountain located on the borders of France and Italy. The altitude of Mont Blanc is 4,807 meters.

The highest mountain in Africa
Kilimanjaro 5,895 meters (location: Tanzania)

The highest mountain in Asia
Everest 8,850 meters (location: Nepal, China)

The highest mountain in Australia
Kosciusko 2, 228 meters (location: New South Wales in Australia)

The highest mountain in Antarctica
Vinson Massif 4,897 meters (location: Antarctica)

The largest lakes in the world

If we are looking for the largest lake in the world, we can see the area or volume. According the volume is the largest lake Baikal (also known as Bajkal).

According area is the list as follows:

1. Caspian Sea - 371,000 sq km (location: Asia)
2. Lake Superior - 82,100 sq km (location: North America)
3. Lake Victoria - 68,800 sq km (location: Africa)
4. Lake Huron - 59,600 sq km (location: North America)
5. Lake Michigan - 57,800 sq km (location: North America)
6. Lake Tanganyika - 32,900 sq km (location: Africa)
7. Baikal - 30,500 sq km (location: Asia)
8. Great Bear Lake - 31,328 sq km (location: North America)
9. Lake Malawi (also known as Lake Nyasa) - 30,044 sq km (location: Africa)
10. Great Slave Lake - 28,568 sq km (location: North America)

The majority of the largest lakes are located in North America.

The longest rivers in the world

The question what is the longest river in the world is not so easy to answer. Some sources speak about Nile and other about Amazon. We present the longest rivers as follows:

1. Nile River - 6,695 km (location: Africa)
2. Amazon River - 6,516 km (location: South America)
3. Yangtze River - 6,380 km (location: Asia)
4. Mississipp River and Missouri River - 5,969 km (location: North America)
5. Ob-Irtysh Rivers - 5,568 km (location: Asia)
6. Yenisey River, Angara River, Selenga River - 5,550 km (location: Asia)
7. Huang He (well known as Yellow River) - 5,464 km (location: Asia)
8. Congo River -4,667 km (location: Africa)
9. Rio de la Plata River, Parana River - 4,500 km (location: Soouth America)
10. Mekong River - 4,425 km (location: Asia)

Extremes according latitude

The northernmost city according latitude

1. a small city - Alert in Canada / 82°28′N 62°30′W
2. a capital city - Nuuk in Greenland / 64°10′N 51°44′W
3. a capital city of an independent country - Reykjavik in Iceland / 64°08′N 21°56′W

The southernmost city according latitude

1. a small city (settlement) - Amundsen-Scott Base in Antarctica / 90°00′S 139°16′E
2. a capital city of an independent country - Wellington in New Zealand / 41°17′S 174°47′E

The northernmost country according latitude

1. Greenland
2. Canada
3. Russia
4. United States of America
5. Finland
6. Sweden
7. Iceland
8. Faroe Islands
9. United Kingdom
10. Estonia

The southernmost country according latitude

1. Chile
2. Argentina
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. South Africa
6. Uruguay
7. Brazil
8. Lesotho
9. Namibia
10. Paraguay

The most time zones country

1. Russia (9 time zones)
2. Canada, USA (each country has 6 time zones)
3. Greenland (4 time zones)