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Antarctica is the world's largest desert
Antarctica qualifies as a desert because it receives very little precipitation, despite being covered by ice.
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Canada has the world's longest coastline
Canada has more coastline than any other country, with estimates exceeding 200,000 kilometers.
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The coldest recorded air temperature was in Antarctica
Vostok Station recorded an air temperature of -89.2°C (-128.6°F) on July 21, 1983.
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Mauna Kea is taller than Everest from base to summit
Measured from its base on the ocean floor, Mauna Kea rises more than 10,000 meters, taller than Mount Everest's height above sea level.
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Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa
Every part of Lesotho's international border meets the same neighboring country: South Africa.
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Earth's longest mountain range is underwater
The mid-ocean ridge is the longest mountain range on Earth at 40,389 miles, and about 90 percent of it is under the ocean.
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North America's lowest point is in Death Valley
Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in North America, 282 feet below sea level.
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The Mississippi River flows 2,350 miles
The Mississippi flows 2,350 miles from its source at Lake Itasca and is the second-longest river in North America.
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The biggest eruption of the 1900s was in Alaska
The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century occurred in 1912 at Novarupta on the Alaska Peninsula.
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The world's highest tides are in Canada
The highest tides in the world are in Canada's Bay of Fundy, at Burntcoat Head in Nova Scotia.
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Forty percent of Americans live in coastal counties
Almost 40 percent of the U.S. population lives in coastal counties, which make up less than 10 percent of the land in the contiguous United States.
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Death Valley holds the world heat record
The world record highest air temperature, 134 degrees Fahrenheit, was recorded at Furnace Creek in Death Valley on July 10, 1913.
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North America's tallest mountain is 20,310 feet
Mount McKinley, in Alaska's Denali National Park, rises 20,310 feet and is the tallest mountain in North America.
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The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure
The Great Barrier Reef stretches 1,429 miles and is the largest living structure on Earth.
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Point Nemo is the farthest place from land
Point Nemo in the Pacific Ocean is about 2,688 kilometers from the nearest land, farther than any other spot in the ocean.
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White Sands is the largest gypsum dunefield on Earth
The dunes of White Sands in New Mexico cover 275 square miles, the largest gypsum dunefield in the world.
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The Sargasso Sea has no coastline
The Sargasso Sea, which lies entirely within the Atlantic Ocean, is the only sea without a land boundary.
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The deepest point in the ocean is nearly 11 km down
Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, is about 10,935 meters (35,876 feet) deep.
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Two ice sheets hold most of Earth's fresh water
The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets together contain more than 99 percent of the land ice and over 68 percent of the fresh water on Earth.
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The Pacific holds more than half of Earth's free water
The Pacific Ocean covers about 63 million square miles and contains more than half of the free water on Earth.
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The Colorado River runs 277 miles through Grand Canyon
The Colorado River travels 277 miles through Grand Canyon and descends about 2,000 feet along the way.
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Most of the largest earthquakes strike the Pacific rim
About 81 percent of the planet's largest earthquakes occur along the rim of the Pacific Ocean, in the Ring of Fire.
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One park holds more than 2,000 stone arches
Arches National Park has over 2,000 documented arches, the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world.
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Earth has one global ocean
There is only one global ocean, a single body of water that covers 71 percent of the Earth.
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The international date line was set in 1884
The international date line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific and roughly follows 180 degrees longitude.
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Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States
Crater Lake is 1,943 feet deep, the deepest lake in the United States.
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The largest waterfall on Earth is underwater
The world's largest waterfall is in the ocean beneath the Denmark Strait.
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Yellowstone has more than 500 geysers
Yellowstone has more than 10,000 hydrothermal features, and more than 500 of them are geysers.
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Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano on Earth
Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the largest active volcano on the planet.
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Most of Earth's volcanoes are on the seafloor
The greatest number of Earth's volcanoes occur on the ocean floor.
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