List of places on land with elevations below sea level
This is a list of places on land below mean sea level.
Places artificially created such as tunnels, mines, basements, and dug holes, or places under water, or existing temporarily as a result of ebbing of sea tide etc., are not included. Places where seawater and rainwater is pumped away are included. Fully natural places below sea level require a dry climate; otherwise, rain would exceed evaporation and fill the area.
All figures are in meters below mean sea level (as locally defined), arranged by depth, lowest first:
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)
lowest fixed water crossing in the world 31°52′27″N35°32′27″E / 31.87417°N 35.54083°E / 31.87417; 35.54083 in Jordan valley, Israel – West Bank – Jordan
Israeli town just south of the Dead Sea. 30°55′59.15″N35°22′36.11″E / 30.9330972°N 35.3766972°E / 30.9330972; 35.3766972 in Jordan valley, Israel – West Bank – Jordan
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)
Historic and ice-covered areas
Deeper and larger than any of the trenches in the list above is the Bentley Subglacial Trench in Antarctica, at a depth of 2,540 m (8,330 ft). It is subglacial, covered permanently by the largest glacier in the world. Therefore, it is not included in any list on the page. If the ice melted it would be covered by sea.
The biggest dry land area below sea level that has been known to exist during the geological past, as measured by continuous volume of atmospheric air below sea level, was the dry bed of the Mediterranean Sea of the late Miocene period during the Messinian salinity crisis.
^Jonathan Amos (December 12, 2019). "Denman Glacier: Deepest point on land found in Antarctica". BBC. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
^Mathieu Morlighem; Eric Rignot; Tobias Binder; Donald Blankenship; Reinhard Drews; Graeme Eagles; Olaf Eisen; Fausto Ferraccioli; René Forsberg; Peter Fretwell; Vikram Goel; Jamin S. Greenbaum; Hilmar Gudmundsson; Jingxue Guo; Veit Helm; Coen Hofstede; Ian Howat; Angelika Humbert; Wilfried Jokat; Nanna B. Karlsson; Won Sang Lee; Kenichi Matsuoka; Romain Millan; Jeremie Mouginot; John Paden; Frank Pattyn; Jason Roberts; Sebastian Rosier; Antonia Ruppel; Helene Seroussi; Emma C. Smith; Daniel Steinhage; Bo Sun; Michiel R. van den Broeke; Tas D. van Ommen; Melchior van Wessem; Duncan A. Young (2019-12-12). "Deep glacial troughs and stabilizing ridges unveiled beneath the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet". Nature Geoscience. 13 (2): 132–137. Bibcode:2019NatGe..13..132M. doi:10.1038/s41561-019-0510-8. S2CID 209331991. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
^"News Story – Bedmap2 gives scientists a more detailed view of Antarctica's landmass". News Story – Bedmap2 gives scientists a more detailed view of Antarctica’s landmass. NERC BASS. 8 March 2013. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
^Scheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980). Natural Wonders of the World. United States of America: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. p. 378. ISBN 0-89577-087-3.