Nature's extremes

From the bone-dry Atacama Desert to a really rainy village in India, from the highest peaks to the darkest depths - our Earth is an amazing place. Check out some of nature's most extreme spots!

Image: AP

A woman rows a boat as she heads one of the Uros floating islands on the Titicaca Lake in Puno, Peru

Coldest place on Earth: East Antarctic Plateau

It's more than a little chilly on this high ridge in Antarctica. On a cold winter's night, temperatures plummet as deep as -92 degrees Celsius (-133.6 degrees Fahrenheit). This could change in the future though: US scientists have just measured the highest monthly global CO2 concentration since the beginning of modern records. Greenhouse gas is a chief contributor to global warming.

Image: EPA/YONHAP NEWS AGENCY

Hottest place on Earth: Death Valley, United States

The sweltering heat reached in the Death Valley National Park in the US state of California is far too hot even for avid sun worshipers. The highest-ever temperature recorded here at Greenland Ranch was 56.67 degrees Celsius (134 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 10, 1913. That's more like stepping into a furnace than enjoying a warm summer day.

Image: gemeinfrei

A landscape shot of Death Valley National Park

Highest place on Earth: Mount Everest, Nepal

The world's highest peak is the summit of Mt. Everest in the Himalaya mountain range, at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet). The first people to climb it were Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Nepali Sherpa climber Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953. The earthquake that devastated Nepal on April 25, 2015, also sent avalanches down Mt. Everest, killing at least 18 people and ending the climbing season.

Image: Getty Images/P. Bronstein

Earth's lowest point: Challenger Deep, Pacific

You'll have to enter a submarine to reach Earth's lowest spot: Challenger Deep lies in the Mariana trench in the western Pacific Ocean, north of Guam. Only three people have ever been that deep underwater - one of them was filmmaker James Cameron, who took a submarine down the 11-kilometer-long (6.8-mile) undersea valley in 2012.

Image: REUTERS

Filmmaker James Cameron's Deepsea Challenger submarine

The driest spot on Earth: Atacama Desert, Chile

If you ever get sick of constant drizzle in your hometown, the Chilean Atacama Desert is the place to go. At its heart, a place climatologists call absolute desert, there are locations that have never seen a single drop of rain - or at least not since humans started measuring it there.

Image: picture alliance/Stuart Keasley/Robert Harding

Dune patterns in the Atacama Desert, Chile, South America

Wettest place on Earth: Mawsynram, India

The people in the state of Meghalaya in northeastern India, close to the border of Bangladesh, probably wouldn't mind sending a little of their precipitation over to South America. The village of Mawsynram is considered the wettest place on Earth, with average annual rainfall of 11.86 meters (39 feet). By comparison, London gets about 65 centimeters (25 inches) of rain per year.

Image: BIJU BORO/AFP/Getty Images

An Indian pedestrian walks through heavy fog at Mawsynram village in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya and considered the "wettest place on earth"

Most populated city on Earth: Shanghai, China

Just over 24 million: That's how many people live in the African nation of Angola - or in the Chinese city of Shanghai. With so many people, the megalopolis is fighting worsening air quality. Increasing emissions from cars and buses, as well as ever more construction projects, contribute strongly to smog.

Image: Imago

Nanjing Road - a busy shopping street in Shanghai

Highest navigable lake on Earth: Lake Titicaca

Puma Rock - which is what Titicaca means in the Inca language Quechua - is the highest lake in the world that humans can traverse by boat. Located on the borders of Peru and Bolivia, it also lays claim to another extreme: the body of water with the largest volume in South America. If you visit, definitely visit the Uros islands, which are completely made of reeds.