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The Dead Sea shoreline is Earth’s lowest exposed land surface point.

The Claim

The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth's land surface.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

Standard geographic sources identify the Dead Sea as the lowest point on Earth’s land surface. The only significant caveat is that some subglacial bedrock in Antarctica lies far lower, but that is not normally counted as land surface. The Dead Sea’s exact elevation changes over time, but the claim’s core meaning is correct.

Caveats

  • Some Antarctic subglacial terrain, such as beneath Denman Glacier, is much lower than the Dead Sea, but it is buried under ice and usually excluded from 'land surface' rankings.
  • The Dead Sea’s level is not fixed; published figures vary by year because the sea is shrinking.
  • This refers to the exposed surface/depression around the Dead Sea, not the deepest point of the water body or Earth’s lowest bedrock.

The Receipts

  1. Elevation

    National Geographic

  2. Recent and projected changes in Dead Sea level and effects on mineral production from the sea

    USGS

  3. Rates of Decline

    USGS

  4. The Dead Sea

    NASA

  5. Dead Sea

    NASA Science

  6. The Dead Sea

    NASA Science

  7. Dead Sea

    Wikipedia

  8. Extremes on Earth

    Wikipedia

  9. List of places on land with elevations below sea level

    Wikipedia

  10. List of elevation extremes by country

    Wikipedia

+ 21 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Dead SeaEarth

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