Earth Points Worksheet Template With Answers printable pdf download

The highest, lowest and deepest points on Earth

Name: _____________________________________________ Period: _____ Date: ___________

Essential Question: How is Earth’s surface changed by plate movements?

Earth's geology and tectonics has created amazing geology and geologic features. This article

briefly describes the deepest points and the highest points on Earth.

There are actually two deepest points on Earth: the Mariana Trench

in the Pacific Ocean, and the Dead Sea in Israel.

The Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean is the deepest point on

Earth at about 11 km (6.8 mi). The highest mountain above sea level,

Mount Everest, can fit neatly into the Marianas Trench with more than a

mile to spare.

The Marianas Trench is in the western North Pacific Ocean, southeast of the Mariana Islands, near

Guam. The trench is actually the point where the Pacific and the

Philippine tectonic plates meet or converge ( convergent boundary ), and

the Pacific plate is forced under the Philippine plate. The Pacific plate is

denser than the Philippine plate that is why is sinks or undergo the process

of subduction. The deepest area of the Marianas Trench is Challenger

Deep, at 10,900 meters, 35,760 ft. The sea pressure at that depth is 108.6

MPa, over one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea

level. The Marianas Trench has been measured by American, British,

Soviet, and Japanese vessels using echosounding devices, pressure depth

devices, and bathyspheres.

The Dead Sea in Israel is the deepest point on land at 418 meters (1,371 feet) below sea level. The Dead Sea

is inside the Jordan Rift Valley, which was formed when the

Arabian tectonic plate moved away or diverged from the African

tectonic plate ( divergent boundary). At that time the Mediterranean

Ocean flooded the rift, but the flow of water was stopped when the

Jordan Rift Valley rose to form the prehistoric Lake Gomorrah. As

the freshwater lake evaporated and became saltier, the lake turned

into Lake Lisan. Continued evaporation has shrunken the lake into

the present-day Dead Sea, one of the saltiest bodies of water on

Earth. There are no streams that flow out of the Dead Sea, and the

Jordan River is the only river that flows into the Dead Sea.

There are two highest points: Mount Everest on the

border of Tibet and Nepal, and Mauna Kea in

Hawaii, a volcano. Mount Everest is the highest

mountain above sea level on Earth, at 8,848 meters

(29,029 feet). Mount Everest is part of the

Himalayan mountain range, and is located on the

border of Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal, and Tibet,

China. The Himalaya were formed by the titanic

collision

( convergent boundary) of the Indian

tectonic plate with the Eurasian tectonic plate 50 million years ago, causing the crust to fold and up thrust to

form the Himalayan mountains. The Indian plate is still moving, making the Himalayan mountains

Earth Points Worksheet Template With Answers

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