HARSHEST PLACES ON EARTH

These locales give the Red Planet a run for its money.

COLDEST PLACE ON EARTH

Average daily temperatures in Oymyakon, Russia, the coldest permanently inhabited settlement in the world, hover around –45°C in the winter. The frigid town’s record low is –68°C. Only Antarctica’s Vostok Station has recorded a lower temperature.

HIGHEST ELEVATION

La Rinconada, Peru, a gold-mining town in the Andes Mountains, sits at more than 5 090 m above sea level, making it the highest settlement in the world. Scientists are working with locals to understand the effects of the thin air – half the oxygen of that at sea level – on their bodies.

DRIEST

INHABITED PLACE

Chile’s Atacama Desert has long been heralded as the driest place on Earth. Quillagua, a town situated on the north-western outskirts of the desert, holds the record for driest inhabited location in the world, with an average 0.05 mm of rain per year.

MOST NATURALLY RADIOACTIVE PLACE ON EARTH

Residents of Ramsar,

Iran, who live atop a slab of radioactive limestone, are exposed to a whopping 260 mSv of radiation each year. That’s 13 times higher than the public dose limit recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.