Uni Students' Corner

World Records

Wealthiest University - Harvard Univerisity (US) In 2000 the endowment was A$19 billion. Gradutes include 7 US presidents.
 World Highest Capital City  - La Paz, Bolivia ( 12,000 ft )
World Biggest City - Mexico
World Tallest Office Building - Twin Tower at Malaysia

Earth

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World Largest Island - Greensland
World Largest Ocean - Pacific Ocean ( covering more than 1/3 of the earth's surface at 166,241,700 km2  or 64,186,000 miles2 with an average depth of 3,940m or 12,925 ft )
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World Greatest Depth  - Pacific Ocean, 11,033 m ( 39,198 feets )
Highest Active Valcano - The Ojos del Salado on the border between Vhile & Argentina at 6887 m (22,595 ft) high.
World Largest Sand Island

 - Fraser Island, Australia, featuring 90 miles beach, many lakes and a huge plethora of flora and fauna.

World Largest Desert - The Sahara Desert in North Africa at 9,000,000 sq km (3,500,000 sq miles).
World Highest Mountain - Mt. Everest ( Chomolungma ) at Nepal - Tibet, 8863 m (29,078 feets)
World 2nd Highest Mountain  - K2 (Chogori) at Kashmir - China, 8607m ( 29,238 feets)
World 3rd Highest Mountain - Kangchenjunga at Nepal - Skkim, 8586m ( 28,215 feets )
Highest Mountain at South America - Aconcagua at Argentina-Chile, 6959m ( 22,831 feets )
Highest Mountain at North America - McKinley (Denali) at USA, 6194m (20,320 feets)
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Highest Mountain at Africa  - Kilimanjaro at Tanzania, 5895m (19,341 feets)
Highest Mountain at Europe - Elbrus at Russia, 5642m (18,510 feets)
Highest Mountain at Antarctica - Vinson Massif, (5140m or 16,864 feets )
Highest Mountain at Oceania  - Wilhelm at Papua New Guinea, 4509m ( 14, 793 feets )
World Deepest Trench  - Marianas Deep in the South Pacific Ocean.
World Longest River  - Amazon at Peru - Brazil, 6750 m ( 4195 feets )
Longest River at Africa  - Nile at Uganda - Ethiopia - Sudan - Egypt - Zaire - Congo, 6670 m (4145 feets )
Longest River at Asia  - Chang Jiang at China, 6380 m ( 3965 feets )
Longest River at Oceania  - Murray-Darling at Australia, 3824 m ( 2376 feets )
Longest River at Europe  - Volga at Russia, 3530 m ( 2193 feets )
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Longest River at Antarctica  - Onyx, 30m ( 19 feets )

Earth Matters

Largest Diamond - on January 26, 1905, the 'Cullinan', a 3,106-carat diamond was found at the Premier Diamond Mine, near Pretoria, South Africa. It was given to the reigning British monarch, Edward VII and cut into 106 polished diamonds, produced the largest cut fine quality  diamond, the "Star Of Africa", which weight 530.2 carats and tops the Royal Sceptre, part of the British Crown Jewels.
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Deepest Ice Drilling - in July 1993, the deepest-ever ice borehole was reported to have reached the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet, a depth of 3,053.51 m (10,018 ft). This milestone was achieved after five years' drilling by US researchers.
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Deepest Ocean Drilling - in 1993, the Ocean Drilling Program's vessel JOIDES Resolution carried out the deepest recorded drilling below the sea bed, descending to 2,111 m (6,926 ft in the eastern equatorial pacific). The greatest amount of core recovered during a single leg of the Ocean Drilling Program's work was 6,731 m (22,083 ft) in 1995.
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Deepest Underground Nuclear Explosion  - on June 18, 1985, a 2.5 kiloton nuclear device was detonated at the bottom of a shaft 2,850 m (9,350 ft) deep at a site 60km (37 miles) south of Nefte-yugamsk, Siberia in the former USSR. The detonation was an attempt to simulate oil production.
Deepest Mine - on July 13, 1977, miners reached a depth of 3,581 m (11, 749 ft) at the Western deep Levels Gold Mine in Carletonville, Transvaal, South Africa. The mine is unpleasantly warm at its lowest levels because of geothermal heating and miners are kept cool with water hoses. The mine has a hoisting  shaft 2,072 m  (6,800 ft) deep with a lift that winds at an ear-popping maximum speed of 1,095 m (3,595 ft) per minute.
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Largest Oil Field - The Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia, which was developed by Aramco (Saudi Arabia), is 240 km (150 miles) long and 35km (22 miles) wide. As oh May 2000, then oil field estimated to contain between 70-85 billion barrels of proven reserves.
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Largest Oil Gusher - The largest known 'wildcat' oil gusher blew near Qum, Iran on August 26, 1956. The uncontrolled oil gushed to a height of 52 m (170 ft), at a rate of 120,000 barrels per day. The gusher was closed after 90 days' work by B Mostofi and Myron Kinley (USA).

Weired Weather

Driest Place on earth - Between 1964 and 2001 the average annual rainfall for the meteorological station in Quillagua (above, situated AT LAT 21o38'S, long 69o33'W), in the Atacama Desert, Chile, was just 0.5 mm (0.02 in). this discover was made during the making of the documentary series Going To Extremes, by Keo Films in 2001.
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Wettest Place (average): Tututendo, Colombia, mean annual rainfall 11 770 mm.
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Heaviest Hailstones - The heaviest hailstones ever recorded weighed up to 1kg (2 lb 2.4 oz) each. They are reported to have killed 92 people when they fell in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh of April 14, 1986. 
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Heaviest Snowfall (continuous): Bessans, Savoie, France, 1 730 mm in 19 hours, April 5-6, 1969

 

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Heaviest Snowfall (season/year): Paradise Ranger Station, Mount Rainier, Washington, USA, 31 102 mm, February 19, 1971, to February 18, 1972.
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Hottest Place on Earth - The hottest place on Earth is the air around a lightning strike. For a fraction of a second, the air is heated to an incredible 30,000oC (54,000oF). This is roughly equivalent to five times hotter than the visible surface of the sun.
Other
Longest Quarantined  Island - In 1942, Gruinard island, Scotland, UK, was quarantined after a test release of anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) that killed a flock of sheep. The test was carried out to gather chemical warfare data. The quarantine was lifted 48 years later, on April 24, 1990. Worldwide, 2000 cases of human infection from anthrax are reported annually.
Longest Residential Building The Trump World Tower in New York City, USA, is the World's tallest purely residential building, standing 262.5m(861 ft) high. The tower has 72 storeys, although the luxuriously lofty ceilings make it taller than most other buildings with similar number of floor.
Tallest Observation Wheel The 'British Airways London Eye', designed by architects David Marks and Julia Barfield ( both UK) has a diameter and height of 135m (443 ft) and made its first 'flight' on 1 February 2000. It is the fourth-tallest structure in London, UK and can carry up to 800 passengers. 
Tallest Cinema The World's tallest cinema complex is the UGC Cinema, Glasgow, Strathclyde, (203 ft 4.9 in) It holds 18 screens, has a seating capacity of 4,277 and is 12 storeys high. The cinema opened on 21 September 2001.
Tallest Opera House The Civic Opera House at 20 North Wacker Drive in Chicago, lllinos, USA, is an imposing 45-storey skyscraper made from limestone and is able to accommodate 3,563 people. The building opened in 1929.
Tallest Office Building  In March 1996, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, overtook the Sears Tower's record as the world's tallest office building. Stainless-steel pinnacles 73.5m (241 ft) long placed on top of the 88-storey towers brought their height to 451.9 m (1,482 ft 8 in). The Sears Tower has 110 storeys and is 443m (1,453 ft 6 in) tall.
Tallest Totem Pole A totem pole 54.94m (180ft 3 in) tall, called 'Spirit of Lekwammen' ('land of the winds'), was raised on 4 August 1994 at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, prior to the Commonwealth Games held there that year.
Tallest Cathedral Spire The World's tallest cathedral spire is that of the Protestant cathedral of Ulm in Germany. Work on the building began in 1377, but the tower in the centre of the west facade, which is 160.9m (528 ft) high, was not completed until 1890.
Tallest Minaret The tallest minaret in the world is that of the Great Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca, Morocco, which is 200m ( 656 ft) high. The cost of the mosque's construction was 5 billion dirhams (€360 million or $513.5 million). Among minarets of earlier centuries the tallest is the Qutb Minar, south of New Delhi, India, built in 1194 to a height of 72.54m (238 ft)
Tallest Chimney The coal power-plant No 2 stack at Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan, completed in 1987, is 420m (1,378 ft ) tall. Its diameter tapers from 44m (144 ft) at the base to 14.2m (46 ft 7 in) at the top, and it weighs 60,000 tonnes (132,277,200 lb). The stack is on a par with the world's fourth-tallest office building, Shanghai's Jin Mao Tower, which is 421m (1,381 ft) tall.
Tallest  Monument The world's tallest monument is the stainless-steel Gateway to the West arch in St Louis , Missouri, USA, which was completed on 28 October 1965. The monument was erected to mark the westward expansion in the USA following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, in which the United States bought the state of Louisiana from France. The Gateway is a sweeping arch spanning 192m ( 630 ft) and rising to the same height. Designed in 1947 by the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, it cost $29 million (€7 million) at the time.
Tallest Flagpole The tallest flagpole in the world is at Panmunjon, North Korea. It is 160m (525 ft) high and flies a flag 30m (98.5 ft) long. The flagpole is the result of a propaganda war between the two countries, and was reportedly built in a nearby South Korean village. 
Tallest Statue A bronze status of Buddha measuring 120m (394 ft) high, was completed in Tokyo, Japan, in January 1993. A joint Japanese-Taiwanese project, which took seven years to complete, it is 35m ( 115 ft) wide and weighs 1,000 tonnes (22,204,600 lb). 
Tallest Lighthouse  The steel 'Marine Tower' lighthouse at Yamashita Park in Yokohama, Japan, stands 106m (348 ft) high. It has a power of 600,000 candelas ( a candela is a basic unit of luminous intensity), a visibility range of 32 km (20 miles) and an observatory 100m (328 ft) above the ground. It was built to mark the 100th anniversary of the first recorded trade between Yokohama and the West, in 1854.
Tallest Fountain At its full pressure of 26.3kg/cm2 (375 lb/in2) and a rate of 26,500 litres/min (5,850 gal/min), the fountain at Fountain Hills Arizona, USA, produces a column of water that reaches a height of 171.2m (562 ft).
Tallest Free-Standing Structure The tallest free-standing structure on Earth is the Petronius oil and gas drilling platform, which stands 570m (1,870 ft) above the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico. Operated by Texaco, it began production on 21 July 2000. The highest point on the platform, the vent boom, is over 610m (2000 ft) above the ocean floor, making it more than 50m ( 165 ft) taller than Toronto's CN Tower.
Tallest Fully Rotating Tower The Glasgow Tower at the Glasgow Science Centre, Glasgow, Strathclyde, UK, is 127m (416 ft) tall and is the tallest tower in the world capable of fully rotating through 360 degrees from base to top. It opened in spring 2001.
Tallest Structure Ever The all-time height record for any structure is the guyed Warszawa Radio mast at Konstantynow, 96 km ( 60 miles) north-west of the capital of Poland. The mast was designed by Jan Polak and, prior to it fall during renovation work on 10 Augest 1991, it stood 646.38m (2,120 ft 8 in) tall and weighed 550 tonnes (1,212,500 ib0. It was completed on 18 July 1974 and put into operation on 22 July 1974.

The tallest structure in the world today is a stayed television transmitting tower 629m (2,063 ft) tall, between Fargo and Blanchard, North Dakota, USA. It was built for Channel 11 of KTHI-TV in 30 days (2 October to 1 November 1963) by 11 men from Hamilton Erection, Inc (USA). From that time until the completion of the Warszawa Radio mast, the tower was the tallest structure in the world, a title that it regained following collapse of the Warszawa mast. 

Highest habitable Floor in a Skyscraper Chicago's Sears Tower has the highest habitable floor of any skyscraper. Its 110 storeys rise to 443m (1,454 ft). Although the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur is the world's tallest office building, its top floor (the 88th) is around 60m (200ft) lower.
Largest Mud Building The Grand Mosque in Djenne, Mali, measuring 100m (328ft) long and 40m (131 ft) wide, is the largest mud building in the world. The present structure was built in 1905 and is based on the design of an 11th-century mosque. Rendered annually, it is surmounted by two massive towers and inside there is a forest of vast columns that take up almost half the floor space.
Largest Film Stage The world's largest film stage is the '007' stage at Pinewood Studios, Bucks, UK, which measures 102x42x12m (336x139x41 ft). Designed by Michael Brown (UK), it was built in 1976 for the James Bone film The spy who love me (UK,1977), when it accommodated 4.54  million litres (1.2million gal) of water, a full-scale section of 544,311- tonne (1.2million-lb) supertanker and three scaled-down models of nuclear submarines 
Largest Free Standing Advert  The two faces of an advertising sign at the Hilton Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, have a total area of 6,512.3m2 (70,100 ft2). The sign is 85.03m (279 ft) high and features more than 9.65km ( 6 miles) of neon and fluorescent lights.  
Largest Planetarium The planetarium at the Ehime Prefectural Science Museum, in Niihama City, Japan, has a massive dome with a diameter of 30 m (98 ft 5 in). It displays up to 25,000 stars and viewers can also observe space as seen from other planets
Largest Airport Roof The Hajj Terminal at the €2.8-billion ($5.6-billion) King Abdul-Aziz airport near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, designed to cater for the annual influx of pilgrims, is the world's largest roofed structure, covering 1.5km2 (0.6 miles2).
Largest Stadia Strahov Stadium in Prague, czech Republic, completed in 1934, is the world's largest stadium. It has a seating capacity of 240,000 people.

Opened in 1968, the largest covered stadium is the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico. It can accommodate 107,000 football spectators, with nearly all seats under cover.

With a maximum seating capacity of 97,365 for convections and 76,791 for American football, the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, holds the indoor stadium record. It is 83.2m (273 ft) tall, covers 5.26 ha (13 acres), and cost $173 million (€78 million). It was completed in May 1975

Largest Retractable Roof The world largest retractable roof covers the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in June 1989, the roof covers 3.2 ha (8 acres), spans 209m (674 ft) at its widest point and rises to 86m  (282 ft). It weighs a massive 11,000 tonnes (24.6 million lb) -the same as 6,000 cars-and takes 20 minutes to open fully. When retracted the entire field and 91% of the seats are un covered.
Largest Nightclub Privilege nightclub in lbiza, Spain, can hold 10,000 clubbers on its 6,500m2 (69,968 ft2) of dance space, spread over three floors. this is the larger than an American football field, which cover 5,500 m2 (59,202 ft2). One end of the venue is sheet glass to allow the morning sun to shine through. A swimming pool, fountains and gardens add to the ambience. The club is the venue for the legendary Monday Manumission all-nighters

 

Largest Art Gallery You have to walk an amazing 24km (15 miles) to visit each of the 322 galleries of the Winter Palace within the State Hermitage Museum in ST Petersburg, Russia. The galleries house nearly three million works of art.
Largest Library Founded in 1800, the US library of Congress in Washington DC, USA, contains more than 125,198,175 items. The collection include 18 million books, 2.5 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.5 million maps and 54 manuscripts on its 856km (532 miles) of shelving. The library takes up 265,000m2 (2.85 million ft2) of the capitol Hill buildings with additional offices world-wide.
Largest Museums The American Museum of Natural History in New York City, USA, founded in 1869, comprises a total of 23 interconnected buildings. The buildings of museum and  the planetarium contained 111,000m2 (1.2 million ft2) of the floor space, accommodating more than 30 million artifacts and specimens, and the museum attracts approximately three million visitors each year.

Comprising 16 museums and the National Zoological Park in Washington DC, USA, the Smithsonian Institution contains over 140 million items and has over 6,000 employees

Largest Cinema Complex Kinepolis Madrid, which opened in Madrid, Spain, on 17 September 1998, is the world's largest cinema complex. It has a total seating capacity of 9,200 for its 25 screens which, individually, can seat between 211 and 996 people.
Largest Pyramid The largest pyramid, and the largest monument ever constructed , is the QuetzalcÓatl Pyramid at Cholula de Rivadavia, 101 km (63 miles) south-east of Mexico City, Mexico. It is 54m (177 ft) tall, and its base covers an area of nearly 18.2 ha (45 acres). It total volume has been estimated at 3.3 million m3 (116.5 million ft3), compared with the volume of 2.4 million m3 (84.8 million ft3) for the Pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops), the largest pyramid in Giza, Egypt.
Largest Wind Generator The Mod-5B generator in Oahu, Hawaii, USA, has two giant blades measuring 97.5m (320 ft) from tip to tip, the same as the height of a 25 storey building. The turbine produces 3,200kw (4,290 hp) when the wind reaches 51 km/h (32 mph).
Largest Wind Tunnel The largest test section at the NASA Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, Palo Alto, California, USA, measures 36x24m (118x79 ft). It is powered by six giant 17,000-KW (22,500-hp) fans with blades measuring 12m (40 ft) from tip to tip. 
Most Capacious Building Boeing's (USA) assembly plant at Everett, Washington, USA has an indoor floor area of 39.8 ha (98.3 acres) and a total volume of 13.4 million m3 (472 million ft3).Completed in 1968, the building has to be big, because Boeing's 747,767 and 777 aircraft-among the world's largest-are assembled there.
Largest Shopping Centre West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, covers an area of 492,000 m2 (5.3 million ft2) It cost CAN$1.2 billion ($789 million or €700 million) and features more than 800 stores and services. Over 20,000 vehicles can park in the world's largest car park. The mall also houses the  world's largest  indoor amusement park, indoor waterpark and man-made lake.
Largest Film Studio Universal City, Los Angeles, California, USA, is home to the largest film studio complex in the world. The site, called the Back Lot, measures 170 ha (420 acres), and comprise 561 buildings and 34 sound stages. It was built on the site of a chicken ranch in 1915 and the first visitors were able to buy eggs on their way out 
Furthest Distance to move a Lighthouse To save the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina, USA, from a receding shoreline, the National Park Service (NPS) decided to move it around 0.8km (0.5 mile) further inland. After replacing its granite base with steel supports and hydraulic jacks on rollers, engineers began moving the 63-m-high (207 ft) lighthouse along a specially designed track on 17 June 1999. It reached its destination, around 883 m (2,900 ft) from its original location, on 9 July 1999
Deepest Road Tunnel The Hitra Tunnel in Norway, linking the mainland to the island of Hitra, reaches a depth of 264m (866 ft) below sea level. The tunnel is 5.6 km (3.8 miles) long, with three lanes, and was opened in December 1994. It is so deep that if you were to use its floor as the foundation for a building, you would need to build a 66-storey tower before reaching the surface of the sea above.

Source : Information below were collected from different kind of sources, such as magazine, newspaper, internet, Guinness World Records, Book Of Facts ( Readers' Digest ) and others.

www.often.tk, last modified : February 22, 2003