You weigh least on the summit of Huascarán in Peru
#0037 Science & nature
Fact rank
A
The values were confirmed in the paper itself (primary). Not S because the paper calls them "candidate" locations: they are model estimates computed from terrain and satellite data
Wow rank
S
There is a pinpointed place on Earth where you weigh the least
Usefulness
—
A fact worth knowing for its own sake
Verification: Supported by evidence
AI verification reports the evidence it found; it does not guarantee that a claim is true.
The weakest gravity on the Earth's surface is on the summit of Huascarán in Peru (6,768 m, about 9°S), about 9.764 m/s², and the strongest is near the surface of the Arctic Ocean, about 9.834 m/s². The two ends differ by about 0.7%: a person who reads 80.0 kg in Sapporo would read about 79.7 kg on Huascarán and about 80.2 kg on the Arctic Ocean.
Why
Near the surface of the Arctic Ocean you are close to the rotation axis, so there is almost no centrifugal force, and you are not on the equatorial bulge, so you are closer to the centre. The summit of Huascarán is the opposite: near the equator, where centrifugal force is large, and high up, far from the centre.Evidence
Primary Manuscript of Hirt et al. (2013, Geophysical Research Letters). Candidate minimum: Huascarán summit, 9.76392 m/s²; maximum: Arctic Sea, 9.83366 m/s²; a range of about 0.7%, about 40% larger than the 0.5% of standard models. Relative to Sapporo, 80.0 kg becomes 79.67 kg / 80.24 kg (checked by calculation) link
Secondary Curtin University media release (2013). Earth's gravitational pull is smallest on the top of Huascarán in the Andes and largest near the North Pole link
Notes and limits
The maximum is not at the North Pole itself but at the surface of the Arctic Ocean at 86.71°N (the paper's value). From latitude alone both poles would be about 9.832 m/s², but the South Pole sits on ice about 2,800 m high, which alone lowers it to about 9.823 (checked by calculation). This is a different record from Chimborazo, the summit farthest from the Earth's centre (#0014). Huascarán comes out lowest because it is near the equator and high up (the paper does not give detailed reasons). The English Wikipedia article "Gravity of Earth" gives the same figures.
Derivations
Derived from: 富士山頂では体重計の数字が約0.1％軽く出る
Derived facts: —