<p>What you want is known as a hypsograph or a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/hypsometric-curve" rel="nofollow noreferrer">hypsographic/hypsometric curve</a> which shows the distribution of elevations of the Earth's land surfaces (and can be extended to include the distribution of depths in the oceans). You can find such curves on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypsometry" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia Hypsometry</a> page.</p>
<p>Interesting higher resolution versions for each of the Earth, Moon, Mars, and Venus are shown in <a href="https://www.earth.northwestern.edu/individ/donna/venustopo11.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Paul R. Stoddard and Donna M. Jurdy, Icarus 217 (2012) 524-533">&quot;Topographic comparisons of uplift features on Venus and Earth: Implications for Venus tectonics</a>.</p>
<p>If you want to create your own hypsograph for the Earth with higher resolution, you can download the data from the <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/etopo-global-relief-model" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ETOPO Global Relief Model</a>. You'll need to read the <a href="https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/relief/ETOPO2022/docs/1.2%20ETOPO%202022%20User%20Guide.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ETOPO 2022 User Guide</a> and get the appropriate software to extract the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoTIFF" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GeoTIFF</a> formatted data. Appropriate libraries exist for <a href="https://rasterio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Python</a> and other languages. <a href="https://gis.stackexchange.com">GIS Stackexchange</a> is a good place to ask questions about <a href="https://gis.stackexchange.com/search?q=hypsometric">hypsometric curves</a> or <a href="https://gis.stackexchange.com/search?q=geoTIFF">geoTIFF</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-18T21:41:27.953Z
2022-12-18T21:41:27.953Z
David Bailey
<p>I wonder whether there's a way of learning how much of the Earth's surface is above or below a certain altitude (land on air only, i.e. excluding seas and oceans and land underwater).</p>
<p>E.g. the lowest/deepest point of the Earth's surface on land is the shore of the Dead Sea at 1355 ft below sea level standard. So above 1356 ft (413.3 m) below sea level 100% of the Earth's surface there are. The highest point of the Earth's surface is the summit of Mt Everest so 100% of the Earth's surface are within 29,032 ft (8849 m) above sea level. Now if I wanted to know how much of the Earth's surface is within say 10,000 ft (3048 m) above sea level, is there a good way to find out?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-17T06:36:18.990Z
Maybe more challenging than it sounds?  You'd have to use a full elevation dataset of the world and gather the elevation frequencies for every location.  A computationally intensive project perhaps?
JeopardyTempest
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-17T07:01:50.473Z
@JeopardyTempest I think one needs a topographic map or something.
Giovanni
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-17T07:09:54.340Z
Interesting point, I suppose that does shortcut the compiling of the frequency, as it sort of already does that.  Think one could reasonably use a GIS package to calculate the area in each topographic layer then, smart thinking.
JeopardyTempest
<land-surface><mathematics><altitude>
How or where to find out how many percent of the Earth's surface is above/below a certain altitude?
Giovanni
# How or where to find out how many percent of the Earth's surface is above/below a certain altitude?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-16)

I wonder whether there's a way of learning how much of the Earth's surface is above or below a certain altitude (land on air only, i.e. excluding seas and oceans and land underwater).

E.g. the lowest/deepest point of the Earth's surface on land is the shore of the Dead Sea at 1355 ft below sea level standard. So above 1356 ft (413.3 m) below sea level 100% of the Earth's surface there are. The highest point of the Earth's surface is the summit of Mt Everest so 100% of the Earth's surface are within 29,032 ft (8849 m) above sea level. Now if I wanted to know how much of the Earth's surface is within say 10,000 ft (3048 m) above sea level, is there a good way to find out?

**Tags:** land-surface, mathematics, altitude

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Maybe more challenging than it sounds?  You'd have to use a full elevation dataset of the world and gather the elevation frequencies for every location.  A computationally intensive project perhaps?  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I think one needs a topographic map or something.  
> **username_1**: Interesting point, I suppose that does shortcut the compiling of the frequency, as it sort of already does that.  Think one could reasonably use a GIS package to calculate the area in each topographic layer then, smart thinking.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-12-18. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

What you want is known as a hypsograph or a [hypsographic/hypsometric curve](https://www.britannica.com/science/hypsometric-curve) which shows the distribution of elevations of the Earth's land surfaces (and can be extended to include the distribution of depths in the oceans). You can find such curves on the [Wikipedia Hypsometry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypsometry) page.

Interesting higher resolution versions for each of the Earth, Moon, Mars, and Venus are shown in ["Topographic comparisons of uplift features on Venus and Earth: Implications for Venus tectonics](https://www.earth.northwestern.edu/individ/donna/venustopo11.pdf "Paul R. Stoddard and Donna M. Jurdy, Icarus 217 (2012) 524-533").

If you want to create your own hypsograph for the Earth with higher resolution, you can download the data from the [ETOPO Global Relief Model](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/etopo-global-relief-model). You'll need to read the [ETOPO 2022 User Guide](https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/relief/ETOPO2022/docs/1.2%20ETOPO%202022%20User%20Guide.pdf) and get the appropriate software to extract the [GeoTIFF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoTIFF) formatted data. Appropriate libraries exist for [Python](https://rasterio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html) and other languages. [GIS Stackexchange](https://gis.stackexchange.com) is a good place to ask questions about [hypsometric curves](https://gis.stackexchange.com/search?q=hypsometric) or [geoTIFF](https://gis.stackexchange.com/search?q=geoTIFF).


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