South America is home to a few peaks significant on the global scale. First of all, it is home to Ojos del Salado, the tallest volcano on Earth. Second, interestingly enough, although Everest is the highest mountain on the planet, Chimborazo is the closest one to space (or the furthest one from the centre of the Earth). This is due to the equatorial bulge, which is the difference between the equatorial and polar diameters of our planet. As the Earth rotates around its axis, the centrifugal force around the equator propels the Earth’s surface outwards, thereby making our planet a spheroid with a bulge around the equator rather than a proper sphere.

Thanks to the Andes, South America also hosts the 3 most elevated capital cities in the world, La Paz (3,640m), Quito (2,850m) and Bogotá (2,625m). An unexpected consequence of that is the advantage the Bolivian national football team gains when hosting games in La Paz. During the qualifiers for World Cups 2006 – 2010, the Bolivian team won 14 and drew 10 games at home and simultaneously won none and drew 2 away.

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