The 13 Strongest Earthbenders From 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' And 'The Legend of Korra,' Ranked

Born blind to aristocratic parents, Toph Beifong is an earthbending prodigy that effectively taught herself the skill (with the help of some giant badgermoles). Toph's training under the badgermoles allowed her to use their unique ability of seismic sense: she used earthbending to "feel" even the most minute vibrations in the earth, including the march of ants several meters away and the presence of trees and buildings, allowing her to visualize her surroundings and "see" the world around her. 

Toph discovered the ability to bend metal when she was captured by Master Yu and Xin Fu and trapped in a metal box. Because of Toph's ability to feel the vibrations in earth, she was able to locate impurities (small fragments of earth) still found in most metals and manipulate them to "bend" the metal portion. By acquiring these metalbending abilities, Toph had shown herself to be one of the most powerful and ingenious earthbenders in the world.

Living well beyond 100 years of age, King Bumi was a master earthbender who was one of, if not the best in the world. His bending style was very conservative and stressed waiting for exactly the right moment to strike; however, when the aforementioned moment did come, he demonstrated extremely powerful techniques.

Bumi could levitate entire houses, extremely large pieces of stone, create fissures with kicks into the ground, turn ordinary dirt into quicksand, quickly tunnel through the ground, and, most extraordinarily, earthbend exclusively with his face with little to no handicap. With rock pillars, Bumi could launch himself or heavy metal objects such as tanks into the air, and once toppled a large metal statue from underneath. 

Kyoshi was an Earth Kingdom-born Avatar that preceded Avatar Roku. She died at age 230 and was an exceptionally tall woman. As the Avatar, Kyoshi was able to bend the four elements at will; however, her most well known feat is rooted in her native bending tradition of earthbending.

When Chin the Conquerer advanced towards Kyoshi's home village, she entered the Avatar State and split a peninsula from the Earth Kingdom mainland, pushing it out to sea by earthbending a massive fissure, lavabending the crust the peninsula sat upon and (with a little help from some airbending), set her newly created island adrift, ending Chin's reign in the process.

Chief of Republic City's metalbending police force and eldest daughter of Toph Beifong, Lin is an earthbending master that does her mother proud. Like her renowned mother, Lin has mastered earthbending to a similar level. She is able to easily elevate multiple large boulders simultaneously, as well as launch herself high up into the air. 

Lin has also demonstrated a great mastery over the seismic sense technique, which allows her to detect the layout of the surrounding area and the people within it with great accuracy and detail. Thus, she is easily able to locate subterranean structures, as well as determine with accuracy who is within the general vicinity. Like Toph, Lin's ability is limited without direct skin contact, requiring her to either use her hands or retract the soles on her boots. 

Lin is especially proficient in the specialized art of metalbending. She is able to rip metal beams or floors from their bearings and single-handedly tear apart an airship's metal hull. For more general use, Lin uses her standard retractable metal cables, which are highly versatile in battle. With them, she is able to perform considerable feats of acrobatics, easily maneuvering around cavernous locations, such as the Pro-bending Arena. She can also fashion them as wrist blades for close-quarters combat. 

Founder and leader of Zaofu and the youngest daughter of Toph Beifong, Suyin Beifong is a powerful earth and metalbender.  Like her mother and half-sister, Suyin is a proficient earthbender, having mastered both the traditional style and its sub-skill, metalbending; she is able to seamlessly shift between styles or utilize both in perfect unison during battle. She is capable of maneuvering her way through a barrage of earth projectiles with no wasted movement, as well as employing the seismic sense technique with precision.

Suyin's prowess in metalbending enabled her to lead in the construction of an entire city out of metal. Her control over metal is fine enough to bend liquid metal that she cannot see, as exemplified by her bending a large amount of mercury out of Korra's body after she was poisoned. Suyin also used her metalbending to great use in combat, holding her own against Kuvira in a lengthy fight.

Ghazan was an earthbending master for the anarchist group, the Red Lotus. He possessed the rare ability to lavabend and utilized the ability to escape from a White Lotus prison after being given three small rocks. In combat, he showed immense skill when it came to redirecting earth projectiles launched at him with great speed and precision, as demonstrated when he fought the Dai Li and used their rock gloves against them.

Ghazan's most formidable ability was lavabending, a rare form of earthbending that allowed him to phase-change earth into lava and back. He displayed the ability to turn large patches of the ground into lava and otherwise manipulate lava with great dexterity, even liquefying earth being shot at him from another earthbender to use as a counterattack. A master of this destructive form of earthbending, he used his skills to take down the inner walls of Ba Sing Se and destroyed the Northern Air Temple with relative ease.