Point Nemo, the absolute nowhere land on Earth

There is abundant information on the web about Point Nemo. Still I found that publishing a short and nicely informative post  might be of interest, and surely it has to do with Ultima Thule. I had promised the year of 2021 would not be finished without a new post, so here it is.

The  designation Point Nemo, a tribute to Captain Nemo, was assigned to the most inaccessible place on the planet, the most distant from any access by land; more precisely, this is the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility.

That place's location is on the Pacific Ocean, more than 2 700 km equidistant of three islands:  Ducie Island, an atoll in Pitcairn archipelago, (British territory); the island of Motu Nui (part of the Easter Islands); and Maher Island off the coast of Antarctica. All are minuscule and uninhabited.

Motu Nui

Point Nemo was found in 1992 by the Croatian surveyor Hrvoje Lukatela using geospatial software, with which he modelled the ellipsoid form of Earth; he obtained then a greater precision locating the three equidistant points: "the location of three equilateral points is quite unique, and there are no other points on the Earth’s surface that could conceivably replace any one of those", he wrote.  

But if Point Nemo is over 2 700 km from any other place on Earth, that means the nearest human beings at times are astronauts aboard the I.S.S. ! When the station's orbit passes over those coordinates (48° 52.5′ S, 123° 23.6′ W), they are only 416 km far up, in a vertical direction.

Is there any form of life at Point Nemo?

In 1997, a NASA oceanographic team registered a mysterious sound less than 2000 km east of the site. That caused great commotion and some fear. The sound was named "Bloop"; it was stronger than what blue whales make, it was ultra-low-frequency submarine noise of great amplitude. Soon the fear arose of an unknown marine monster, or even a terrible new soviet super-submarine!

In the end, the team found its real nature: the underwater echo of great icebergs crashing and tearing in the Antarctic Ocean's depths. No horrendous chimera, as the Cthulhu suggested by Lovecraft.

Point Nemo is placed inside the South Pacific Giro (Gyre) , a large system of rotating oceanic currents, which is also the greatest oceanic desert, a region quite hostile to sea life. Ultraviolet radiation is extreme there, and water quite stable, reaching surface temperature around 7°C at Point Nemo. 

The whirling currents block out colder water, richer in nutrients, so the sea bed lacks life, it's the "least biologically active region of all oceans".  Nevertheless, the bacteria around volcanic chimneys allow for a few exceptional organisms, like the blind 'yeti' crab.

The North Pole of Inaccessibility, or Arctic Pole, is located on the Arctic Ocean, 1008 km far from any land (and also equidistant of three islands!), presently at 85° 48′ N, 176° 9′ W, some 100 km away from North Pole. Like the Pacific Pole, it lays in the middle of nowhere.

Going South to Antarctica, its Pole of Inaccessabilty was reached only in 2005 - with great difficulties in spite of modern vehicles -  by a Spanish expedition, 3000 meters high and -40º cold, the innermost place in the continent at 82° 53′ 14″ S, 55° 04′ 30″ E.

The Spanish team had modern technology for the uneven ice.

Before that, in 1958, a Russian Station had wrongly signed the Pole with a Lenine statue. It's still there, looking at nothing, meaning nothing,

Well, these Poles of Inaccessibility have a strong point now: they are places where you surely can use no mask and need not to vaccinate ! 

Have a nice ending of 2021 and a quite better New Year !