Home World The most remote spot on Planet Earth where the closest land is...

The most remote spot on Planet Earth where the closest land is over 1,600 miles away


The remotest spot on the planet, where the closest land is 1,670 miles away, gaining it literary and cultural attention.

The area is about 34 times larger than France and is mostly lifeless, with marine life remaining particularly undeveloped due to its remoteness and weak ocean currents. This means that not enough nutrients exist to support more developed, larger wildlife.

The point was named after the famous Captain Nemo, from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the famously antisocial submarine sailor who swapped company for roaming the seas in his submarine, Natuilus.

For those seeking the ultimate uncrowded spot, Point Nemo – or the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility – is found in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the water is just above freezing. “Nemo” also derives from the Latin word for “no one”.

The area was officially discovered in 1992, by Croatian survey engineer Hrvoje Lukatela and has not been explored in person much since. In 2022, using OpenStreetMap data and Google Maps data, Lukatela recalculated the coordinates in order to compare those results with those he first calculated using the Digital Chart of the World data – the most comprehensive geographical information system.

Instead, it has become a cemetery for space debris, including the Mir Space Station in 2001, which was operated by the Soviet Union and then Russia. The point is used when the trajectory or re-entry is being calculated for the de-orbiting process. It is the favoured resting place for the International Space Station when it is dismantled, due to take place by the end of 2030.

In addition to being over 1,600 miles away from land, you would have to travel a staggering 2,500 miles to reach the nearest inhabited islands – the Chatham Islands in New Zealand or Chile. In fact, the closest people to Point Nemo are often those on the International Space Station when it flies overhead at about 250 miles.

Often referred to as the last great adventure known to humanity, the closest land masses is the Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands to the north, Motu Nui, adjacent to Easter Island to the northeast and Maher Island off the coast of Antarctica to the south.

Point Nemo is also often believed to be a refuge for mythical creatures. In 1997, deep microphones recorded the famous Bloop sound on the seabed. The National and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that the quake was simply a giant iceberg, but imagination goes beyond that, with urban legends suggesting the sound was emitted by Cthulhu, a monster who lives in the fictional city of R’lyeh from the universe of writer H.P. Lovecraft.

The comparative land Poles of Inaccessibility can be found at the frozen poles, located on the Arctic Ocean pack ice in the north and on the Antarctic continent to the south at the site of a disused Soviet Union research station.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here