Nemo Point: the most isolated location on the planet

Point Nemo... It has nothing to do with the clown fish! It is the scientific term for the "inaccessible oceanic pole", that is, the place in the ocean farthest from visible lands. This South Pacific location, where no one is in any direction within an area of 22 million square kilometers, still holds mysteries to uncover...

Geographical location of Nemo Point

In Latin, the word "nemo" means "no one." Due to its location far from human life and visible lands, the "inaccessible oceanic pole" is called the "Nemo Point". Navigation professionals may be interested to know that it is located at 48°52.6′ South latitude and 123°23.6′ W longitude.

To visualize the vastness of the area, you need to know that the closest land to Nemo Point is 2,700 kilometers away: Douci Island in the Pitcairn Islands, to the north, Motu Nui Island next to Easter Island, to the northwest, and Motu Nui Island next to Easter Island, to the northwest. Maher Island in Antarctica south. To the west, you'll travel all the way to the Chatham Islands, in New Zealand, and to the east, all the way to Chile to find another living soul.

Biologically dead zone?

Nemo Point actually refers to an area in the South Pacific that is about 34 times the size of France, where marine life is thought to have developed only with difficulty: its remoteness and weak ocean currents mean there are not enough nutrients in the water for more sophisticated and larger terrestrial organisms to survive.

Scientists want to know more about the oceanic mechanisms operating in this region and its bottom. The officially inaccessible oceanic pole, by conclusion, was discovered in 1992 and has not really been explored since.

A key point for the space industry

The closest humans to Nemo Point don't travel by boat but astronauts on the International Space Station, who fly just under 400 kilometers above the area!

But that is not all. Space agencies are well versed in the Nemo point: they use it when calculating the return path during the "out of orbit" process. It is where the spacecraft that have been decommissioned die. For example, when the Russian space station Mir was decommissioned, the inaccessible oceanic pole was chosen as the place to collide with Earth to ensure that debris from its return to the atmosphere would not cause damage to Earth.

As a result, a veritable spacecraft cemetery has been created over the years around Nemo Point. NASA prefers it to be the final resting place of the International Space Station, which must be dismantled or remodeled in 2024. But the US agency also plans to get rid of the space telescopes that currently drive space astronomy in this region of the South Pacific.

Nemo Point: A Place for Fiction

The farthest from land in the ocean is of course named after Captain Nemo, the main character of 20,000 leagues underwater. In Jules Verne's novel, he is described as anti-social, avoiding the company of others by roaming the oceans in his submarine, the Nautilus.

The idea of such a remote place in the ocean has been a great success as a literary metaphor. American science fiction author H.P. Lovecraft chose a location in the South Pacific near the inaccessible oceanic pole of the isolated fictional city of Rleia, where the malicious cosmic entity Ktholo was imprisoned. More recently, the Gorillas virtual band, created by British musician Damon Albarn, released Plastic Beach, an album based on a continent located at the same latitude and longitude as the point of Nemo. It is dedicated to preserving the marine environment!