Wanna find Point Nemo? Look here
© zooom.at / Matea Zlatkovic
From BBC by Ella Davies
Where do you go to get away from it all?
When the stress of everyday
life pushes you to search for the most remote point on Earth, you might
be surprised to learn there are actually a few to choose from.
But
if you have decent sea legs, nothing beats the furthest point from
land, also known as the "oceanic pole of inaccessibility".
Since
its official title is a bit of a mouthful, it has been nicknamed Point
Nemo, after author Jules Verne's famous seafaring anti-hero Captain
Nemo.
The name means "no-one" in Latin which is fitting for a place so
rarely visited by man.
Point Nemo is located over 1,000 miles
(1,600km) equidistantly from the coasts of three far-flung islands.
Ducie Island (one of the Pitcairn islands) is to the north, Motu Nui (of
the Easter Island chain) is to the north-east and Maher Island (off the
coast of Antarctica) is to the south.
It is a rather peculiar place.
Experts had long discussed the geographical
conundrum of finding the middle of the ocean, but it took modern
technology to provide a full solution.
The oceanic pole of
inaccessibility was officially
discovered in 1992 by survey engineer Hrvoje Lukatela.
Instead
of launching an expedition, Lukatela stayed on dry land and calculated
the point's location using specialist computer software.
Rather than
simply putting a pin in a flat projection of the Earth, the software
incorporated the planet's ellipsoid shape for maximum accuracy.
It seems unlikely that the point will move significantly within the foreseeable future.
"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," says Lukatela.
It is possible
that better measurements, or coastal erosion, would shift the location
of Point Nemo, "but only in the order of metres".
Point Nemo is so
far from land, the nearest humans are often astronauts.
The
International Space Station orbits the Earth at a maximum of 258 miles
(416km).
Meanwhile the nearest inhabited landmass to Point Nemo is over
1,670 miles (2,700km) away.
The Mir space station, before it crashed into the Pacific (Credit: NASA Photo/Alamy)
In fact the whole region around Point Nemo is well known to space agencies.
The area is officially known to space agencies as
the "South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area". In particular, the Russian,
European and Japanese space agencies have long used it as a dumping
ground, because it is the point on the planet with the fewest human
inhabitants and the quietest shipping routes.
Over a hundred
decommissioned spacecraft are thought to now occupy this "spacecraft
cemetery", from satellites and cargo ships to the defunct space station
Mir.
Rather than single monuments to the history of space travel, the
remains are spread across the ocean floor in bits, says space
archaeologist
Alice Gorman of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
"Spacecraft
do not survive atmospheric re-entry whole," says Gorman. "Most of them
burn up in the fierce heat. The most common components to survive are
fuel tanks and pressure vehicles, which are part of the fuel system.
These are generally made of titanium alloys or stainless steel, often
encased in complex carbon fibres, which are resistant to high
temperatures."
While smaller fragments burn up in the atmosphere,
leaving nothing but an impressive light show, Gorman says the larger
parts of the 143-tonne Mir were reputed to have washed up on Fijian
beaches, while the rest sank to the ocean depths.
"Like
shipwrecks, they create habitats that will be colonised by anything and
everything that lives at that depth," says Gorman.
"Unless there is
residual fuel that leaks out, there should not be a hazard to aquatic
life."
Rumours have long swirled about what might live at Point Nemo.
Artist's impression of Cthulhu. It is best not to look
(Credit: Geo Images/Alamy)
Despite writing 66 years before its discovery, science fiction author HP
Lovecraft chose a site eerily close to the oceanic pole of
inaccessibility for R'lyeh, the home of his legendary tentacle-faced
creature
Cthulhu.
In 1997, oceanographers recorded a mysterious noise less than 1,240
miles (2,000km) east of Point Nemo.
This led to a great deal of
excitement, and a fair bit of trepidation.
The sound, dubbed "the
Bloop", was
louder than even a blue whale – leading to speculation that it was made by some unknown sea monster.
However, the Bloop has since been
confirmed to be the sound of ice
by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
When large
icebergs crack and fracture, they generate powerful,
ultra-low-frequency sounds. Subsequent recordings of known icequakes
have shared similarities with the Bloop.
So if Point Nemo is not really home to an octopus-man-dragon, what exactly does live there? According to oceanographer
Steven D'Hondt of the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett, possibly not much.
This is because the oceanic point of inaccessibility sits within the
South Pacific Gyre. This is a massive rotating ocean current: bound east
and west by the continents of South America and Australia, north by the
equator, and south by the strong Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
(2014 printscreen)
The waters within the gyre are stable, with a surface temperature of
5.8C (42F) at Point Nemo according to data from NASA satellites.
The rotating current blocks cooler, nutrient-rich water from coming in.
What's more, because the region is so isolated from land masses, the wind does not carry much organic matter.
As
a result, there is little to feed anything.
With no material falling
from above as "marine snow", the seafloor is also lifeless.
D'Hondt
describes it as "the least biologically active region of the world
ocean."
Still, there are a few exceptional points where unique creatures can survive.
Point Nemo is near the southern end of the East Pacific Rise, a
submarine line of volcanic activity that stretches up to the Gulf of
California.
It marks the boundary of the Pacific and Nazca tectonic
plates, which are gradually moving apart. Magma wells up in the gap
between the plates, creating hydrothermal vents that blast out hot water
and minerals.
It is an extreme environment, but bacteria thrive here, gaining their
energy from chemicals released by the eruptions. In turn, the bacteria
sustain larger creatures.
These include the "yeti crab", which was
first observed in 2005 and named for its hairy appearance.
There
is still much to be discovered in these depths, but its remoteness
makes Point Nemo an expensive and challenging destination for research.
Apart from the occasional round-the-world yacht race, there are hardly
any visitors.
That means it is unlikely to pop up on your social media,
so you have to use your imagination to picture it.
"On a calm day,
the sea surface in the heart of the South Pacific Gyre is simply
beautiful – clear cornflower blue, with a violet tone – because it
contains so little particulate matter and so little living material,"
says D'Hondt.
Or it would be, if it were not for littering.
When the virtual band Gorillaz released their 2010 album
Plastic Beach,
they created a fictional backstory: supposedly the music had been
recorded at a recording studio built on marine debris at Point Nemo.
This is not as entirely far-fetched as it might sound.
A study published in 2013
confirmed that there is a garbage patch within the South Pacific Gyre.
The biggest accumulation of waste was at the centre, around 1,550 miles
(2,500km) north-east of Point Nemo.
The garbage is mainly plastic
waste like polystyrene, film, fishing line, fragments and pellets washed
from ships and coastlines.
The rotating current traps the trash,
breaking it down into tiny pieces.
Biologists believe the rubbish could
could throw the ecosystem out of balance by helping some species proliferate while others suffer.
Even in the most remote spot on the planet, it seems there is no escaping humanity's wasteful habits.
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