SIMONROGERSON
The end of the map
Simon Rogerson looks at the concept of geographical remoteness , identifying some of the loneliest places on our planet
Hello there . I ’ m filling in until we find someone to replace our recently retired science writer , Michelle Haywood . Around this time of year – glass of brandy in hand , fire burning in the grate – I like to pore over the charts in search of promising dive locations . It occurred to me the other day , that for every place I ’ ve visited , no matter how remote , there ’ s always been talk of some even more isolated spot , with stories of strange beasts and undiscovered shipwrecks .
Zoom in on any lonely patch of ocean , and you ’ ll find satellite islands you ’ ve never heard of , always claimed by a nation , yet unoccupied save for penguins ( or puffins , depending on the hemisphere ). The UK ’ s example would be Rockall , the uninhabitable clump of rock 187 miles beyond the outer island group of St Kilda , West Scotland . It ’ s a legend in the diving community , a place so hard to access that stories of actually diving there take on a mythic quality .
Let ’ s go to extremes . If you ’ re looking for splendid isolation , the place to go isn ’ t the wide Pacific , but the turbulent South Atlantic . It ’ s home to the volcanic island of Tristan Da Cunha , technically the most remote populated point on Earth , some 1,750 miles from South Africa . The most remote rock of them all is Bouvet Island , a completely uninhabited speck in the South Atlantic , in the sub-Antarctic zone . What would diving be like around such a lonely patch of rock and glaciers ?
Want to go further ? Without leaving the planet , the most distant point from any land whatsoever is the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility , 1,680 miles from the nearest land points of Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Group ( to the north ); Motu Nui off Easter Island to the north east and Maher Island off Antarctica to the south . This no-man ’ s land has been dubbed Point Nemo (‘ Nemo ’ being Latin for no-one ). Sometimes , the nearest humans are the astronauts on the International Space Station as it passes by overhead .
Does this removal from human habitation guarantee a rich and thriving marine ecosystem ? Unfortunately , no . All signs are that the waters around the Pole are relatively lifeless , as its location relative to the South Pacific Gyre blocks oxygenrich nutrients from entering its vicinity . Scientists have described Point Nemo as being the least biologically active region of the world ocean .
While researching this article , I tried to establish a maximum depth for the area , but the data doesn ’ t seem to be in the public domain ( does anyone have a chart ?). In the absence of any land or seamounts , I think it ’ s safe to say the seabed is the Pacific Abyssal Plain ... which would put the maximum depth somewhere between 3,000 to 6,000 metres . A lot of water , not much else .
Given this apparent lack of life , it came as a surprise when , in 1997 , oceanographers reported one of the loudest underwater sounds ever recorded , apparently coming from the Point Nemo vicinity . Such was the mystery attached to this subsea cacophony , it was dubbed ‘ the Bloop ’; there was even speculation it was some Lovecraftian sea monster striding its abyssal kingdom . Amid
fevered speculation , boffins at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finally worked out that it was the sound of a giant iceberg fracturing , hundreds of miles away in Antarctica .
There ’ s another reason to expect odd noises in the otherwise serene Point Nemo neighbourhood : falling space junk . As the area is safely located away from humanity , it has been used for disposal of decommissioned satellites and larger bodies such as the aging International Space Station ( ISS ). The idea is that space debris planned to re-enter the earth ’ s atmosphere around Point Nemo is the least likely to land among human habitation . So when the ISS is finally decommissioned , it will be ‘ aimed ’ to enter the atmosphere and plummet into the Pacific at Point Nemo , its end ( possibly ) witnessed only by a few passing trevallies .
By that point its toxic fuels and propellants should all have been burned up in the atmosphere , and the final pieces of debris will settle 4,000 metres below the surface , an artificial reef with a mile-long debris trail , in the middle of nowhere . �
• For your expedition planning , Point Nemo can be found at 45 º 52.6S , 123 º 23.6W
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