All about the most remote ocean point on Earth

Text by Jonno Turner

Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez

What's in a name? The most remote point in the ocean lies in the South Pacific Ocean and is known as ‘Point Nemo’, or the ‘Pole of Inaccessibility’.

It's not named after stripey cartoon fish. In fact, the name 'Nemo' comes from Captain Nemo, a character in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea — not the film Finding Nemo.

Don't expect to find a gift shop. You see, Point Nemo isn't an actual 'point' as there's no land there — it's simply a spot in the ocean that happens to be 2,688 kilometres (or 1,450 nm) from the nearest land.

And even that land isn't exactly welcoming. It's called Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands to the north, and it's a non-inhabited, C-shaped strip of land with a diameter stretching hardly two kilometres. So by the time you get there, you might wish you hadn't bothered.

Don't forget to look up! If you pass Point Nemo at the right time of day, you'll be closer to the astronauts in the International Space Station some 400km up in space, than any other humans on earth.

In Latin, 'nemo' translates as 'no man' - which pretty much sums up how bleak this part of the world is!

Back to the 90s. In 1992, a Croatian-Canadian survey engineer called Hrvoje Lukatela used a geospatial computer program to find Point Nemo. He figured that because the Earth is three-dimensional, its most remote ocean point must sit the same distance away from three nearest coastlines.

Make sure you pack your map. Point Nemo is based at 48°52.6′ south, 123°23.6′ west. You know, in case you fancy a visit.