Editing Pole of inaccessibility (section)

==Oceanic pole of inaccessibility==
[[File:Location of Point Nemo in the South Pacific Ocean.png|thumb|Location of Point Nemo in relation to three closest coastline points]]
The oceanic pole of inaccessibility, also known as '''Point Nemo''', is located at roughly {{Coord|48|52.6|S|123|23.6|W|format=dms}}<ref name="Where is Point Nemo">{{cite web | url=https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nemo.html |title=Where is Point Nemo? |work=[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]] |access-date=1 January 2023 }}</ref> and is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land. It represents the solution to the "longest swim" problem.<ref name="Point Nemo, revisited">{{cite web |last=Lukatela |first=Hrvoje |date=September 2022 |title=Point Nemo, revisited |url=http://www.lukatela.com/pointNemoRevisited/index.html |website=lukatela.com}}</ref> The problem entails finding such a place in the world ocean where, if a person fell overboard while on a ship at sea, they would be as far away from any land in any direction as possible. It lies in the [[South Pacific Ocean]], and is equally distant from the three closest land vertices which are each roughly {{Convert|2688|km|abbr=on}} away. Those vertices are [[Pandora Islet]] of the [[Ducie Island]] atoll (an island of the [[Pitcairn Islands]]) to the north; [[Motu Nui]] (adjacent to [[Easter Island]]) to the northeast; and [[Maher Island]] (near the larger [[Siple Island]], off the coast of [[Marie Byrd Land]], Antarctica) to the south.<ref name="Where is Point Nemo"/> The exact coordinates of Point Nemo depend on what the exact coordinates of these three islands are, since the nature of the "longest swim" problem means that the ocean point is equally far from each.<ref name="Point Nemo, revisited"/>

The three nearest land points are {{Convert|2688|km|abbr=on}} away from Point Nemo, but on a map, the three islands nearest will be listed at slightly different distances, because maps list the distance to the center of each respective island instead of each of the exact coastal points on the islands used to calculate Point Nemo. 

The area is so remote that, since no regular marine or air traffic routes are within {{convert|400|km}}, sometimes the closest human beings are astronauts aboard the [[International Space Station]] when it passes overhead.<ref name="pointnemo"/><ref name=Plastic>{{cite news |title=Point Nemo is the most remote oceanic spot – yet it's still awash with plastic |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2018/may/18/point-nemo-is-the-most-remote-oceanic-spot-yet-its-still-awash-with-plastic |access-date=24 July 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=18 May 2018}}</ref>

The [[Antipodal point|antipode]] of Point Nemo – the point on the surface of the Earth that is diametrically opposite of it – is located at roughly {{Coord|48|52.6|N|56|36.4|E|format=dms}}, in the [[Aktobe]] region of western [[Kazakhstan]], roughly 50&nbsp;km (30 miles) SSE of the town of Shubarkuduk.

Point Nemo is relatively lifeless; its location within the [[South Pacific Gyre]] blocks nutrients from reaching the area, and being so far from land it gets little nutrient run-off from coastal waters.<ref name="pointnemo">{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161004-the-place-furthest-from-land-is-known-as-point-nemo |title=The Place Furthest from Land is Known as Point Nemo |last=Davies |first=Ella |date=5 October 2016 |publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=24 July 2019 }}</ref>

To the west the region of the South Pacific Ocean is also the site of the geographic center of the [[water hemisphere]], at {{Coord|47.411667|S|177.379167|E|format=dms|type:landmark_region:FR_scale:10000|display=inline}} near [[New Zealand]]'s [[Bounty Islands]]. The geographic center of the [[Pacific Ocean]] lies further north-west where the [[Line Islands]] begin, west from [[Starbuck Island]] at {{Coord|4.97|S|158.75|W|format=dms|type:landmark_region:FR_scale:10000|display=inline}}.<ref>{{cite web |work=International Journal of Oceans and Oceanography |volume=15 |issue=1 |year=2021 |title=Determining the Areas and Geographical Centers of Pacific Ocean and its Northern and Southern Halves |pages=25–31 |first=Arjun |last=Tan |publisher=Research India Publications |url=https://www.ripublication.com/Volume/ijoov15n1.htm | ref={{sfnref}} |issn=0973-2667 | access-date=18 July 2022}}</ref>

===History===
Point Nemo was first identified by Croatian survey engineer {{ill|Hrvoje Lukatela|fr}} in 1992.<ref name=Plastic/> In 2022, Lukatela recalculated the coordinates of Point Nemo using OpenStreetMap data and Google Maps data in order to compare those results with the coordinates he first calculated using [[Digital Chart of the World]] data.<ref name="Point Nemo, revisited"/>

The point and the areas around it have attracted literary and cultural attention, and the point has become known as Point Nemo, which is Latin for "nobody" and a reference to [[Jules Verne]]'s [[Captain Nemo]] from the 1870 novel ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas]]''.<ref name="pointnemo" /><ref name="Where is Point Nemo"/> The novel was a childhood favorite of Lukatela's, and such, he named the point after Captain Nemo.<ref name="Where is Point Nemo"/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.lukatela.com/pointnemo/ | title=Point Nemo |access-date= |website=lukatela.com|first= Hrvoje |last =Lukatela|date = 2022 }}</ref> The general area plays a major role in the 1928 short story "[[The Call of Cthulhu]]" by [[H. P. Lovecraft]], as holding the location of the fictional city of [[R'lyeh]], although this story was written 66 years before the identification of Point Nemo.<ref name="pointnemo" />

The wider area is also known as a "[[spacecraft cemetery]]", because hundreds of decommissioned satellites, space stations, and other spacecraft have been made to fall there upon re-entering the atmosphere, to lessen the risk of hitting inhabited locations<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Stirone|first=Shannon|date=13 June 2016|title=This Is Where the International Space Station Will Go to Die|url=http://www.popsci.com/this-is-where-international-space-station-will-go-to-die|magazine=[[Popular Science]]|access-date=10 November 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20160616122323/http://www.popsci.com/this-is-where-international-space-station-will-go-to-die|archive-date=16 June 2016}}</ref> or [[Sea lane|maritime traffic]]. The International Space Station (ISS) is planned to crash into Point Nemo in 2031.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60246032 |title=International Space Station to crash down to Earth in January 2031 |last=|first= |date=3 February 2022 |publisher=[[BBC News]]|access-date=3 February 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/faq-the-international-space-station-2022-transition-plan | title=FAQ: The International Space Station 2022 Transition Plan | newspaper=NASA | date=11 February 2022 | last1=Bock | first1=Michael }}</ref>