Just recently, while consulting Mr. Google, I came across with familiar words: “poles” and “inaccessibility”. Read separately, they are just ordinary words, but if you put them together they become an interesting and intriguing phrase: “poles of inaccessibility”. These words caught my attention and I decided to look for more information to gain better understanding of my subject matter. But the truth was that I was confronted with what this phrase implies … are there really places or poles on Earth that are unreachable or cannot be accessed? … or very difficult to access?
In a layman’s language, the “poles of inaccessibility” is a term that refers to places on Earth that’s extremely difficult to reach due to their locations that are either very far from land or very far from sea. My search turns out, that there are documented places that fall under this category. Wikipedia defines a pole of inaccessibility marks a location that is most challenging to reach owing to its remoteness from geographical features that could provide access. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline. The term describes a geographical construct, not an actual physical phenomenon. Subject to varying definitions, it is of interest mostly to explorers.
Various explorations had determined the locations of the following as poles of inaccessibility:
- Northern Pole of Inaccessibility
- Southern Pole of Inaccessibility
- Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility
- Continental Poles of Inaccessibility
- Eurasia
- North America
- South America
- Australia
- Africa
The southern pole of inaccessibility commonly refers to the site of the Soviet Union research station, which lies at 82°06′S 54°58′E . A building still remains at this location, marked by a bust of Vladimir Lenin that faces towards Moscow, and protected as a historical site. Inside the building, there is a golden visitors' book for those who make it to the site to sign.
The place in the ocean that is farthest from land is called as the oceanic pole of inaccessibility at 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, lies in the South Pacific Ocean. This location is also referred to as "Point Nemo", a reference to Jules Verne's Captain Nemo of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
In Eurasia, the Continental Pole of Inaccessibility (46°17′N 86°40′E) is the place on land that is farthest from the ocean, and it lies in north-western China, near the Kazakhstan border.
In North America, the continental pole of inaccessibility is in southwest South Dakota about eleven miles southeast of the town of Kyle, located 1,650 km (1,030 mi) from the nearest coastline at 43.36°N 101.97°W.
In South America, the continental pole of inaccessibility is in Brazil at 14.05°S 56.85°W, near ArenĂ¡polis.
In Australia, the continental pole of inaccessibility is located either at 23.17°S 132.27°E or at 23°2′S 132°10′E,[16] 920 km (570 mi) from the nearest coastline. The nearest town is Papunya, Northern Territory, about 30 km to the southwest.
In Africa, the pole of inaccessibility is at 5.65°N 26.17°E, 1,814 km (1,127 mi) from the coast, close to the tripoint of Central African Republic, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo, also close to the town of Obo.
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