Pole of inaccessibility
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The pole of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach owing to its remoteness from geographical features which could provide access. The term is a geographic construct, not an actual physical phenomenon, and is of interest mostly to explorers.
- Northern Pole of Inaccessibility (). Located on the Arctic Ocean pack ice at a distance farthest from any land mass. It is 661 km (411 statute miles) from the North Pole, 1,453 km (903 mi) north of Barrow, Alaska, and equidistant from the closest landmasses, Ellesmere Island and Franz-Josef Land, 1,094 km (680 mi) away. It was reached by Sir Hubert Wilkins in 1927 by aircraft. Due to the constant motion of the pack ice, no permanent structure exists at the pole.
- Southern Pole of Inaccessibility (). A spot on Antarctica at a point most distant from the surrounding ocean. It is located 878 km (545 statute miles) from the South Pole. The surface elevation is 3,718 m (12,198 ft). It was reached on 14 December 1958 by a Soviet Antarctic Expedition for International Geophysical Year research work: see Pole of inaccessibility (Antarctic research station). Today a building still remains at this site, marked by a statue of Vladimir Lenin that faces towards Moscow, and is protected as a historical site. Inside the building there is a golden visitors book for those who make it to the site to sign. However, as of 2007, only the statue on top of the building is visible - the rest is buried under the snow [1]. Note that there are several possible definitions [2], depending on whether the "coast" is measured to the grounding line, or to the ice shelves. An expedition to reach this pole for the first time since 1958 commenced in December 2006. Team N2i became the first expedition to reach the point without mechanical assistance, hauling sleds and kite-skiing, arriving 19th January 2007. See [3]
- Pacific Pole of Inaccessibility, also called Point Nemo () is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land. It lies in the South Pacific Ocean, 2,688 km (1,670 mi or 1,451 NM) from the nearest lands: Ducie Island (part of the Pitcairn Islands) in the north, Motu Nui (part of the Easter Islands) in the north-east, and Maher Island (near the larger Siple Island, off the coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica) in the south. Chatham Island lies further west, and Southern Chile in the east. The fictional city of R'lyeh is set not far from this point.
- Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility () is the place on land that is farthest from the ocean. It lies in northern China and is 2,645 km (1,645 mi) from the nearest coastline. It is located approximately 320 km (200 mi) from the city of Ürümqi, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China, in the Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert. The precise geographical point was reached on 27 June 1986 by Nicholas Crane and Dr Richard Crane.
Coincidentally, the Eurasian and the Pacific poles have approximately the same radius; the Eurasian pole is about as far from the ocean as the Pacific pole is from land.
