Point Nemo

Ooh, this is interesting. The “oceanic pole of inaccessibility” is simply the location in the ocean that is, on average, the farthest from land. It’s position lies in the southern Pacific Ocean, over 1,650 miles north of Antarctica, south of the Pitcairn Islands, southwest from Easter Island (the closest landfalls). Picture it the center of a circle of diamter 3,200 miles, with the entire area filled only with seawater and devoid of land.

In homage to Jules Verne, the oceanic pole of inaccessibility is known as Point Nemo.

Interestingly enough, Lovecraft places the lost city of R’lyeh, sunken prison home to the ancient extraterrestrial evil known as Cthulhu, only a few degrees away from the Nemo point, the farthest oceanic place from land on Earth. (R’lyeh’s coordinates are taken from the short story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” which I am soon to re-read for the first time in a dozen years.)

File that away in your memory for the next game of Trivial Pursuit.