A
pole of
inaccessibility is defined as the most
remote point on a
landmass or
ocean 1-4. With remote, we mean that is as far away from
the
coast as it could be. To be a little bit more precise, we mean the
coast that
separates the
continents from the
oceans - small
lakes
don't count.
This definition means that finding the pole of inaccessibility is a matter of taking
a map, using a pair of compasses and finding the point where one can draw the
biggest circle that does not cross the coast. On first sight, this doesn't mean a
pole of inaccessibility necessarily has to be a very, well, inaccessible place. I
mean, theoretically, there could be a 6-lane highway going through it.
The funny thing is, all the poles of inaccessibility are at best in a sparsely
populated area, and at worst in the middle of nowhere. I shamelessly lifted the list
from 1:
- Antarctica: 82° 6' S, 54° 58' E. The location of this pole depends on whether one
considers all the land of Antarctica, or just the part that is above sea level. It
is apparently even harder to reach than the South pole. The Russians have made a
monument here, including a bust of Lenin that faces Moscow. There also is a
golden book that a visitor can sign.
- Eurasia: 46° 17' N, 86° 40' E. This is somewhere in the north-western part of
China, in a desert. I couldn't find a whole lot about this desert, apart from the
fact that it holds the pole of inaccessibility - the fact that this seems to be the
most relevant thing one can say about it in my opinion reflects it's not really a
nexus of human civilization - and that it's covered with lichen 5
- Australia: 23°2' S 132°10' E: This is about 240 km from Alice Springs. The
closest settlement is Papunya, which is a Indigenous Australian community.
- South America: 14.05°S 56.85°W. This is near Areanapolis in Brazil, a sparsely
populated area.
- North America: 43° 21, 101° 58' W. This is in southwest South Dakota, near
Badlands National Park.
- Africa: 5° 38 N, 26° 10' E. This is in the Central African Republic, near
Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Googling the Central African
Republic revealed that this was a sparsely populated part of a sparsely populated
country.
If I'm allowed to speculate a bit, people like living along coasts, major
rivers and lowlands. Typically, in the middle of a continent, there are no
coasts, and rivers, if they exist, are still narrow. As such, these places
tend to be suboptimal for human habitation. So while perhaps not the most difficult
to reach spot in a continent, they are all in practice quite remote.
In conclusion, a pole of inaccessibility is the spot on a continent that is furthest
away from the coast. All these places are pretty to very remote, in the sense that
there are not a lot of people living there.
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility
- http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/467219/Pole-of-Inaccessibility
- http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/10/01/pole-of-inaccessibility-portal-to-phanto
m-mountain-range/
- http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/most-remote-place.htm
- Y.M. Zhang J. Chen, L. Wang, X.Q. Wang and Z.H. Gu, The spatial distribution
patterns of biological soil crusts in the Gurbantunggut Desert, Northern Xinjiang,
China , Journal of Arid Environments, 68, pp 599-610 b(2007)