People often vaguely refer to “the middle of nowhere”, but as it turns out, scientists have figured out precisely where that point is. Pacific Ocean point is known as “Point Nemo”, named after the famous submarine sailor from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

The word “Nemo” in Latin means “no one”.

Point Nemo is officially known as “the oceanic pole of inaccessibility”, in other words, the point in the ocean that is farthest away from land.

Located at 48° 52.6′ South and 123° 23.6′ West, the spot is quite literally the middle of nowhere, surrounded by thousands of kilometers of ocean in every direction, with a depth exceeding 3 kilometers.

The nearest islands are Pitcairn to the north, Easter Island to the northeast, and Maher Island off the coast of Antarctica to the south. Yet more than 1,600 kilometers of water separate Point Nemo from them. From New Zealand’s coast, it’s over 5,000 kilometers away.

The location is so isolated that the closest people to Point Nemo aren’t even on Earth. The International Space Station, orbiting at about 405 kilometers above Earth, is often the nearest human presence.

Point Nemo was identified in 1992 by Croatian engineer Hrvoje Lukatela, who used computer simulation to pinpoint the ocean’s most remote spot.

Lukatela also named it after Captain Nemo of the Nautilus, a character who deliberately vanished into the sea to escape humanity.

Not even its discoverer has ever visited it. No human may have passed through those coordinates at all.

As for marine life, it’s nearly absent. Point Nemo lies within the South Pacific Gyre, a huge rotating current that blocks nutrient-rich waters from entering. With no food sources, life is scarce, limited mostly to microbes and small deep-sea creatures near volcanic vents.

The zone has extremely low biological activity. Strong currents and nutrient scarcity prevent most organisms from surviving there.

Even before Lukatela’s calculation, researchers had speculated about such a remote oceanic location, imagining it as one of the most isolated points on Earth.

When a spacecraft completes its mission and runs out of fuel, it needs a safe crash site. Space agencies often aim for a special “cemetery” in the Pacific Ocean—Point Nemo.

Since 1971, over 260 spacecraft have been deorbited here. The International Space Station was expected to be retired in 2024 and could become the heaviest object to reach this site, weighing nearly 400 tons.

The location ensures minimal risk to humans or marine life. Falling at speeds of around 290 km/h, debris is unlikely to cause harm. NASA estimates the chance of injury is just 0.0001%, making it an ideal graveyard.

The largest object to crash here so far is Russia’s Mir space station (120 tons), deorbited in 2001. Others include SpaceX stages, ESA cargo ships, Japanese HTVs, several Salyut stations, and over 140 Russian service modules.

Some spacecraft don’t reach Point Nemo. Malfunctions or lost signals can prevent precise deorbiting. For instance, in 1991 Salyut-7 crashed in South Africa, and in 1979, Skylab fell over Australia.

In 2016, China’s Tiangong-1 station reentered uncontrollably and burned up over the South Pacific. Luckily, no damage was reported.

Some satellites remain in orbit for decades or longer. Launched in 1958, Vanguard I is still circling Earth. Others, like Soviet RORSAT fragments or DMSP satellites, contribute to growing space debris.

In 2019, India destroyed one of its satellites during a test, adding more fragments. NASA criticized the act, citing risks to astronauts aboard the ISS.

Point Nemo sits in one of the world’s least biologically active ocean zones. Yet in 1997, scientists recorded one of the loudest underwater sounds ever near this area—an unexplained phenomenon dubbed “The Bloop.”

The sound was captured by microphones 3,000 miles apart. At first, NOAA researchers were puzzled—nothing known could produce such volume underwater. Sci-fi fans were quick to offer ideas.

In H.P. Lovecraft’s 1926 story The Call of Cthulhu, the mythical sea monster sleeps in a lost city called R’lyeh. Lovecraft placed it near 47°9′ S, 126°43′ W—shockingly close to Point Nemo.

Some wondered if Lovecraft had unknowingly pinpointed something real. But eventually, scientists determined The Bloop came from massive ice cracking in Antarctica, not from a tentacled creature.

Despite its mystery being solved, Point Nemo remains eerie. As a spacecraft graveyard surrounded by miles of empty ocean, it’s a final resting place for objects not of this world.

Although no monsters dwell in its waters, Point Nemo is a real-world location as remote and strange as any fiction could imagine.