After more than a month of solo crossings, the Vendée Globe skippers are more isolated than ever this Tuesday, December 17. For several hours, the head of the fleet has been sailing in the vicinity of Point Nemo, famous for being the place on the Globe farthest from any land surface. In the event of a problem in this famous passage, sailors will have to wait at least 15 days before being rescued, race organizers estimate.
This point, whose name is inspired by the famous captain of the Nautilus imagined by Jules Verne, fascinates scientists, writers, and even science fiction fans.
► The most isolated place on the planet
Point Nemo is located in the South Pacific, at the approximate coordinates of 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W. The nearest land is more than 2,688 kilometers away. These are Ducie Island (part of the Pitcairn Islands), Motu Nui Island (near Easter Island), and Maher Island in Antarctica.
In terms of distance, the closest humans to this point are the inhabitants of the International Space Station when it flies over the area. It is in orbit approximately 400 km above the surface of the globe.
► The most powerful current in the world
In addition to being geographically isolated, the Antarctic Circumpolar Ocean Current (ACC), which encircles Antarctica, makes navigation difficult. The CCA is the most powerful ocean current in the world. It carries around 140 million cubic meters of water per second. Its strength and speed deflect ships and generate rough seas.
The current is amplified by the violent winds from the southern latitudes which generate strong swells. The freezing temperatures and obviously the absence of land to break the current further complicate navigation.
► A “ship cemetery”
Point Nemo is also nicknamed the “ ship cemetery » and it’s not about the boat. Since the 1970s, space agencies, such as NASA or Roscosmos, have chosen this location to land their end-of-life satellites or space debris.
Given its distance from any inhabited land, it is the ideal location to minimize the risk of collisions or damage. Among the famous space debris resting in these depths are parts of the Mir space station, as well as fragments of the International Space Station (ISS).
► A biological desert
Underwater life is also very limited in this part of the world. Located thousands of kilometers from any land surface, it does not benefit from the nutrient input usually carried by rivers or runoff from coastal soils, essential elements in the marine food chain.
The environment is also particularly hostile for biodiversity because this region belongs to what are called subtropical ocean gyres, areas where currents isolate surface water and limit the upwelling of nutrient-rich water from the depths.
Scientists have nevertheless detected some forms of life adapted to these extreme conditions, mainly micro-organisms (bacteria and archaea) and a few species of fish and cephalopods.
► An isolated laboratory for understanding the climate
Despite its extreme isolation, this Nemo Point represents a valuable source of scientific data. It is a key place for understanding large-scale ocean currents, particularly their role in thermohaline circulation (cold currents). These data provide a better understanding of the mechanisms that regulate global climate, including the absorption and redistribution of heat and carbon dioxide by the oceans.
Thanks to its distance from human activity, researchers are also studying the extent of microplastic pollution and ocean acidification.
► Mysteries to elucidate
In 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detected a strange noise coming from the seabed near Point Nemo. Nicknamed the « Bloop » by the scientific community, the sound was comparable to a large cetacean but with much greater intensity. An unrivaled noise level, excluding natural disasters or human activity.
Some imagined that this noise came from a gigantic, still unknown marine animal. An idea popularized by the reference to Cthulhu, the fictional creature described by Lovecraft, whose fictional sunken city, R’lyeh, is located in the same region according to his stories.
In 2005, scientists proposed a more rational explanation. THE « Bloop » would be noise produced by icebergs breaking or scraping the seabed.