Hello and welcome to a nice, snowy Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is December 14th. The final countdown starts today. Are you ready?
Let's take a moment to pause and remember the 20 children and 6 adults who died on this day in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. May all those families afflicted with the burden of this hardship find moments of peace, comfort, and joy especially as we make the rounds through this holiday season.
*reverent pause*
Today, I have a superb fun fact for this Saturday's dinner table. Did you know the Earth has "Poles of Inaccessibility?"
According to this Wikipedia entry, "A pole of inaccessibility with respect to a geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying a maximum degree of continentality or oceanity." In the North, it is the point in the Arctic Ocean that is farthest from land, while in the Southern Hemisphere it is the point farthest from the Southern Ocean on Antarctica.
True of False: Man has traversed Poles of Inaccessibility.
True.
On this day in 1958, a Soviet team reached the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility. Not only did they reach it, they built a research station and topped it with a bust of Lenin.
To me, this looks spectacularly similar to our frozen Lake of the Woods here in the Wannaskan lands. If you could erect a bust on a "Lake of the Woods Pole of Inaccessibility," what would you place there? Comment below!
Coincidentally, also on this day, farther back in history, in 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole. So, it would seem that December 14 would be an auspicious day to explore the South Pole including its geography of inaccessibility.
The quest to conquer the other North Pole is a nice BBC article (map included!) about reaching the North Pole with an honorable mention to those who've attempted to reach the Northern (or Arctic) Pole of Inaccessibility. This includes an apparent flyover by Australian polar explorer Hubert Wilkins in 1927 and an attempt by British explorer Wally Herbert in the 1960s. Unfortunately for Herbert, the Pole was in the wrong place.
So, there you have it, folks. Plenty of fun facts to go with your fish fry or venison stew tonight. After you relay all these impressive fun facts and discuss the merits of travel in general, you can end the meal with this fantastically awful joke I just came up with:
Q: What do you call Polish friends who won't return your calls or answer your emails?
A: Poles of Inaccessibility
Let's take a moment to pause and remember the 20 children and 6 adults who died on this day in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. May all those families afflicted with the burden of this hardship find moments of peace, comfort, and joy especially as we make the rounds through this holiday season.
*reverent pause*
Today, I have a superb fun fact for this Saturday's dinner table. Did you know the Earth has "Poles of Inaccessibility?"
According to this Wikipedia entry, "A pole of inaccessibility with respect to a geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying a maximum degree of continentality or oceanity." In the North, it is the point in the Arctic Ocean that is farthest from land, while in the Southern Hemisphere it is the point farthest from the Southern Ocean on Antarctica.
True of False: Man has traversed Poles of Inaccessibility.
True.
On this day in 1958, a Soviet team reached the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility. Not only did they reach it, they built a research station and topped it with a bust of Lenin.
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| What's left in 2007 (Photo Credit: STEIN TRONSTAD/NORWEGIAN POLAR INSTITUTE) |
To me, this looks spectacularly similar to our frozen Lake of the Woods here in the Wannaskan lands. If you could erect a bust on a "Lake of the Woods Pole of Inaccessibility," what would you place there? Comment below!
Coincidentally, also on this day, farther back in history, in 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole. So, it would seem that December 14 would be an auspicious day to explore the South Pole including its geography of inaccessibility.
The quest to conquer the other North Pole is a nice BBC article (map included!) about reaching the North Pole with an honorable mention to those who've attempted to reach the Northern (or Arctic) Pole of Inaccessibility. This includes an apparent flyover by Australian polar explorer Hubert Wilkins in 1927 and an attempt by British explorer Wally Herbert in the 1960s. Unfortunately for Herbert, the Pole was in the wrong place.
"'The coastline in the Arctic believe it or not, as late as the 90s and early 2000s still had some big errors due to incorrect mapping from many years ago,' says Ted Scambos from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, who took part in the study. What they discovered was that the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility was 214km (133 miles) away from the old point."
Taken out of context, I admit, but the next line in the article struck me as funny:
"It should have been an easy mistake to spot."
- Gareth Rees, from the Scott Polar Research Institute, who helped calculate the new location.
I hope for poor Herbert's sake he remained ignorant of this fact for the rest of his days and died a happy man, believing that he'd had, in fact, reached the elusive Arctic Pole of Inaccessibility.
Further research reveals there are also continental poles of inaccessibility and oceanic poles of inaccessibility. So, if you're looking for ideas for your next family vacation, here you go. However, I wonder, if you actually reach a Pole of Inaccessibility does it become downgraded to a Pole of Accessibility?
And now that I'm fully immersed and committed to the tunneling of this rabbit hole, did you know that the North American Pole of Inaccessibility is located in nearby South Dakota in Bennett County, approximately 6 miles north of the community of Allen? This blog post by Jerry Penry, details his adventure on October 3, 2014 to this very spot. According to their guide, Joey Bear Killer, Jerry Penry and Jenny Stukel were the first intentional visitors to go to this exact location which "is in a beautiful pine covered ravine on land owned by the Oglala Sioux Tribe."
Jerry writes, "The geographic location is 43-21'36"N and 101-58'12"W and appeared in print in September 2007 in the Scottish Geographical Journal titled Poles of Inaccessibility: A Calculation Algorithm for the Remotest Places on Earth by Daniel Garcia-Castellanos and Umberto Lombardo." Here's the article to download for FREE as a pdf.
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| Photo Credits: http://www.penryfamily.com/geographicalcenters/inaccessibility.html |
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| Photo Credits: http://www.penryfamily.com/geographicalcenters/inaccessibility.html |
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| Photo Credits: http://www.penryfamily.com/geographicalcenters/inaccessibility.html |
So, there you have it, folks. Plenty of fun facts to go with your fish fry or venison stew tonight. After you relay all these impressive fun facts and discuss the merits of travel in general, you can end the meal with this fantastically awful joke I just came up with:
Q: What do you call Polish friends who won't return your calls or answer your emails?
A: Poles of Inaccessibility
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
2012 - Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and 6 adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
1961 - Tanzania joins the United Nations
Tanzania was created as a merger of Tanganyika and the Zanzibar Archipelago, both of which were under British rule until independence.
1958 - Soviets Reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility
A Pole of Inaccessibility is a location on Earth that is extremely difficult to access. In the North, it is the point in the Arctic Ocean that is farthest from land, while in the Southern Hemisphere it is the point farthest from the Southern Ocean on Antarctica. In 1958, a Soviet team led by Yevgeny Tolstikov became the first people in history to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, which is 546 miles (878 kilometers) from the geographic South Pole. Temperatures at this location averages around – 73 degree F (–58 degrees C).
1939 - USSR expelled from the League of Nations
The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for making aggressive demands of Finland.
1911 - Roald Amundsen reaches South Pole
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole, becoming the first men in recorded history to set foot on the most southern point on Earth.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
1988 - Vanessa Hudgens, American actress, singer
1966 - Fabrizio Giovanardi, Italian race car driver
1947 - Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian politician, economist, 36th President of Brazil
1546 - Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer, chemist
1503 - Nostradamus, French astrologer
Remembering You
2013 - Peter O'Toole, Irish actor
1989 - Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist
1947 - Stanley Baldwin, English politician
1943 - John Harvey Kellogg, American surgeon, co-created Corn flakes
1799 - George Washington, American general, politician, 1st President of the United States
Gather family and friends around your dinner table, nosh on some fun facts, and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
ReplyDeleteMy Pole of Inaccessibility: I grew up on the east coast of North America. Once I achieved consciousness I had a passion to get to my pole. As I studied maps and watched documentaries, I realized for me, the pole was the entire state of North Dakota. Life got in the way and I forgot about ND, but deep down the desire was still there. Then when I least expected it, I met a girl from the suburbs of Wannaska. It wasn’t ND, but it was close enough. We joined forces and over the past forty odd years I have made numerous jaunts out to the pole. I have not been disappointed.
Coincidentally, we watched a movie last night that featured Antarctica, speaking of poles. With it's long periods of darkness and light, it's amazing that anyone lives there, not to mention the isolation and lack of showers. I also found myself contrasting our winter wonderland with the south pole, and vowed not to complain about our snowy season. Thanks for a great post!
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