Geographical centre of Earth

For the geological centre of the planet, see Earth's inner core.
Several calculations of the geographic center of Earth's land have arrived somewhere along the Romanian Black Sea coast, with older calculations placing it at 43°31′00″N 28°20′00″E / 43.51667°N 28.33333°E / 43.51667; 28.33333, near the coastal town of Balchik (Bulgaria)

The geographical centre of Earth is the geometric centre of all land surfaces on Earth. Earth's land is unevenly distributed across the surface of Earth, making the calculation of the center a challenge that has been attempted through different geographic approaches, but hasn't produced widely agreed results and satisfying methods.

Throughout history many different places have been called centers of the world. Contemporarily scientific claims have identified points spaning Anatolia and Eastern Europe, from Tarnopol (Galicia, Ukraine) at 49°20′00″N 26°20′14″E / 49.33333°N 26.33722°E / 49.33333; 26.33722, by excluding Antarctic sea ice to Izmir (Turkey) at 38°25′00″N 27°25′00″E / 38.41667°N 27.41667°E / 38.41667; 27.41667, by including the Antarctic sea ice, with several calculations arriving somewhere along the Romanian Black Sea coast as far down as 43°31′00″N 28°20′00″E / 43.51667°N 28.33333°E / 43.51667; 28.33333, near the coastal town of Balchik (Bulgaria).

Definition and methods

According to the United States Geological Survey there is no generally agreed upon definition of a geographic center and no satisfying method to determine it,[1] while research into it and study of centrography is ongoing.[2] Generally centrography deals with point pattern analysis.[3][4]

Definition

Geometrically defined the central point of all land is the centroid of all land surfaces within the two dimensions of the Geoid surface which approximates the Earth's outer shape. The term centre of minimum distance[5] specifies the concept more precisely as the domain is the sphere surface without boundary and not the three-dimensional body.

Explained in a different way, it is the location on the surface of Earth where the sum of distances to all locations on land is the smallest. Assuming an airplane with infinite energy and resources, if one were to fly from one start location to any location on land and back again, and repeat this from the same start location to all possible destinations, the starting location where the total travel distance is the smallest would be the geographical centre of Earth.

Its distance definition follows the shortest path on the surface of Earth along the great circle (orthodrome).

Methods

The calculation method of the median point in centrography is an often applied one, but a sensitive one.[6][7] Refinement of the median point can be achieved by increasing the division of the area in quartilides, decilides and centrilides.[6]

Another method to determine a center is making use of the center of gravity of an area.[7]

History of the concept and calculations

Around the world throughout history many real and illusive places were identified as axis mundi or centers of the world.[8] Examples among many throughout history and across the world are Delphi (the "omphalos", the navel of the world)[8] Jerusalem,[9] Cusco, the Great Pyramid of Giza, Prayagraj (Allahabad, India).[10]

The modern study of centrography dates back to 1872, with the publishing of work on the issue by Julius Erasmus Hilgard.[11] By the 1930s it had developed into a broad field of combining cartography and statistical data.[12]

Scientific calculations of the median point of Earth's land area identified by 1944 points in Anatolia and Eastern Europe, from Tarnopol (Galicia, Ukraine) at 49°20′00″N 26°20′14″E / 49.33333°N 26.33722°E / 49.33333; 26.33722, by excluding Antarctic sea ice, to Izmir (Turkey) at 38°25′00″N 27°25′00″E / 38.41667°N 27.41667°E / 38.41667; 27.41667, by including the Antarctic sea ice. With the methode of the center of gravity a location for the center has been determined at 43°31′00″N 28°20′00″E / 43.51667°N 28.33333°E / 43.51667; 28.33333, near the Black Sea coastal town of Balchik (Bulgaria).[7]

Calculations from 2002 have again calculated the center of Earth's land somewhere along the Romanian Black Sea coast, depending on the amount of Antarctic ice taken into account. Additionally the center of the land hemisphere was also calculated, finding a central area spaning two focal areas around Brittany to the Mediterranean sea between the Balearic Islands and Catalonia.[13][14]

Other claims

Giza

In 1864, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, gave in his book Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid the coordinates with 30°00′N 31°00′E / 30.000°N 31.000°E / 30.000; 31.000 (Geographical centre of all land surfaces on Earth (Smyth 1864)), the location of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.[15] He stated that this had been calculated by "carefully summing up all the dry land habitable by man all the wide world over".[15]

In October of that year, Smyth proposed to position the prime meridian at the longitude of the Great Pyramid because there it would "pass over more land than [at] any other [location]".[16] He also argued the cultural significance of the location and its vicinity to Jerusalem. The expert committee deciding the issue, however, voted for Greenwich because "so many ships used the port of London".

The claim of Giza being the center of all land tough persisted to some extend, such as among Freemasons in 1919.[17]

Başmakçı (İskilip, Turkey)

A self-published claim from 2003,[18] placing the center of land near the village of Başmakçı (İskilip, Turkey) at 40°52'0"N 34°34'0"E, raised in the 2010s social media attention, gaining international news coverage and local mayoral recognition for touristic purposes.[19][10][20][21][22] The claim is a re-calculation of a non-academically published claim from 1973 by Young Earth Creationist Andrew J. Woods, placing the center of land near Ankara at 39°N 34°E.[23][24]

Other concepts of geographic centers of Earth

Various definitions of the centre of the world exist, from the geographic median point and center of gravity, to socio-economic ones,[7] or cultural such as an axis mundi.[8]

Hemispheric

This section is an excerpt from Land and water hemispheres § Center.[edit]

In 2002 the center of the land hemisphere was calculated as a central area spanning two focal points around Brittany and the Mediterranean sea between the Balearic Islands and Catalonia.[25][26]

A determination from 1945 places the centre of the land hemisphere at (in the city of Nantes, France).[27] The centre of the water hemisphere is the antipode of the centre of the land hemisphere, and is therefore located at (near New Zealand's Bounty Islands in the Pacific Ocean). An alternative assignment from 1913 determines the centre of the land hemisphere to be at (in Île Dumet near Piriac-sur-Mer, France).[28][29] The corresponding centre of the water hemisphere is located at (near New Zealand's Bounty Islands in the Pacific Ocean).

Geophysic

Calculations based on three-dimensional objects, for example the Newtonian gravity centre of the whole Earth (physical barycentre) or the Newtonian gravity centre of only the continents as uniform thick three-dimensional objects. Those centres can be found inside Earth mostly near its core.

The center of gravity method of determining the geographic center of Earth's land has produced a point on Earth's surface near the Black Sea coastal town of Balchik (Bulgaria) at 43°31′00″N 28°20′00″E / 43.51667°N 28.33333°E / 43.51667; 28.33333.[7]

Cartographic

Null Island
Null Island
The point of intersection of the prime meridian and the equator, in the Gulf of Guinea
Geography
Coordinates0°N 0°E / 0°N 0°E / 0; 0
text an excerpt from Null Island.[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Geographical centre of Earth.

Null Island is the location at zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude (), i.e., where the prime meridian and the equator intersect in the Atlantic Ocean near the Gulf of Guinea. Since there is no landmass located at these coordinates, it is not an actual island. The name is often used in mapping software as a placeholder to help find and correct database entries that have erroneously been assigned the coordinates 0,0. Although "Null Island" started as a joke within the geospatial community, it has become a useful means of addressing a recurring issue in geographic information science.

Demographic

This section is an excerpt from Center of population.[edit]

In demographics, the center of population (or population center) of a region is a geographical point that describes a centerpoint of the region's population. There are several ways of defining such a "center point", leading to different geographical locations; these are often confused.[30]

Economic

This section is an excerpt from Gravity model of trade.[edit]

The gravity model of trade in international economics is a model that, in its traditional form, predicts bilateral trade flows based on the economic sizes and distance between two units.[32] Research shows that there is "overwhelming evidence that trade tends to fall with distance."[33]

The model was first introduced by Walter Isard in 1954,[34] who elaborated the concept of "income potential" within the framework of international economics, building upon John Quincy Stewart's earlier idea of demographic gravitation, which had been introduced in 1941. Similarly, Stewart's work on population potential from 1947 had a significant impact on Chauncy Harris,[35] who, in 1954, proposed the economic concept of market potential.

The basic model for trade between two countries (i and j) takes the form of

In this formula G is a constant, F stands for trade flow, D stands for the distance and M stands for the economic dimensions of the countries that are being measured. The equation can be changed into a linear form for the purpose of econometric analyses by employing logarithms. The model has been used by economists to analyse the determinants of bilateral trade flows such as common borders, common languages, common legal systems, common currencies, common colonial legacies, and it has been used to test the effectiveness of trade agreements and organizations such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) (Head and Mayer 2014). The model has also been used in international relations to evaluate the impact of treaties and alliances on trade (Head and Mayer).

The model has also been applied to other bilateral flow data (also known as "dyadic" data) such as migration, traffic, remittances and foreign direct investment.

Cultural

This section is an excerpt from Axis mundi.[edit]

In astronomy, axis mundi is the Latin term for the axis of Earth between the celestial poles. In a geocentric coordinate system, this is the axis of rotation of the celestial sphere. Consequently, in ancient Greco-Roman astronomy, the axis mundi[36] is the axis of rotation of the planetary spheres within the classical geocentric model of the cosmos.[37]

In 20th-century comparative mythology, the term axis mundi – also called the cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, center of the world, or world tree – has been greatly extended to refer to any mythological concept representing "the connection between Heaven and Earth" or the "higher and lower realms".[38] Mircea Eliade introduced the concept in the 1950s.[39] Axis mundi closely relates to the mythological concept of the omphalos (navel) of the world or cosmos.[40][41][42] Items presented as examples of the axis mundi by comparative mythologists include plants (notably a tree but also other types of plants such as a vine or stalk), a mountain, a column of smoke or fire, or a product of human manufacture (such as a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, Temple Mount, minaret, church) or secular (obelisk, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts.[43] The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced "urban centers". In Mircea Eliade's opinion: "Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all."[44]

Specific examples of cosmic mountains or centers include one from Egyptian texts described as providing support for the sky,[45] Mount Mashu from the Epic of Gilgamesh,[46] Adam's Peak, which is a sacred mountain in Sri Lanka associated with Adam or Buddha in Islamic and Buddhist traditions respectively,[47] Mount Qaf in other Islamic and Arabic cosmologies,[48] the mountain Harā Bərəz in Zoroastrian cosmology,[49] Mount Meru in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmologies,[49] Mecca as a cosmic center in Sufi cosmology (with minority traditions placing it as Medina or Jerusalem),[50] and, in Tenrikyo, the Jiba at the Tenrikyo Church Headquarters in Tenri, Nara, Japan. In pre-Islamic Arabia, some central temples, including the Temple of Awwam, were cosmic centers.[51]

Pole of inaccessibility

This section is an excerpt from Pole of inaccessibility.[edit]

In geography, a pole of inaccessibility is the farthest (or the most difficult to reach) location in a given landmass, sea, or other topographical feature, starting from a given boundary, relative to a given criterion. 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 the farthest point into a landmass from the shore, or the farthest point into a body of water from the shore. In these cases, a pole of inaccessibility is the center of a maximally large circle that can be drawn within an area of interest only touching but not crossing a coastline. Where a coast is imprecisely defined, the pole will be similarly imprecise.

See also

References

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  36. ^ as a declined form in Latin, plural axes mundorum
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  51. ^ Maraqten 2015, p. 112.
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