I am extremely pleased to announce that a book I contributed to is now available for pre-order. Ocean: From Shore to Abyss, led by the legendary Dr. Asha de Vos, is a visual journey through the oceans, from sandy beaches to the deepest trenches. I, along with Tony Martin, Helen Scales, Peter Godfrey-Smith, and Rebecca Helm, contributed chapters on our favorite regions. Through a series of small vignettes, readers will experience the ideas, animals, and adventures that we love about the ocean.
Not surprisingly, I tackled the section on earth’s deepest places: The Abyss. I’ve written a lot about the deep ocean, but one thing I haven’t written about here is Point Nemo. Below is a small section from my chapter, on one of the oddest ways humans exploit the deep sea.
Point Nemo
There is a point in the middle of the Pacific that is further from inhabited land than any other place on the planet. It is so remote and so inaccessible, that it became the target for one of the strangest uses of the deep sea. Its name is Point Nemo and it is a graveyard for starships.
Nemo, Latin for No One, is the alias used by the eponymous captain in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Point Nemo is the place in the ocean furthest from any person. At 2700 kilometers from the nearest land, Point Nemo is so remote that when the International Space Station passes overhead, the astronauts onboard are, by a wide margin, the closest humans to the point.
And the International Space Station does pass overhead, several times per day, along with the majority of satellites in orbit. When a large spacecraft, space station, or satellite reaches the end of its operational life, it must be deorbited and surrender its journey to Earth’s gravity well. Small satellites in low-earth orbit will simply burn up from the heat of reentry, but larger objects will come crashing back into the world. To avoid raining debris upon a populated area, the international community of space faring nations aims their spacecraft at Point Nemo.
Point Nemo was identified by the US and the Soviet Union during the zenith of the space race as an acceptable target for deorbiting. Since then, dozens of satellites, several space stations, and multiple other orbital assets, some classified, have made their final descent towards Point Nemo, ensuring that these falling objects would make planetfall far from human habitation.
Point Nemo has become the maritime graveyard of the space age. 263 spacecraft have been disposed of at Point Nemo since 1971. When the International Space Station is finally decommissioned and deorbited in 2031, it too will be laid to rest at Point Nemo.
Ocean: From Shore to Abyss is available in the UK and will be available in the US on January 20, 2026. Pre-order today!
