If you’ve ever plotted as a kid to dig right through the earth to end up on the other side of the earth, then you arn’t alone. Personally, I blame that movie I saw as a kid, where the main character gets shot through the earth and ends up in china. According to the National Geographic though, not everyone in the world who fantasises about doing the whole “The Core” thing isn’t going to end up in China.
The diagram above illustrates just where you’ll end up if you were able to enact your digging fantasies (since, you know, it’s really hot down there), or in science gibberish, your antipode. Most people in America would be disappointed to find out that they’d come out on the wet side of the Indian Ocean, with the exception of Colorado, who’d find themselves sitting pretty on Amsterdam Island.
Fascinating stuff, as you can pretty much imagine. Of course, as a fijian, your immediate thought would be, on which side of this beautiful earth where would we end up? For some strange reason known only to the producers of the article, out of all the pacific islands out there, the nice people at National Geo decided to highlight where Fiji would end up. Right smack bang in the middle of Timbuktu, Africa.
I’ve always suspected we had something in common with the people from Africa, aside from our genetic love of curly hair and winning IRB matches. Now, when someone says “From here to Timbuktu”, you can claim with a slight tilt of your nose that Timbuktu is actually our antipode, so it isn’t as bad as was mentioned.
Then you can smile with content while you get your head smacked for being a smart ass.
#1 by mark_down on June 4, 2009 - 9:08 am
LOL @ Nat Geo mention. Too good!
There are also a few sites that show you this on Google Earth… eg : http://www.ubasics.com/dighole/
Only difference is that Google earth calls the place Tombouctou.
Looks terrible in Sattelite view though… like a desert straight out of God Must Be Crazy :O
#2 by Peceli and Wendy's Blog on June 4, 2009 - 7:27 pm
Timbucktu and Mali. Maybe those fantasy writers who say Fijians came from Africa ought to see this. Maybe the travellers burrowed right through! Okay, I think it was really Indonesia or South China and by boat!
w.