From Greek anti- “opposed” and pous “foot”. This translates to something along the lines of “those whose feet are on the other side’.

The antipodes of any place on the Earth is the place which is diametrically opposite of it. As in when you were a child, if you lived in the United States, you were probably raised to think that if you dug a hole through the earth you’d come out in China.

As you’ll see from the Antipodal Maps and references below, this concept that was used in ‘China Syndrome’ is incorrect (remember the movie of that name regarding a nuclear power plant suffering from thermal runaway was thought to potentially melt a hole through the earth to China?).

In fact, since 70% of the Earth is water, the odds are very likely that if you look 180% (Lat and Lon) from your point on the planet right now, your antipode will not have feet at all but would have fins.

Here’s a really cool use of Google Maps that shows a split view of your antipodes: http://www.antipodemap.com/

So what is at the opposite of China? A good portion of South America, the Andes to be more precise.

References:

• Google Maps – Antipode Map
• Wikipedia on Antipodes
• Strange Maps on WordPress

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