Antipode Finder — Exact Opposite Point on Earth

What Is an Antipode?

In geography and spherical mathematics, an antipode (derived from the Greek anti “opposite” and pous “foot”) refers to the point on Earth's surface that is diametrically opposite to a given location. If you could drive an indestructible, heat-resistant tunnel straight through the gravitational center of the Earth from where you are standing, you would emerge precisely at your antipode.

Because antipodal points lie on exact opposite sides of the planet:

• Maximum Theoretical Terrestrial Distance: The distance between any point and its antipode represents the maximum possible surface distance on Earth—exactly half the planet's circumference (approximately 20,015 kilometers or 12,437 miles).
• Infinite Shortest Paths: Between two generic non-antipodal coordinates, exactly one unique Great Circle connects them. However, between antipodal points, every single meridian is an identical great circle arc. There are infinitely many shortest paths connecting you to your antipode, all sharing the exact same distance.
• Inverted Seasons & Solar Geometry: When the northern coordinate experiences the summer solstice at noon, its antipode experiences the winter solstice at midnight. The solar elevation and day length are perfectly inverted.

How to Find Your Antipode: Flip Latitude, Shift Longitude

Calculating the exact geographic coordinates of an antipode is computationally straightforward:

Why Most Antipodes Are in the Ocean

A common childhood belief is that digging a hole through the ground from the United States will land you in China. In reality, Earth's landmasses are distributed in an extraordinarily asymmetric, “antipodal” pattern:

Roughly 71% of Earth's surface is covered by ocean, while only 29% is dry land. Furthermore, continental crust is heavily clustered in the “land hemisphere” (centered near Nantes, France), while the opposite “water hemisphere” (centered near New Zealand) is dominated by the Pacific Ocean.

Because of this continental clustering, less than 4.4% of Earth's land area has an antipode that also lands on dry land. Over 95% of all continental coordinates—including virtually the entire continental United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, and Australia—have antipodes located in open, deep abyssal ocean waters.

The rare exceptions are famous “antipodal twins”: central Spain and Portugal align with New Zealand's North and South Islands; parts of eastern China and Mongolia match Argentina and Chile; and isolated parts of Indonesia match the Amazon basin in Colombia and Peru.

Antipode Calculation: Worked Example for New York

Computing antipodal coordinates and geodetic surface separation across the WGS84 ellipsoid requires spherical inversion coupled with meridian arc integration:

Antipode Examples: Cities and Their Opposite Points

Explore this curated table of major metropolitan locations, showing their exact opposite antipodal coordinates, terrain classifications, and geodetic separation:

Accuracy and Limitations

When analyzing antipodal mechanics at advanced geodetic levels, several geometric subtleties arise:

• Geodetic vs. Geocentric Latitude: Geodetic latitude (φ) is measured as the angle between the ellipsoidal normal vector and the equatorial plane. Because Earth is an oblate ellipsoid (flattened at the poles), the normal vector does not pass through the center of the Earth except at the Equator and poles. Transforming coordinates through Earth's exact center produces a small angular difference (up to 11.5 arcminutes at 45° latitude) between geographic surface antipodes and pure geometric center rays.
• Oceanic Remoteness & Point Nemo: Many oceanic antipodes lie in close proximity to Point Nemo (the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility in the South Pacific), where the nearest human beings are often astronauts aboard the International Space Station orbiting 400 km overhead.
• Extreme Environmental Contrast: An antipodal pair does not share climate. Madrid (temperate Mediterranean climate) has an antipode near Weber, New Zealand (maritime temperate), but northern Canadian tundra coordinates have antipodes in the frigid southern Antarctic waters.