September 27, 2012--Middle of the World

One exceptionally hot but dry day in July more than 20 years ago, I drove hundreds of miles out of my way to reach the Four Corners--that arid spot in the western high desert where the southwestern corner of Colorado, the northwestern corner of New Mexico, the northeastern corner of Arizona, and the southeastern corner of Utah meet. Thus, the Four Corners.

I cannot to this day tell you why I was drawn to that spot on the map. There was nothing within hundreds of miles in all four directions to attract my attention but sage, cactus, lizards, and shimmering mirages. But pulled to that place as if in a spell I was.

And on another occasion, I found myself on a boat in the Thames River, heading out from a dock in central London to Greenwich, to the observatory and the brass line on the floor of the laboratory that marks where Greenwich Mean Time was established with the full force and authority of the British Empire, with all the clocks and timing devices in the world subsequently calibrated to it.

In both instances I took uncommon pleasure standing on the exact spot where the four states come together and straddling that line where earthy time begins and ends.

So I am not at all surprised that there in a small town in Ecuador, San Antonio de Pichincha, where people from all over gather to stand at what they there call the Middle of the World, on that location on the Equator where the northern and southern hemispheres are bisected.

Since the Equator circumnavigates our globe there and at literally limitless other places, locations where one can straddle both hemispheres--from Africa, to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and of course to many other sites in South America--why then is the Middle of the World found in San Antonio de Pichincha?

According to the New York Times it is because 200 years ago the French Geodesic Mission arrived there with instruments designed to determine if the circumference of the Earth at the Equator is greater than other places where the circumference can be measured--for example, through the north and south poles.

As we know from high school earth science, because centrifugal force is exerted most forcefully at the Equator as the Earth rotates on its axis at about 1,000 miles per hour, there is as a result a slight bulging at the Equator--41.73 miles to be precise. And thus the Earth has the shape of an ellipsoid or geoid ("earth-like") shape.

But here's the hitch--San Antonio de Pichincha is not in fact on the Equator. Because of modern measuring devices, including GPSs, we now know that the Equator is about 800 feet south of it. Close enough you might cynically say since Ecuador is a poor country and needs tourism revenue and it is in that tiny town that there are all sorts of shops that bring much-needed hard currency to the people and government. Why then quibble about a few hundred feet? Last year, for example, half a million tourists visited the monument that marks the site and brought with them many dollars and euros.

But to folks like me who eagerly drive through the middle of nowhere to get to special (some would say magical) places such as the Four Corners, 800 feet from equatorial ground zero doesn't qualify.

There is a plan on the drawing boards to build a 5,000 foot tower nearby on the actual Equator. But it would cost at least $250 million to construct it and thus is unlikely to ever get off the ground.

In the meantime, if you find yourself in Ecuador, in San Antonio de Pichincha, close to the existing monument there is a small privately-owned site, Inti-ana it is called, marked with a hand-painted sign that claims it is located at 0 degrees latitude, 0 minutes, 0 seconds. But if you trek there you will have to get along without T-shirt shops or cafeterias.