Equator And Prime Meridian Map

Cartographers accept divided up the World into a filigree of imaginary lines that run both north and s (latitude) and east and west (longitude).

Goose egg degrees latitude is the line designating the Equator and divides the Earth into two equal hemispheres (northward and south).

Shaded relief map of the world with a bold white line showing the location of the Equator. — The Equator is located at a latitude of 0 degrees. Map: Caitlin Dempsey.

Zero degrees longitude is an imaginary line known as the Prime Meridian.

Shaded relief map of the world showing the Prime Meridian at zero degrees longitude with a bold white line. — The prime number elevation is the line fatigued north to due south at 0° (0 degrees) longitude. Map: Caitlin Dempsey.

Mapping the Location of Nothing Degrees Latitude and Zero Degrees Longitude

Therefore, we are looking for what exists at the location where the Equator and the Prime Meridian cross each other. In other words, we are want to what is located at the confluence of (0°Northward 0°E)

Shaded relief globe centered on Europe and Africa showing where the Prime Meridian and Equator cross in bold white lines. — The intersection of the Equator and the Prime number Tiptop is just south of northwestern Africa. Map: Caitlin Dempsey.

If you look at the intersection of 0 degrees latitude (known as the Equator) and 0 degrees longitude (known as the Prime Meridian) on a map, you will see that the confluence falls in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of western Africa.

The map below shows in bold white lines the lines of goose egg degrees latitude and nada degrees longitude.

Detailed country map with shaded relief showing the intersection of the Equator and the Prime Meridian in bold white lines. — A closer await at the intersection of the Equator and the Prime number Meridian only due south of northwestern Africa. Map: Caitlin Dempsey.

The closest state to 0°, 0° is the African country of Ghana which lies well-nigh 614 km (382 mi) to the north of this confluence.

The closest piece of land to 0°, 0° is a small islet offshore of Republic of ghana, betwixt Akwidaa and Dixcove at the latitude and longitude coordinates of 4°45′30″N, i°58′33″W. The distance from this islet to 0°, 0° is most 570 km (354.2 mi).

Therefore, the open up body of water lies at zero degrees latitude and cipher degrees longitude.

This coordinate is marked by a weather observation buoy (Station 13010—Soul), placed there every bit part of the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic, also known every bit PIRATA and is operated by the countries of Us, French republic, and Brazil.

A weather buoy can be found at the location of 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude. Photo: Graham Curran, CC BY 4.0, MediaWiki Commons. — A weather condition buoy tin can be institute at the location of 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude. Photo: Graham Curran, CC BY 4.0, MediaWiki Commons.

Nada Isle

There is a fictional isle known every bit Null Island at goose egg latitude and zero longitude. Although it's not clear when the concept of Null Island was conceived, it came to prominence with the release of public domain Natural World GIS data. This one square meter area island is used for troubleshooting purposes for flagging geocoding failures, which is geographic information that cannot be properly located due to an error.

When a GIS software programme or other mapping tools are unable to properly assign geographic coordinates to an address, the address record might be assigned a coordinate of 0,0 so cartographers tin flag those address with errors.

Learn more: Zero Island: Where Geocoding Errors Go to Alive

This article was starting time published on September 17, 2015 and has since been updated.