The Most Unexplored places on earth

With satellite imagery of the whole planet and submersibles that have reached the depths of the Mariana Trench, it may come as a surprise that there’s still so much of the earth’s surface that we have absolutely no idea about. The problem is reaching these places in person to find out what’s there, and not what can be seen from a satellite circling around hundreds of miles above the earth.

Because of how big and isolated the areas are, or the risks of getting there and back are too great, we have largely avoided going there and are mostly happy with what we can see from space, but if you wanted to explore some, here are 5 of the most unexplored places on Earth:

1) The Ocean

20,000 years ago the sea level was around 130 metres lower than it is today. This would provide an area of millions of square miles of land around the world, complete with forests, caves, and whatever else happened to be in the area. All of this land has been lost along with the people living there, creating countless stories of lost civilizations and ancient sites. One of the more realistic stories of these places is the settlement of Doggerland, which was the island that formed in the middle of the land bridge between England and France around 6,000 BCE.

So far we have only mapped around 5% of the ocean floors, which leaves an enormous amount of space still to explore, but the cost of mapping the bottom of the ocean and the detail we can do that in still leaves a huge amount left unknown. We can only see the rough outlines of objects and aren’t able to see animals or fine details like the possible foundations of walls.

Every year someone discovers a new species or an ancient shipwreck, and with the enormous amount of lost treasure and mineral deposits down there, the person who invents a practical way to scout the ocean floor would become very rich indeed.

2) The Amazon

Even though there are detailed overhead satellite images of the entire forest, we can’t see what is below the trees. The lost city of Paititi is one of the most famous cities in the Amazon that’s yet to be discovered, but stories of countless lost settlements and vast treasures are plentiful.

The problem with moving through the Amazon is how to navigate in the thick vegetation, and also how to move faster than a few miles a day. Supplies and tools all have to be carried on foot as there’s normally nowhere to land a helicopter and roads are few and far between. It’s possible to travel large distances using the many river systems, but you can’t control where they flow, and trekking through the jungle is unavoidable.

With many famous tribes living in the Amazon throughout history, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that some of them created amazing things that are covered by tree canopies from the air, but until some brave explorer tries to find them and makes it out again alive, we’ll never know.

3) Canada

The south section of the country is very well mapped, with this being the country’s primary farming area and also contains the biggest population centers, but when you start to get into the northern lake regions, you could very well step within a square mile that no living human has ever seen before.

Nunavut, Newfoundland, and Labrador along with the Northwest Territories are the most unexplored regions of the country. The reason for this is due to the climate as it is way too cold to successfully grow crops, and this shortage of locally produced food has stopped people from moving there, leading to a very sparsely populated area.

The other big factor in this region’s lack of exploration is due to the lakes. If you look at the northern areas of any of the previously mentioned regions, they are scattered in thousands of lakes. This makes it very difficult to get any kind of vehicle through which means everything has to be taken on foot, but since there are thousands of square miles of nothing, people simply can’t carry enough to cover any real distance.

4) Siberia

Russia is the biggest country on earth by far in terms of territory, and Siberia makes up a huge part of it. With such a large amount of land the country has a relatively small population in comparison, and one of the biggest reasons for this is due to its climate.

The northern areas of the country are very cold and suffer from perma frost, making it very hard to grow anything substantial. The quietest part of Siberia is the eastern province formally known as Kamchatka, which is also home to the largest population of brown bears in the world. It also boasts the most diverse range of salmon and is home to many undiscovered mineral deposits.

Thick forests and the cold climate make it hard to move through, but the problem is resupplying. Much of the northern coast is over 1000 miles from the more populated south, and a lack of roads makes it too far to easily get to and move around.

5) Greenland

I wanted to include Antarctica on this list, and even though it is one of the most unexplored regions of the world, it is nothing but snow and glaciers for the vast majority of it as the actual land is under as much as 2 miles of ice.

Greenland on the other hand has a little more ice-free space, though the majority of the country is still nothing but glaciers. Greenland is what would happen to Antarctica in several hundred, or thousands of years. It’s starting to thaw and reveal more of its land, and with such a big country there will surely be many long-lost deposits and possibly the remains of whoever, or whatever lived there before it froze.

The northern coast is covered with huge rocky islands and thousands of lakes and rivers, but it is also over 1,500 miles further north than the south of the territory. The seas are frozen for most of the year and the blizzards make it too dangerous for aircraft to safely explore, leading to huge amounts of land that has only been seen from space.