Ampere Seamount


One of the major challenges of seasteading lies in finding a location for a seastead outside of the EEZ yet also complying with the following requirements:

  • Close enough to other developed areas to be economically manageable and residentially attractive; and
  • in shallow enough waters to be able to anchor the seastead and (potentially) anchor a breakwater.

Thanks to the suggestion of Patri Friedman in his blog post called Fun with Google Earth, a possible location was identified close to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Patri suggested the Josephine Seamount. But after a more accurate study, another seamount could be even better: the Ampere Seamount.

In this report, we do a small study of that area with data and figures obtained in the last few days. All comments and contributions that could give more info about Ampere Seamount are welcome.

Editor’s note: The Ampere Seamount has in the past been cited as a possible location for "the Lost City of Atlantis", following the discovery in 1981 of what appeared to Soviet undersea explorers to be the ruins of walls and steps embedded in the seamount. –nthmost


  1. Jeff Chan 4:14 pm

    Very nice work, but is Josephine fully outside EEZs?  If so it may be preferrable over Ampere.  Both are intriguing though.

    As you note, beaing near a seamount is problematic for tsunamis since the shallow water above the seamount would interact with the Tsunami.  Being in the open ocean away from shallow waters is better in terms of tsnamis.  Both positiions have advantages and disadvantages.

  2. Miguel Lamas 11:03 am

    Than you much Jeff !!

    I think that Ampere is best located than Josephine for seasteading purposes, almost for the first seastead. Reasons:

    * Distance to the coast.

    * Depth: 60 m in Ampere vs 148 m in Josephine.

    * Ampere is located in a commercial route. I think that this is the main reason. You have a daily ferry from Madeira to Portimao and Ampere is in the middle of that route. That means that you could ensure a transport of food, people, consumables,… at a reasonable price and every day if you reach an agreement with the ferry company. If your seastead is located alone in the middle of the ocean you would need to fleet a vessel only for you and if the seastead has only 50 or 200 residents this would not be profitable.

    But if you stablish a floating community big enough to do profitable a commercial route from the seastead to the coast, of course Josephine could be better. But for the first seasted Ampere seems to be better.


  3. Jeff Chan 3:05 pm

    Being on an existing trade route could be a good thing for some of the reasons you suggest, for example it could lower transportation costs.  The depth may matter if anchoring.  If Ampere is within an EEZ, then they may make it less attractive.

  4. Miguel Lamas 4:44 pm

    Jeff, It seems that part of Ampere Seamount is within EEZ, but the peak it is outside, and therefore, the part with shallow waters is not inside the EEZ. In any case, it should be better studied in case it would be decided to install there a seastead; more accurate meteocean data is required: wind, waves, current. And also the limits of the EEZ.

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