The “Potsdam Gravity Potato” shows the differences in gravity on Earth’s surface. It has a potato-like shape due to variations in Earth’s mass distribution, causing local gravitational anomalies that appear as an irregular shape when mapped.
The Indian Ocean has the world’s largest gravity ‘black hole,’ which is the most recessed part of the potato (marked with blue). This spot is called the Indian Ocean Geoid Low (IOGL), and it is the largest gravity anomaly on our planet, covering an area of about 3 million square kilometers, almost the size of India itself. Due to the low gravity there, the sea level over the IOGL is up to 106 m (348 ft) lower than the global average. That means if you were to sail across the anomaly, you would be closer to Earth’s center than anywhere else on the ocean.