The Due north Pole is the northernmost point on Earth. It is the precise point of the intersection of the Earth's axis and the Earth's surface.

From the Due north Pole, all directions are south. Its latitude is 90 degrees northward, and all lines of longitude meet there (as well as at the South Pole, on the opposite end of the Earth). Polaris, the electric current North Star, sits virtually motionless in the heaven above the pole, making it an excellent fixed point to utilize in celestial navigation in the Northern Hemisphere.

The North Pole sits in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, on h2o that is near always covered with ice. The ice is about two-iii meters (six-x anxiety) thick. The depth of the ocean at the Northward Pole is more than 4,000 meters (13,123 anxiety).

The Canadian territory of Nunavut lies closest to the Northward Pole. Greenland, the globe's largest island and an independent country within the Kingdom of Denmark, is also close to the pole.

The Due north Pole is much warmer than the South Pole. This is considering sits at a lower elevation (ocean level) and is located in the center of an bounding main, which is warmer than the ice-covered continent of Antarctica. But information technology's non exactly beach weather. In the summer, the warmest time of year, the temperature is correct at the freezing bespeak: 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Because the World rotates on a tilted axis as it revolves around the sun, sunlight is experienced in extremes at the poles. In fact, the Northward Pole experiences only one sunrise (at the March equinox) and one sunset (at the September equinox) every twelvemonth. From the North Pole, the lord's day is always above the horizon in the summertime and below the horizon in the winter. This means the region experiences up to 24 hours of sunlight in the summer and 24 hours of darkness in the wintertime.

Drifting Research Stations

 Since the Due north Pole sits on drifting water ice, it's difficult and expensive for scientists and explorers to report. In that location isn't state or a place for permanent facilities, making information technology hard to set up equipment.

The most consequent research of the North Pole has come from manned drifting research stations. Russia sends out a drifting station nearly every twelvemonth, all named "NP" (for North Pole). Drifting stations monitor the ice pack, temperature, sea depth, currents, conditions conditions, and marine biological science of the N Pole.

As their name implies, drifting stations move with the drifting water ice pack in the Chill Body of water. They usually last 2 or iii years earlier earlier the warmer climate of the Greenland Sea breaks up the ice floe.

Northward Pole drifting stations are responsible for many discoveries near the ecosystem at the Northward Pole. In 1948, for example, bathymetry studies revealed the massive Lomonosov Ridge. The Lomonosov Ridge is an underwater mountain chain stretching across the North Pole, from the Siberian region of Russia all the way to Ellesmere Island, Canada.

Globe-trotting stations have recorded the development of cyclones in the Chill, too Arctic shrinkage. Arctic shrinkage is climatic change in the Chill, including warming temperatures, the melting of the Greenland ice canvas (resulting in more freshwater in the marine environment), and a loss of bounding main water ice.

Ecosystems at the North Pole

Polar bears, Arctic foxes, and other terrestrial animals rarely drift to the North Pole. The drifting water ice is an unpredictable habitat, and does not let for regular migration routes or the establishment of dens in which to enhance young. Yet, polar bears sometimes wander into the area in search of food.

The undersea ecosystem of the N Pole is more than varied than the ice higher up it. Shrimp, sea anemones, and tiny crustaceans inhabit in the area. A few ringed seals have been spotted. (Ringed seals are mutual casualty of the polar bears that wander into the region.) Larger marine mammals, such equally narwhal whales, are much more rare.

Several species of fish live at the Northward Pole. Arctic cod are the about abundant. Arctic cod are pocket-size fish ordinarily found nearly the seafloor, close to their food sources—tiny shrimp and crustaceans.

Birds are frequent visitors to the N Pole. The Arctic tern, which has the longest annual migration of whatsoever species on the planet, spends its spring and summertime in the Chill, though rarely as far north every bit the North Pole. It so flies 30,000 kilometers (18,641 miles) due south, to the Antarctic Circumvolve. The Chill tern makes an Arctic-Antarctic round-trip migration every year.

Like the Arctic tern, all other birds spotted nearly the North Pole are migratory. They include the small snow bunting and gull-like fulmars and kittiwakes.

Exploration

Major polar exploration began in the 19th century. The commencement trek specifically to reach the North Pole was led past British Admiral William Edward Parry in 1827. Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen attempted a land-based expedition in 1895. A Swedish expedition led by Salomon August Andree tried to wing over the North Pole in a hydrogen airship ii years later.

The kickoff person to claim reaching the Due north Pole was American explorer Frederick Albert Cook, in 1908. Cook was unable to provide any navigational records of his achievement, however, and residuum of his team afterwards reported that they did non quite reach the pole. The claim remains controversial.

A year later, some other American explorer, Robert Peary, claimed to reach the North Pole. Peary was supported and funded by the National Geographic Society, which verified his claim. It has been in dispute ever since.

Although Peary'south Due north Pole squad included four other people, none of them were trained in navigation. They were therefore unable to verify Peary's claims, and one of them, Matthew Henson, reported a alien route from Peary. Peary himself never made his navigational records available for review. Skeptics take noted the remarkable speed with which the expedition traveled once Capt. Bob Bartlett, the merely other navigator, left the crew. Peary reported more than than doubling the corporeality of territory covered daily as soon as Bartlett left the expedition.

Still, many explorers support Peary'southward claims. National Geographic conducted all-encompassing studies of the photographs Peary took, and concluded they were taken within viii kilometers (five miles) of the pole. (The photographs themselves take never been made public.) Depth soundings taken by Peary and Henson also seem to support their claim to accept reached the pole.

Maybe the well-nigh important back up for Peary's merits came from British explorer Tom Avery's polar trek of 2005. Avery mimicked Peary's supposed road, using sled dog teams. The expedition successfully reached the N Pole.

The beginning verified expedition to the North Pole was conducted past Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1926. Amundsen did not use a ship or dogsleds—he flew over the pole on the airship Norge. The Norge, lifted past hydrogen and powered by a diesel engine, flew over the Northward Pole on its route from the Norwegian Chill to the U.Southward. state of Alaska.

The first people verified to have prepare foot at the North Pole were a research group of geologists and oceanographers from the Soviet Spousal relationship in 1948. The scientists were flown in and out of the pole over a three-day period.

The kickoff watercraft to accomplish the North Pole was a nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilis, in 1958. Another U.Due south. submarine, the USS Skate, bankrupt through the body of water water ice to surface near the Due north Pole most a year later.

The first verified expeditions to reach the North Pole by pes didn't happen until the late 1960s. A team led by American explorer Ralph Plaisted used snowmobiles to reach the pole in 1968. A year later, an expedition led by British explorer Wally Herbert reached the pole on foot, with the aid of dog sleds and airlifted (flown-in) supplies. In 1986, 77 years after Robert Peary fabricated his merits, a team led by National Geographic Explorer Emeritus Will Steger became the first verified expedition to reach the Northward Pole by dogsled without resupply.

Shipping through the North Pole

Today, large, powerful ships called icebreakers are frequently used to navigate the ocean around the North Pole. Icebreakers cleave through the body of water ice to brand way for cargo and military ships.

Icebreakers take very strong steel bows that can break through water ice at a charge per unit of about 10-xx knots (19-37 kilometers per hr, or 12-23 miles per 60 minutes). Until the 1990s, all icebreakers that traversed the Northward Pole were nuclear-powered. Arctic shrinking and the reduction of sea ice accept since allowed diesel-powered icebreakers to navigate the Due north Pole.

Fewer icebreakers may be needed in the future. Due to Arctic shrinkage, within 50 years the N Pole may exist ice-costless in the summer months.

Cargo ships traveling between Asia, N America, and Europe save coin by navigating the so-called Northern Ocean Road, a trade route which often includes the Due north Pole. Ships carrying cargo such equally oil, natural gas, minerals, and grain regularly apply the Northern Body of water Route. This saves companies hundreds of thousands of dollars by fugitive the long trip to and through the Panama Canal.

Resource and Territorial Claims

No one actually lives at the North Pole. Inuit people, who live in the nearby Chill regions of Canada, Greenland, and Russia, have never made homes at the North Pole. The ice is constantly moving, making it nigh impossible to plant a permanent community.

The Arctic Council, composed of nations with territory in the Chill Circle, addresses bug faced by nations and indigenous people of the Arctic, including the North Pole. Canada, Kingdom of denmark, Republic of finland, Republic of iceland, Kingdom of norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States are members of the Arctic Council.

The possibility of an water ice-free trade route between Europe, North America, and Asia makes the Due north Pole an economically valuable territory. Oil and gas exploration have proved lucrative in other parts of the Arctic, and the possibility of extractive activity around the N Pole'southward seabed interests many businesses, scientists, and engineers.

Nevertheless, taking reward of sea routes or resources at the North Pole is politically fragile. The N Pole is in the centre of the Arctic Ocean, outside the territorial claims of any nation. Still, international laws allowing nations to claim land extending along their continental shelf are currently being explored.

Russia, Canada, Denmark (via the independent country of Greenland), and Norway accept all claimed areas extending from their continental shelves, with Canada and Russian federation voicing the strongest claims.

In 2007, a Russian enquiry expedition using sophisticated submersibles became the beginning to descend to the actual seabed beneath the North Pole. The expedition, Arktika, planted a titanium Russian flag on the spot.

Other Arctic nations reacted strongly. The United States issued a statement dismissing whatsoever Russian claim to the region. Canada's Government minister of Foreign Affairs used a line from the Canadian national anthem in a rebuke: "This is the truthful due north strong and free, and they're fooling themselves if they think dropping a flag on the body of water floor is going to change annihilation."

Russian leaders best-selling Arktika was an expedition to prepare evidence supporting the Due north Pole as function of the Lomonosov Ridge—an extension of the continental shelf off Russian federation. However, expedition leaders questioned other Chill nations' reaction.

"When pioneers reach a indicate hitherto unexplored by anybody," the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs said, "it is customary to leave flags there. Such was the instance on the Moon, by the way."

North Pole

A man (or an elf?) walks near the Northward Pole.

North Pole, Alaska
Northward Pole is a town in central Alaska. It is actually nowhere near the real North Pole, which is in the eye of the Arctic Ocean.

H0H 0H0
That'due south the Canadian postal code for the North Pole, a reference to the area's most famous mythical resident, Santa Claus.

Flying Fourth dimension
Airlines flight from North America and Europe to Asia tin can save time and costly fuel by flying over the N Pole instead of in a straight line around the widening globe. This only became possible after Russia allowed commercial airliners to fly over Siberia in the early on 1990s.

No Time at the Poles
Time is calculated using longitude. For instance, when the sun seems directly overhead, the local time is about apex. However, all lines of longitude see at the poles, and the sun is only overhead twice a yr (at the equinoxes.) For this reason, scientists and explorers at the poles tape time-related data using whatever fourth dimension zone they desire.

Wobbly Definition
The Earth's axis wobbles slightly. This causes the verbal location of the Due north Polethe intersection of the axis and the Globe'due south surfaceto wobble along with it. The precise location of the intersection at whatever given moment is called the "instantaneous pole."

Mathematicians have calculated the wobble, called polar motility, to virtually 9 meters (30 feet) over well-nigh 7 years. The phenomenon is called the Chandler wobble.

airship

Noun

aircraft filled with lighter-than-air fabric, usually hydrogen or helium. Besides called a dirigible or blimp.

Chill shrinkage

Noun

miracle of climate change in the Chill, including warming temperatures, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, and a loss of sea ice.

Noun

an invisible line around which an object spins.

Noun

measurement of depths of bodies of water.

cargo

Substantive

goods carried by a ship, plane, or other vehicle.

celestial navigation

Substantive

determining an object's position using the stars and planets every bit guides.

Noun

gradual changes in all the interconnected weather elements on our planet.

Noun

role of a continent that extends underwater to the deep-ocean floor.

crustacean

Noun

type of beast (an arthropod) with a hard vanquish and segmented torso that commonly lives in the water.

Noun

steady, predictable flow of fluid within a larger body of that fluid.

cyclone

Noun

weather organization that rotates around a center of depression pressure and includes thunderstorms and rain. Unremarkably, hurricanes refer to cyclones that course over the Atlantic Ocean.

diesel

Noun

oil or other fuel used in diesel engines, emitting a low, constant temperature.

drift water ice

Noun

sea ice that floats freely in the bounding main, not attached to a shoreline.

Substantive

community and interactions of living and nonliving things in an area.

Substantive

menstruation in which daylight and darkness are most equal. There are two equinoxes a year.

expedition

Noun

journeying with a specific purpose, such as exploration.

explorer

Substantive

person who studies unknown areas.

extractive activity

Noun

process that removes, or extracts, whatever natural or cultural resource from an surface area.

Frederick Albert Melt

Noun

(1865-1940) American explorer who claimed to reach the North Pole in 1908.

geologist

Noun

person who studies the physical formations of the World.

Greenland ice sail

Substantive

thick glacier covering well-nigh of the island of Greenland.

Substantive

line where the Earth and the sky seem to come across.

Substantive

water in its solid grade.

icebreaker

Noun

powerful ship made for creating paths through thick ice.

ice floe

Noun

floating chunk of frozen water less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) wide.

Describing word

characteristic to or of a specific place.

Inuit

Noun

people and culture native to the Arctic region of Canada, Greenland, and the U.Due south. state of Alaska.

Noun

altitude northward or south of the Equator, measured in degrees.

Noun

altitude east or westward of the prime meridian, measured in degrees.

lucrative

Adjective

profitable or money-making.

marine biology

Noun

study of life in the sea.

marine mammal

Noun

an fauna that lives near of its life in the bounding main only breathes air and gives birth to live young, such as whales and seals.

migration road

Noun

path followed past birds or other animals that migrate regularly.

mimic

Verb

to re-create another organism's advent or behavior.

Noun

political unit made of people who share a common territory.

National Geographic Society

Noun

(1888) organization whose mission is "Inspiring people to care most the planet."

navigate

Verb

to plan and direct the grade of a journeying.

Substantive

art and science of determining an object's position, class, and altitude traveled.

Substantive

fixed point that, along with the South Pole, forms the axis on which the Globe spins.

oceanographer

Noun

person who studies the ocean.

Panama Canal

Noun

bogus waterway between the Pacific Body of water and the Caribbean area Body of water through the land of Panama.

permanent

Adjective

constant or lasting forever.

pioneer

Substantive

person who is amid the offset to do something.

Polaris

Noun

star that is currently located roughly over the North Pole. Likewise chosen the North Star or Lodestar.

inquiry station

Noun

structure or structures built for scientific study of the surrounding region, possibly including residential and lab facilities.

Roald Amundsen

Noun

(1872-1928) Norwegian explorer of the Chill and Antarctic.

Robert Peary

Noun

(1856-1920) American explorer of the polar regions.

seafloor

Noun

surface layer of the bottom of the bounding main.

Noun

base level for measuring elevations. Body of water level is determined by measurements taken over a 19-year cycle.

shipping

Substantive

transportation of goods, ordinarily past large gunkhole.

Soviet Matrimony

Noun

(1922-1991) large northern Eurasian nation that had a communist authorities. As well called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the USSR.

submarine

Noun

vehicle that can travel underwater.

submersible

Noun

pocket-sized submarine used for enquiry and exploration.

Noun

caste of hotness or coldness measured by a thermometer with a numerical scale.

terrestrial

Adjective

having to exercise with the Earth or dry land.

titanium

Noun

chemical chemical element with the symbol Ti.

trade route

Substantive

path followed past merchants or explorers to commutation appurtenances and services.

traverse

Verb

to cross or move through a landscape.

verify

Verb

to testify as true.

Noun

state of the atmosphere, including temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, humidity, atmospheric precipitation, and cloudiness.

  • Credits

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    Editor

    Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing

    Producer

    Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

    Terminal Updated

    Jan. 21, 2011

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