North Pole

North Pole
1. Geog. the end of the earth's axis of rotation, marking the northernmost point on the earth.
2. Astron. the point at which the extended axis of the earth cuts the northern half of the celestial sphere, about 1° from the North Star; the north celestial pole.
3. (l.c.) the pole of a magnet that seeks the earth's north magnetic pole.
4. (l.c.) See under magnetic pole (def. 1).
[1350-1400; ME]

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Northern end of the Earth's geographic axis, located at 90° N latitude, the northern point from which all meridians of longitude start.

Lying in the Arctic Ocean and covered with drifting pack ice, it has six months of constant sunlight and six months of total darkness each year. Robert E. Peary claimed to have reached the pole by dogsled in 1909, but that is now in dispute; Roald Amundsen and Richard E. Byrd claimed to have reached it by air in 1926. The geographic pole does not coincide with the magnetic North Pole, which in 2001 lay at about 81°30′ N, 110°8′ W, or with the geomagnetic North Pole, which is at about 79°13′ N, 71°16′ W.

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      northern end of the Earth's axis, lying in the Arctic Ocean, about 450 miles (725 km) north of Greenland. This geographic North Pole does not coincide with the magnetic North Pole—to which magnetic compasses point and which in the early 21st century lay north of the Queen Elizabeth Islands of extreme northern Canada at approximately 82°15′ N, 112°30′ W (it is steadily migrating northwest)—or with the geomagnetic North Pole, the northern end of the Earth's geomagnetic field (about 79°30′ N, 71°30′ W). The geographic pole, located at a point where the ocean depth is about 13,400 feet (4,080 m) deep and covered with drifting pack ice, experiences six months of complete sunlight and six months of total darkness each year.

 The American explorer Robert E. Peary (Peary, Robert Edwin) claimed to have reached the pole by dog sledge in April 1909, and another American explorer, Richard E. Byrd (Byrd, Richard E.), claimed to have reached it by airplane on May 9, 1926; the claims of both men were later questioned. Three days after Byrd's attempt, on May 12, the pole was definitely reached by an international team of Roald Amundsen (Amundsen, Roald), Lincoln Ellsworth (Ellsworth, Lincoln), and Umberto Nobile (Nobile, Umberto), who traversed the polar region in a dirigible. The first ships to visit the pole were the U.S. nuclear submarines Nautilus (1958) and Skate (1959), the latter surfacing through the ice, and the Soviet icebreaker Arktika was the first surface ship to reach it (1977). Other notable surface expeditions include the first confirmed to reach the pole (1968; via snowmobile), the first to traverse the polar region (1969; Alaska to Svalbard, via dog sled), and the first to travel to the pole and back without resupply (1986; also via dog sled); the last expedition also included the first woman to reach the pole, American Ann Bancroft (Bancroft, Ann).
 

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Universalium. 2010.

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