What are the poles of the earth. Geographic and magnetic north pole of the earth. The South Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in Antarctica, the furthest from the coast of the Southern Ocean.
Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR E.P. Fedorov.
Is it possible to mark the position of the geographic pole with a peg driven into the ground! If possible, how to find a place where you need to hammer this peg!
How many poles does the earth have?
About 40 years ago, the famous Soviet astronomer, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR A. Ya. Orlov published an article "What is the pole and where is it?" (Newspaper "Red Crimea", August 11, 1937). At the beginning of this article are the words of an outstanding scientist, academician. Yu. Schmidt that the pole is a point that is difficult to determine. But, A. Ya. Orlov emphasizes, the pole must be definitely determined and, moreover, with all possible accuracy: “All astronomical and geodetic measurements refer to the pole, and if there is even the slightest error in its definition, then it will enter our geographical maps and those catalogs that give the positions of the stars, against which the clock is checked, and then the exact time is given. "A. Ya. Orlov wrote further: “Philologically, the word“ pole ”is derived from the Greek“ strips ”, which originally meant, apparently, that peg driven into the ground, that“ joke ”, around which livestock tied to it grazes on a rope. This the picture of shepherd life was transferred to the vault of heaven, where all the stars move around a certain point, and among nomadic peoples, even now, the North Star is sometimes called the Golden Prank. The opportunity (at least mentally) to fix a grid of geographic coordinates on the surface of the Earth in this way seemed especially attractive to geodesists who were accustomed to using firmly established reference points for measurements. the problem of the motion of the Earth's poles. This was done by A. A. Mikhailov in the article latitude, longitude and azimuth to a single epoch" ("Astronomical Journal", 47, 3, 1970). Here is what he wrote: "Let us start from a certain point with a known astronomical latitude and the direction of the meridian. Let's move from this point to the north, measuring the latitude from time to time. In the end we will reach the point 90 ° 0" 00 ". Will this be the pole - the point (so in the original - E.F.), where the axis of rotation intersects the earth's surface where you need to hammer the peg? No, this will be the point at which the vertical line is parallel to the axis of rotation and which is at an angle from the peg at the center of the Earth equal to the slope of the plumb line, perhaps hundreds of meters. The question arises whether this point will be unique, that is, will we arrive at the same place if we start moving along different meridians? It is almost certain that this point is unique, because the geoid is convex surface. It is possible that there are places inside or at the boundary of heavy masses where the level surface of gravity is concave or has a negative curvature. But these are exceptional cases, hardly taking place on the surface of the Earth, and even more so in outer space. Thus, the point at which the latitude is exactly 90° can be considered to be the only one, but it will not be a pole in the sense indicated.
We now invite the reader to set out on a journey to the Pole following these directions. And even if the goal is not reached, our journey will not be a waste of time - it can be instructive, because along the way, as we will see, unforeseen difficulties will meet and we will have to deal with tasks worth thinking about. In the above excerpt, we are talking, of course, about the real Earth with its complex topography. But we will make our task easier - we will assume that the Earth has the shape of a regular ellipsoid of revolution, that is, a body whose surface is formed when an ellipse rotates around its minor axis. (We will not be interested in how the dimensions and shape of this "earth ellipsoid" are determined.) The perpendicular to the surface of the earth's ellipsoid at any point A passes through the axis of the figure (but not through the center of the ellipsoid O). In other words, the axis OF and the perpendicular A2l lie in the same plane, which is called the plane of the meridian of point A. The trace from its intersection with the surface of the earth's ellipsoid - the meridian of this point - is a flat curve. All meridians converge at the poles of the earth's spheroid. The axis of symmetry OF has one more property that we need to pay special attention to. Recall that the Earth rotates around an axis that always passes through its center of mass O, but somewhat changes direction not only in space, but, as L. Euler showed theoretically, also in relation to the Earth itself. It is clear that as a result of this, those points at which the axis of rotation intersects the surface of the Earth, that is, the poles of rotation, will move, which in turn will lead to changes in the latitudes (as well as longitudes) of all points on the earth's surface. Such changes were discovered at the end of the last century, and since then, systematic latitudinal observations conducted by many observatories of the world have given astronomers the opportunity to continuously monitor how the poles of the Earth's rotation are moving.
However, this phenomenon turned out to be more complicated than Euler's theory suggested. The North and South Poles describe irregular (but completely identical) curves on the surface of the Earth - polodies resembling a spiral, the coils of which either expand or contract. Although the picture turns out to be confusing, it is still possible, taking the polodya for several (say, 6) years, to quite confidently find its center, and it turns out that the pole does not move more than 15 m from this center. At least for the last 130 years (and we have no data about the previous time) he never deviated further. For the model of the Earth under consideration, the center of the curve along which the pole moves will be just the pole of the figure of the earth's ellipsoid.
Can the axis of rotation coincide with the axis of the figure? Yes maybe. Then the rotation of the Earth will be stable, that is, its axis of rotation will not move in the body of the Earth, and the pole will not move along its surface. However, this has never been observed in reality: even if at some point both axes coincided, they would again diverge due to the perturbing influence of various processes on the surface and in the bowels of the Earth.
However, it's time to return to the real Earth. What pole are we talking about when we say that its position can be indicated by a peg? Of course, not about the constantly wandering pole of rotation, but about the fixed pole of the figure.
But here we meet with the first difficulty, which consists in the fact that, strictly speaking, the real Earth has no axis of symmetry, and hence there are no poles of the figure. But the real Earth still has an axis of stable rotation. The points at which it crosses the earth's surface could be called the poles of stable rotation. In foreign literature, they are often called the poles of the figure in this case too. We will also use this term, realizing that it will no longer be strict when we are dealing with a real, that is, with an asymmetric Earth. Note that now the plumb line at the pole of the figure may not coincide and, in all probability, does not actually coincide in direction with the axis of stable rotation OF. However, as A. A. Mikhailov points out in the above excerpt, there is a point L near each of the poles of the figure, in which the plumb line is parallel to the OF axis. The average latitude of this point is exactly +90° in the northern hemisphere and -90° in the southern. Famous American astronomers Clemens and Woolard in the book "Spherical Astronomy" call these points astronomical poles. Having adopted this term, we can say this: in a symmetrical model of the Earth, the pole of the figure and the astronomical pole coincide; they do not coincide with the real Earth*. However, not only at the pole of the figure, but also at any other point on the asymmetric Earth, the plumb line and the normal to the surface of the earth's ellipsoid somewhat differ in direction. They form a small angle, which is called the deviation of the plumb line - we have already met this term in the above excerpt from the article by A. A. Mikhailov. This means that, as a rule, the plumb line at point A will not lie in the plane passing through this point and the OF axis; it will not cross the OF axis, but will pass it. Or otherwise; it is impossible to draw such a plane in which both the axis of stable rotation of the Earth OF and the plumb line at point A would be located. What then is the plane of the meridian of this point? According to the definition adopted in astronomy, this is a plane passing through a plumb line at point A and parallel to either the instantaneous axis of rotation or the axis of the figure. In the latter case, we have the plane of the middle meridian. Now let's put it this way: since the planes of the middle meridians do not pass through the OF axis, it means that the lines along which they cross the Earth's surface do not converge at the pole of the figure F. They do not converge at the astronomical pole, and do not intersect at any one point.
Which way to go
So, the real Earth has at least three North (and hence three South) poles: a wandering pole of rotation, in which the instantaneous axis of rotation of the Earth intersects its surface, a pole of the figure and an astronomical pole, in which the plumb line is parallel to the axis of stable rotation.
Will we come to any of these poles and to which one exactly, if (as A. A. Mikhailov suggests), leaving a point with a known latitude and direction of the meridian, we move, measuring the latitude from time to time? A. A. Mikhailov gives an answer to this question: to a point with a latitude of 90 ° 00 "00", that is, to the astronomical pole.
To find out if everything is really so, let's clarify the path that we could take. One possibility is to walk in such a way as to always remain in the plane of the meridian of the starting point A. This should be immediately abandoned, since the curve along which this plane intersects the surface of the Earth, as we have found out, in the general case does not run through the astronomical pole. So, going along this curve and from time to time determining the latitude, we will never get exactly 90 °, since there is no point with such a latitude on our way - it remains aside.
Let's start with our planet, which in the past was called by other beautiful names: Gaia, Gaia, Terra (the third from the Sun), Midgard-Earth. The sun in Ancient Russia was called "Ra", therefore in the Russian language there are many words that have the root "ra": cheers, joy, rainbow, dawn, Ra-sey.
The displacement of the Earth's magnetic poles
What are the earth's magnetic poles? These are certain points on Earth where the geomagnetic region is vertical (perpendicular) to the planet's ellipsoid. These southern and northern positions were given the name of the poles of the Earth, they are located opposite each other. If a conditional line is drawn between the poles, then it will not pass through the center of the planet.
Observations of the poles have shown that they are migrating all the time. James Clark Ross located the North Pole in 1831 in Northern Canada. At that time, the pole was moving northwest and north at about 5 km per year. So when you look at a compass that points north, that direction is an approximation.
The location of the North Pole of the Earth has been observed for 450 years (you can see this on maps of the Earth). By analyzing the drift of the North Pole, one can see that it has never stood still. But, if we compare the speed of its movement, we can say that what it did before the 1990s can be called flowers in comparison with its current acceleration, at the turn of the century. Around 1999, many stations in Europe recorded signs of a fresh geomagnetic shock. And these shocks in the last third of the twentieth century began to be repeated every 10 years.
Both poles made the greatest advance in the 20th century. And on the border of the 20th and 21st centuries, their behavior became even more interesting. Southern Magnetic earth's pole to our days, the drift speed has decreased - 4-5 km annually, and the northern one has accelerated so much that geophysicists are at a loss: what is it for? Until 1971, it shifted evenly at an approximate rate of 9 km annually, then the rate of change began to increase. By the beginning of the 1990s, he began to pass more than 15 km per year.
Many geophysicists attribute this acceleration to the geomagnetic shock that occurred in 1969-1970. Geomagnetic push - a sharp change in some parameters of the planet's magnetic field. One of the most powerful geomagnetic shocks occurred in 1969-1970 at most of the world's magnetic stations, which were in no way connected with each other. Also, aftershocks were recorded in 1901, 1925, 1913, 1978, 1991 and 1992. Today, the speed of movement of the Earth's North Pole exceeds 55 km/year, and this phenomenon requires careful study and is a mystery of geophysicists. If this continues at the same pace and course, then in 50 years he will be in Siberia. These predictions will not necessarily come true: a geomagnetic push can change this speed, or direct the movement of the pole somewhere else. Now the north magnetic pole is located in the Arctic waters.
Displacement of the axis of the planet Earth
The largest earthquake in Japan contributed to the displacement of the Earth's axis, around which our planet is balanced in mass, by 17 cm and to a decrease in the length of the day on Earth by 1.8 microseconds. These figures were voiced by Richard Gross, a specialist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, operating in Pasadena (California).
There is a lot of historical data that confirms the displacement of the axis of rotation. The inclination of the planet to the plane of its rotation around the Sun occurred more than once. The Scripture says: “The earth shook and shook, the foundations of the mountains moved and trembled ... He tilted the heavens.”
For some time, the Earth's axis of rotation was directed towards the Sun, one side of the planet was illuminated, while the other was not. During the time of the Chinese emperor Yao, a miracle happened: “The sun did not move from its place for 10 days; forests caught fire, a huge number of harmful and dangerous creatures arose. In India, the Sun was observed for 10 days. In Iran, a day was nine days long. In Egypt, daylight did not end for seven days, then a 7-day night came. It was night on the far side of the Earth at the same time. In the writings of Ancient Russia there is a mention of this period of time: “When the Lord said to Moses: “Take my people out of Egypt along with their property ... and God turned seven nights into one night.”
In the records of the Indians of Peru, it is said that far in the past the Sun did not rise in the sky for a very long time “for five days and five nights there was no sun in the sky, and the ocean rebelled and overflowed its banks, fell on land with a roar. The whole earth has changed in this catastrophe."
In the traditions of the Indians of the New World it is said: "This fatal catastrophe went on for five days, the sun did not rise, the earth was in darkness."
The axis of rotation of the Earth has shifted before, but without catastrophic events, in the course of minor geological changes. The last ice age ended about 11 thousand years ago, and huge masses of ice left the surface of the oceans and continents. This not only redistributed the mass, but also gave "unloading" of the earth's mantle, giving it the opportunity to take a shape similar to a sphere. This process is not over yet, and the axis on which the Earth "balances" naturally shifts by 10 cm annually. But volcanic activity, which tends to increase, is doing its job, accelerating this shift.
The strength of the magnetic field weakens
Even more surprising is the behavior of the magnetic field strength: it gradually decreases; over 450 years, it has decreased by 20%. This is what scientists are most worried about. Archeomagnetic data indicate that the decrease in tension has been going on for 2000 years, and in recent centuries it has become more intense.
Since 1970 the situation has become even more difficult. The reversal of the magnetic field at a given rate of fall (that is, a complete change of poles) will take place in 1200 years! This is a real historical period. Geomagnetic measurements over the past ten years confirm this trend. Wise rule: if you want to know your future, study your past. Let's look back. Geologists record the imprints of the planet's magnetic field in a variety of minerals and thus restore its history.
Analysis of changes makes it possible to establish an interesting thing. It turned out that on Earth there have already been reversals of the magnetic field several times, that is, the magnetic poles of the Earth have changed places. Over the past 5 million years, this has already happened 20 times. The last inversion took place about 780 thousand years ago, and since then the Earth's magnetic field has retained its polarity for quite a long time, which today is falling very quickly ...
Mass death of animals
Monitoring of the mass death of animals around the world showed that the mass mortality of animals (dolphins, whales, bees, birds, roe deer, pelicans, etc.), the cause of which has not been established, has begun to increase since 2010. For other catastrophes, this monitoring also set records: 13 cases in one month. Such cases can be explained by an increased release of hydrogen sulfide from the waters of lakes, seas and oceans and, as a result, a lack of oxygen. Lack of oxygen is detrimental to most species of fish, especially marine animals.
You can also explain the mass death of birds. The reason for this is the concentration of gases coming out of the earth's faults. The action of elevated concentrations of hydrocarbons belonging to the methane series in a mixture of gases that does not contain oxygen leads to acute hypoxia, in other words, to oxygen starvation. This is accompanied by loss of consciousness, followed by respiratory arrest and cessation of cardiac activity. That is, a gas jet can form in nature, ending up in which birds will suffer from symptoms of suffocation or poisoning, disorientation, death, or as a result of poisoning or falling. This corresponds to the cases described in the press. The death of animals is explained by an increase in the activity of the earth's crust, which has been growing in recent years.
Even Albert Einstein argued that if the disappearance of bees occurs, then human civilization will disappear. In recent years, bees have really begun to disappear. Explanations for this fact are ambiguous - someone blames pesticides, someone - mobile phones.
The weather can also harm the life of bees - in France, for example, a few years ago, apiaries thinned out due to a rainy and cold spring. The quality of the crop depends on the bees, bee products are necessary in cooking and medicine, the vital state of the flora and fauna depends on the bees. Various funds are being organized to protect bees, but this is not enough, the bee population is also declining.
In the subpolar regions of the Earth there are magnetic poles, in the Arctic - the North Pole, and in the Antarctic - the South Pole.
The North Magnetic Pole of the Earth was discovered by the English polar explorer John Ross in 1831 in the Canadian archipelago, where the magnetic needle of the compass took a vertical position. Ten years later, in 1841, his nephew James Ross reached the other magnetic pole of the Earth, which is located in Antarctica.
The North Magnetic Pole is a conditional point of intersection of the imaginary axis of rotation of the Earth with its surface in the Northern Hemisphere, in which the Earth's magnetic field is directed at an angle of 90 ° to its surface.
Although the North Pole of the Earth is called the North Magnetic Pole, it is not. Because from the point of view of physics, this pole is "south" (plus), because it attracts the compass needle of the north (minus) pole.
In addition, the magnetic poles do not coincide with the geographic ones, because they are constantly shifting, drifting.
Academic science explains the presence of magnetic poles near the Earth by the fact that the Earth has a solid body, the substance of which contains particles of magnetic metals and inside which there is a red-hot iron core.
And one of the reasons for the movement of the poles, according to scientists, is the Sun. Streams of charged particles from the Sun entering the Earth's magnetosphere generate electric currents in the ionosphere, which in turn generate secondary magnetic fields that excite the Earth's magnetic field. Due to this, there is a daily elliptical movement of the magnetic poles.
Also, according to scientists, the movement of magnetic poles is influenced by local magnetic fields generated by the magnetization of the rocks of the earth's crust. Therefore, there is no exact location within 1 km of the magnetic pole.
The most dramatic shift of the North magnetic pole up to 15 km per year took place in the 70s (before 1971 it was 9 km per year). The South Pole behaves more calmly, the shift of the magnetic pole occurs within 4-5 km per year.
If we consider the Earth to be integral, filled with matter, with an iron hot core inside, then a contradiction arises. Because hot iron loses its magnetism. Therefore, such a core cannot form terrestrial magnetism.
And at the earth's poles, no magnetic substance has been found that would create a magnetic anomaly. And if magnetic matter can still lie under the thickness of ice in Antarctica, then at the North Pole - no. Because it is covered by the ocean, water, which has no magnetic properties.
The movement of the magnetic poles cannot be explained at all by the scientific theory of an integral material Earth, because the magnetic substance cannot change its occurrence so quickly inside the Earth.
The scientific theory about the influence of the Sun on the movement of the poles also has contradictions. How can solar charged matter get into the ionosphere and to the Earth if there are several radiation belts behind the ionosphere (7 belts are now open).
As is known from the properties of the radiation belts, they do not release from the Earth into space and do not let any particles of matter or energy into the Earth from space. Therefore, it is absurd to talk about the influence of the solar wind on the earth's magnetic poles, since this wind does not reach them.
What can create a magnetic field? It is known from physics that a magnetic field is formed around a conductor through which an electric current flows, or around a permanent magnet, or by the spins of charged particles that have a magnetic moment.
From the listed reasons for the formation of a magnetic field, the spin theory is suitable. Because, as already mentioned, there is no permanent magnet at the poles, there is no electric current either. But the spin origin of the magnetism of the earth's poles is possible.
The spin origin of magnetism is based on the fact that elementary particles with non-zero spin such as protons, neutrons and electrons are elementary magnets. Taking the same angular orientation, such elementary particles create an ordered spin (or torsion) and magnetic field.
The source of the ordered torsion field can be located inside the hollow Earth. And it can be plasma.
In this case, at the North Pole there is an exit to the earth's surface of an ordered positive (right-handed) torsion field, and at the South Pole - an ordered negative (left-handed) torsion field.
In addition, these fields are also dynamic torsion fields. This proves that the Earth generates information, that is, it thinks, thinks and feels.
Now the question arises why the climate has changed so dramatically at the Earth's poles - from a subtropical climate to a polar climate - and ice is constantly forming? Although recently there has been a slight acceleration in the melting of ice.
Huge icebergs appear out of nowhere. The sea does not give birth to them: the water in it is salty, and icebergs, without exception, consist of fresh water. If we assume that they appeared as a result of rain, then the question arises: “How can insignificant precipitation - less than five centimeters of precipitation per year - form such ice giants, which are, for example, in Antarctica?
The formation of ice on the earth's poles once again proves the Hollow Earth theory, because ice is a continuation of the process of crystallization and covering the earth's surface with matter.
Natural ice is a crystalline state of water with a hexagonal lattice, where each molecule is surrounded by the four closest molecules to it, which are at the same distance from it and are located at the vertices of a regular tetrahedron.
Natural ice is of sedimentary-metamorphic origin and is formed from solid atmospheric precipitation as a result of their further compaction and recrystallization. That is, the formation of ice does not come from the middle of the Earth, but from the surrounding space - the crystalline earth frame that envelops it.
In addition, everything that is at the poles has an increase in weight. Although the increase in weight is not that big, for example, 1 ton weighs 5 kg more. That is, everything that is at the poles undergoes crystallization.
Let's go back to the issue of magnetic poles not matching geographic poles. The geographic pole is the place where the earth's axis is located - an imaginary axis of rotation that passes through the center of the Earth and intersects the earth's surface with coordinates of 0 ° north and south longitude and 0 ° north and south latitude. The earth's axis is tilted 23°30" to its own orbit.
Obviously, at the beginning, the earth's axis coincided with the earth's magnetic pole, and in this place an ordered torsion field appeared on the earth's surface. But along with an ordered torsion field, a gradual crystallization of the surface layer occurred, which led to the formation of matter and its gradual accumulation.
The formed substance tried to cover the point of intersection of the earth's axis, but its rotation did not allow it to be done. Therefore, a trough was formed around the intersection point, which increased in diameter and depth. And along the edge of the gutter, at a certain point, an ordered torsion field was concentrated, and at the same time a magnetic field.
This point with an ordered torsion field and a magnetic field crystallized a certain space and increased its weight. Therefore, it began to play the role of a flywheel or pendulum, which provided and now ensures the continuous rotation of the earth's axis. As soon as there are small failures in the rotation of the axis, the magnetic pole changes its position - it approaches the axis of rotation, then it moves away.
And this process of ensuring the continuous rotation of the earth's axis is not the same at the earth's magnetic poles, so they cannot be connected by a straight line through the center of the earth. To make it clear, for example, let's take the coordinates of the earth's magnetic poles for several years.
North Magnetic Pole - Arctic
2004 - 82.3° N sh. and 113.4°W d.
2007 - 83.95 ° N sh. and 120.72° W. d.
2015 - 86.29° N sh. and 160.06° W d.
South Magnetic Pole - Antarctica
2004 - 63.5 ° S sh. and 138.0° E. d.
2007 - 64.497 ° S sh. and 137.684° E. d.
2015 - 64.28 ° S sh. and 136.59° E. d.
The polar regions of the Earth are the most severe places on our planet.
For centuries, people have tried at the cost of life and health to get and explore the Arctic and the Arctic Circle.
So what have we learned about the two opposite poles of the Earth?
1. Where is the North and South Pole: 4 types of poles
In fact, there are 4 types of the North Pole in terms of science:
The north magnetic pole is the point on the earth's surface to which magnetic compasses are directed.
North geographic pole - located directly above the geographic axis of the Earth
North geomagnetic pole - connected with the Earth's magnetic axis
The North Pole of Inaccessibility is the northernmost point in the Arctic Ocean and the farthest from the earth on all sides
Similarly, 4 types of the South Pole were established:
The south magnetic pole is the point on the earth's surface where the earth's magnetic field is directed upward
Geographic South Pole - a point located above the geographic axis of rotation of the Earth
South geomagnetic pole - connected with the Earth's magnetic axis in the southern hemisphere
The South Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in Antarctica, the furthest from the coast of the Southern Ocean.
In addition, there is the ceremonial South Pole, an area designated for photography at Amundsen-Scott Station. It is located a few meters from the geographic south pole, but since the ice sheet is constantly moving, the mark shifts every year by 10 meters.
2. Geographic North and South Pole: ocean versus continent
The North Pole is essentially a frozen ocean surrounded by continents. In contrast, the South Pole is a continent surrounded by oceans.
In addition to the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic region (North Pole) includes part of Canada, Greenland, Russia, USA, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The southernmost point of the earth - Antarctica is the fifth largest continent, with an area of 14 million square meters. km, 98 percent of which is covered by glaciers. It is surrounded by the South Pacific Ocean, the South Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
Geographic coordinates of the North Pole: 90 degrees north latitude.
Geographic coordinates of the South Pole: 90 degrees south latitude.
All lines of longitude converge at both poles.
3. The South Pole is colder than the North Pole
The South Pole is much colder than the North Pole. The temperature in Antarctica (South Pole) is so low that in some places on this continent the snow never melts.
The average annual temperature in this area is -58 degrees Celsius in winter, and the highest temperature recorded here in 2011 was -12.3 degrees Celsius.
In contrast, the average annual temperature in the Arctic region (North Pole) is -43 degrees Celsius in winter and about 0 degrees in summer.
There are several reasons why the South Pole is colder than the North. Since Antarctica is a huge landmass, it receives little heat from the ocean. In contrast, the ice in the Arctic region is relatively thin and there is an entire ocean underneath, which moderates the temperature. In addition, Antarctica is located on a hill at an altitude of 2.3 km and the air here is colder than in the Arctic Ocean, which is at sea level.
4. There is no time at the poles
Time is determined by longitude. So, for example, when the Sun is directly above us, local time shows noon. However, at the poles, all lines of longitude intersect, and the Sun rises and sets only once a year on the equinoxes.
For this reason, scientists and explorers at the poles use whatever time zone they prefer. As a rule, they are guided by Greenwich Mean Time or the time zone of the country from which they arrived.
Scientists at Amundsen-Scott Station in Antarctica can do a quick run around the world, traversing 24 time zones in a few minutes.
5. Animals of the North and South Pole
Many people have the misconception that polar bears and penguins are in the same habitat.
In fact, penguins live only in the southern hemisphere - in Antarctica, where they have no natural enemies. If polar bears and penguins lived in the same area, polar bears wouldn't have to worry about their food source.
Among the marine animals of the South Pole are whales, porpoises and seals.
Polar bears, in turn, are the largest predators in the northern hemisphere. They live in the northern part of the Arctic Ocean and feed on seals, walruses and sometimes even beached whales.
In addition, animals such as reindeer, lemmings, foxes, wolves, as well as marine animals such as beluga whales, killer whales, sea otters, seals, walruses and more than 400 known species of fish live at the North Pole.
6. No Man's Land
Despite the fact that many flags of different countries can be seen at the South Pole in Antarctica, this is the only place on earth that does not belong to anyone and where there is no indigenous population.
There is an agreement on Antarctica, according to which the territory and its resources must be used exclusively for peaceful and scientific purposes. Scientists, explorers, and geologists are the only people who set foot on Antarctica from time to time.
On the contrary, more than 4 million people live in the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia.
7. Polar night and polar day
The poles of the Earth are unique places where the longest day is observed, which lasts 178 days, and the longest night, which lasts 187 days.
At the poles, there is only one sunrise and one sunset per year. At the North Pole, the Sun begins to rise in March on the vernal equinox and sets in September on the autumn equinox. At the South Pole, on the contrary, sunrise is during the autumn equinox, and sunset is on the day of the vernal equinox.
In summer, the Sun is always above the horizon here, and the South Pole receives sunlight around the clock. In winter, the Sun is below the horizon when there is 24-hour darkness.
8. Conquerors of the North and South Pole
Many travelers tried to get to the poles of the Earth, losing their lives on the way to these extreme points of our planet.
Who first reached the North Pole?
There have been several expeditions to the North Pole since the 18th century. There is controversy over who reached the North Pole first. In 1908, American traveler Frederick Cook became the first to claim to have reached the North Pole. But his compatriot Robert Peary denied this statement, and on April 6, 1909, he officially began to be considered the first conqueror of the North Pole.
First flight over the North Pole: Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and Humberto Nobile on May 12, 1926 on the airship "Norway"
First submarine at the North Pole: nuclear submarine "Nautilus" August 3, 1956
First trip to the North Pole alone: Japanese Naomi Uemura, April 29, 1978, traveled 725 km by dog sled in 57 days
First skiing expedition: Dmitry Shparo's expedition, May 31, 1979. Participants walked 1,500 km in 77 days.
The first to swim across the North Pole: Lewis Gordon Pugh swam 1 km in water at -2 degrees Celsius in July 2007.
Who first reached the South Pole?
The first explorers of the South Pole were the Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and the British explorer Robert Scott, after whom the first station at the South Pole, the Amundsen-Scott station, was named. Both teams went different ways and reached the South Pole with a difference of several weeks, the first was Amundsen on December 14, 1911, and then R. Scott on January 17, 1912.
First flight over the South Pole: American Richard Byrd, in 1928
The first to cross Antarctica without the use of animals and mechanical transport: Arvid Fuchs and Reinold Meissner, December 30, 1989
9. North and South Magnetic Pole of the Earth
The Earth's magnetic poles are related to the Earth's magnetic field. They are in the north and south, but do not coincide with the geographic poles, as the magnetic field of our planet is changing. Unlike geographic, magnetic poles shift.
The north magnetic pole is not located exactly in the Arctic region, but is moving east at a rate of 10-40 km per year, as the magnetic field is influenced by underground molten metals and charged particles from the Sun. The South Magnetic Pole is still in Antarctica, but it is also moving westward at a rate of 10-15 km per year.
Some scientists believe that one day a change in the magnetic poles can occur, and this can lead to the destruction of the Earth. However, the reversal of the magnetic poles has already occurred, hundreds of times over the past 3 billion years, and this has not led to any dire consequences.
10. Melting ice at the poles
Ice in the Arctic at the North Pole tends to melt in the summer and refreeze in the winter. However, in recent years, the ice cap has been melting at a very rapid pace.
Many researchers believe that by the end of the century, and maybe in a few decades, the Arctic zone will remain without ice.
On the other hand, the Antarctic region at the South Pole contains 90 percent of the world's ice. Ice thickness in Antarctica averages 2.1 km. If all the ice in Antarctica melted, sea levels around the world would rise by 61 meters.
Fortunately, this will not happen in the near future.
Some interesting facts about the North and South Pole:
1. There is an annual tradition at Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. After the last food plane leaves, the researchers watch two horror films: The Thing (about an alien creature that kills the inhabitants of a polar station in Antarctica) and The Shining (about a writer who stays in an empty remote hotel in winter)
2. The Arctic Tern bird makes a record flight from the Arctic to Antarctica every year, flying over 70,000 km.
3. Kaffeklubben Island - a small island in the north of Greenland is considered to be the piece of land that is closest to the North Pole, 707 km from it.
It would seem that a strange hobby is to travel to the poles of our planet. However, for the Swedish entrepreneur Frederik Paulsen, this has become a real passion. He spent thirteen years to visit all eight poles of the Earth, becoming the first and so far the only person to do so.
Achieving each of them is a real adventure!
Geographic South Pole - a point located above the geographic axis of rotation of the Earth
The geographic South Pole is marked by a small sign on a pole driven into the ice, which is moved annually to compensate for the movement of the ice sheet. During the solemn event, which takes place on January 1, a new sign of the South Pole, made by polar explorers last year, is installed, and the old one is placed at the station. The sign contains the inscription "Geographic south pole", NSF, date and latitude of installation. The sign, erected in 2006, was engraved with the date when Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott reached the Pole, and small quotes from these polar explorers. The flag of the United States is placed next to it.
Close to the geographic South Pole is the so-called ceremonial South Pole - a special area set aside for photography by the Amundsen-Scott station. It is a mirrored metal sphere, standing on a stand, surrounded on all sides by the flags of the countries of the Antarctic Treaty.
June 1903. Roald Amundsen (left, wearing a hat) makes an expedition on a small sailboat
Gyoa to find the Northwest Passage and pinpoint the exact location of the north magnetic pole along the way.
It was first opened in 1831. In 1904, when scientists took measurements a second time, it was found that the pole had moved 31 miles. The compass needle points to the magnetic pole, not the geographic one. The study showed that over the past thousand years, the magnetic pole has moved over considerable distances in the direction from Canada to Siberia, but sometimes in other directions.
The geographic coordinates of the North Pole are 90°00′00″ north latitude. The pole has no longitude, since it is the point of intersection of all meridians. The North Pole also does not belong to any time zone. The polar day, like the polar night, here lasts for about half a year. The depth of the ocean at the North Pole is 4,261 meters (according to measurements by the Mir deep-sea submersible in 2007). The average temperature at the North Pole in winter is about −40 °C, in summer it is mostly around 0 °C.
This is the north pole of the dipole moment of the Earth's geomagnetic field. Now it is located at the point 78° 30′ N, 69° W, near Tul (Greenland). The earth is a giant magnet, like a bar magnet. The geomagnetic North and South Poles are the ends of this magnet. The north geomagnetic pole is located in the Canadian Arctic and continues to move in a northwesterly direction.
The North Pole of Inaccessibility is the northernmost point in the Arctic Ocean and the farthest from the earth on all sides
The North Pole of Inaccessibility is located in the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean at the greatest distance from any land. The distance to the North Geographic Pole is 661 km, to Cape Barrow in Alaska - 1453 km and at an equal distance of 1094 km from the nearest islands - Ellesmere and Franz Josef Land. The first attempt to reach the point was made by Sir Hubert Wilkins by plane in 1927. In 1941, the first expedition to the Pole of Inaccessibility was carried out by plane under the leadership of Ivan Ivanovich Cherevichny. The Soviet expedition landed 350 km north of Wilkins, thereby being the first to directly visit the north pole of inaccessibility.
The south magnetic pole is the point on the earth's surface where the earth's magnetic field is directed upward.
People first visited the South Magnetic Pole on January 16, 1909 (British Antarctic Expedition, Douglas Mawson located the pole).
At the magnetic pole itself, the inclination of the magnetic needle, that is, the angle between the freely rotating needle and the earth's surface, is 90º. From a physical point of view, the South magnetic pole of the Earth is actually the north pole of the magnet, which is our planet. The north pole of a magnet is the pole from which the magnetic field lines emerge. But to avoid confusion, this pole is called the south pole, since it is close to the South Pole of the Earth. The magnetic pole is moving several kilometers a year.
At the South geomagnetic pole, which was first reached by the sledge-tractor train of the Second Soviet Antarctic Expedition led by A.F. Treshnikov on December 16, 1957, the Vostok research station was established. The South geomagnetic pole turned out to be at an altitude of 3500 m above sea level, at a point 1410 km away from the Mirny station located on the coast. This is one of the harshest places on earth. Here, the air temperature for more than six months a year stays below -60 ° C. In August 1960, an air temperature of - 88.3 ° C was recorded at the South Geomagnetic Pole, and in July 1984 a new record low temperature was 89.2 ° C.
The South Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in Antarctica, the furthest from the coast of the Southern Ocean.
This is the point in Antarctica, the most distant from the coast of the Southern Ocean. There is no general opinion about the specific coordinates of this place. The problem is how to understand the word "coast". Either draw a coastline along the border of land and water, or along the border of the ocean and ice shelves of Antarctica. Difficulties in determining the boundaries of the land, the movement of ice shelves, the constant flow of new data and possible topographical errors, all this makes it difficult to accurately determine the coordinates of the pole. The Pole of Inaccessibility is often associated with the Soviet Antarctic station of the same name, located at 82°06′ S. sh. 54°58′ E e. This point is located at a distance of 878 km from the south pole and 3718 m above sea level. Currently, the building is still located in this place, a statue of Lenin is installed on it, looking at Moscow. The place is protected as historical. Inside the building is a visitor's book, which can be signed by a person who has reached the station. By 2007, the station was covered with snow, and only the statue of Lenin on the roof of the building is still visible. You can see it for miles.
