Anazimuthal projection showing the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole. The map also shows the75th parallel north and60th parallel north.Temporary research station of German-Swiss expedition on thesea ice at the Geographic North Pole. Drillings at the landing site at 90°N showed an average ice thickness of 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) on April 16, 1990Thispressure ridge at the North Pole is about 1 km (0.62 mi.) long, formed between two ice floes of multi-year ice.
The North Pole is by definition the northernmost point on the Earth, lyingantipodally to theSouth Pole. It defines geodeticlatitude 90° North, as well as the direction oftrue north. At the North Pole all directions point south; all lines oflongitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value. No time zone has been assigned to the North Pole, so any time can be used as the local time. Along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west. The North Pole is at the center of the Northern Hemisphere. The nearest land is usually said to beKaffeklubben Island, off the northern coast ofGreenland about 700 km (430 mi) away, though some perhaps semi-permanent gravel banks lie slightly closer. The nearest permanently inhabited place isAlert onEllesmere Island, Canada, which is located 817 km (508 mi) from the Pole.
While the South Pole lies on a continentalland mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of theArctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shiftingsea ice. The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m (13,980 ft) by the RussianMir submersible in2007[1] and at 4,087 m (13,409 ft) byUSSNautilus in 1958.[2][3] This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole (unlike the South Pole). However, theSoviet Union, and later Russia, constructed a number ofmanned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. Since 2002, a group of Russians have also annually established a private base,Barneo, close to the Pole. This operates for a few weeks during early spring. Studies in the 2000s predicted that the North Pole may become seasonally ice-free because ofArctic ice shrinkage, with timescales varying from 2016[4][5] to the late 21st century or later.
Attempts to reach the North Pole began in the late 19th century, with the record for "Farthest North" being surpassed on numerous occasions. The first undisputed expedition to reach the North Pole was that of the airshipNorge, which overflew the area in 1926 with 16 men on board, including expedition leaderRoald Amundsen. Three prior expeditions – led byFrederick Cook (1908, land),Robert Peary (1909, land) andRichard E. Byrd (1926, aerial) – were once also accepted as having reached the Pole. However, in each case later analysis of expedition data has cast doubt upon the accuracy of their claims.
The first verified individuals to reach the North Pole on foot was in 1948 by a 24-man Soviet party, part ofAleksandr Kuznetsov'sSever-2 expedition to the Arctic, who flew near to the Pole first before making the final trek to the Pole on foot. The first complete land expedition to reach the North Pole was in 1968 byRalph Plaisted, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, using snowmobiles and with air support.[6]
The Earth's axis of rotation – and hence the position of the North Pole – was commonly believed to be fixed (relative to the surface of the Earth) until, in the 18th century, the mathematicianLeonhard Euler predicted that the axis might "wobble" slightly. Around the beginning of the 20th century astronomers noticed a small apparent "variation of latitude", as determined for a fixed point on Earth from the observation of stars. Part of this variation could be attributed to a wandering of the Pole across the Earth's surface, by a range of a few metres. The wandering has several periodic components and an irregular component. The component with a period of about 435 days is identified with the eight-month wandering predicted by Euler and is now called theChandler wobble after its discoverer. The exact point of intersection of the Earth's axis and the Earth's surface, at any given moment, is called the "instantaneous pole", but because of the "wobble" this cannot be used as a definition of a fixed North Pole (or South Pole) when metre-scale precision is required.
Gerardus Mercator's map of the North Pole from 1595C.G. Zorgdragers map of the North Pole from 1720
As early as the 16th century, many prominent people correctly believed that the North Pole was in a sea, which in the 19th century was called thePolynya orOpen Polar Sea.[7] It was therefore hoped that passage could be found through ice floes at favorable times of the year. Several expeditions set out to find the way, generally with whaling ships, already commonly used in the cold northern latitudes.
One of the earliest expeditions to set out with the explicit intention of reaching the North Pole was that of British naval officerWilliam Edward Parry, who in 1827 reached latitude 82°45′ North. In 1871, thePolaris expedition, a U.S. attempt on the Pole led byCharles Francis Hall, ended in disaster. Another BritishRoyal Navy attempt to get to the pole, part of theBritish Arctic Expedition, by CommanderAlbert H. Markham reached a then-record 83°20'26" North in May 1876 before turning back. An 1879–1881 expedition commanded byU.S. Navy officerGeorge W. De Long ended tragically when their ship, theUSS Jeannette, was crushed by ice. Over half the crew, including De Long, were lost.
Nansen's shipFram in the Arctic ice
In April 1895, the Norwegian explorersFridtjof Nansen andHjalmar Johansen struck out for the Pole on skis after leaving Nansen's icebound shipFram. The pair reached latitude 86°14′ North before they abandoned the attempt and turned southwards, eventually reachingFranz Josef Land.
In 1897, Swedish engineerSalomon August Andrée and two companions tried to reach the North Pole in the hydrogen balloonÖrnen ("Eagle"), but came down 300 km (190 mi) north ofKvitøya, the northeasternmost part of theSvalbard archipelago. They trekked to Kvitøya but died there three months after their crash. In 1930 the remains ofthis expedition were found by the NorwegianBratvaag Expedition.
The Italian explorerLuigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi and CaptainUmberto Cagni of theItalian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) sailed the converted whalerStella Polare ("Pole Star") from Norway in 1899. On 11 March 1900, Cagni led a party over the ice and reached latitude 86° 34’ on 25 April, setting a new record by beating Nansen's result of 1895 by 35 to 40 km (22 to 25 mi). Cagni barely managed to return to the camp, remaining there until 23 June. On 16 August, theStella Polare leftRudolf Island heading south and the expedition returned to Norway.
1900–1940
Peary's sledge party at what they claimed was the North Pole, 1909. From left: Ooqueah, Ootah, Henson, Egingwah, and Seeglo.[8]
The U.S. explorerFrederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908 with twoInuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, but he was unable to produce convincing proof and his claim is not widely accepted.[9][10]
The conquest of the North Pole was for many years credited to U.S. Navy engineerRobert Peary, who claimed to have reached the Pole on 6 April 1909, accompanied byMatthew Henson and four Inuit men, Ootah, Seeglo, Egingwah, and Ooqueah. However, Peary's claim remains highly disputed and controversial. Those who accompanied Peary on the final stage of the journey were not trained in navigation, and thus could not independently confirm his navigational work, which some claim to have been particularly sloppy as he approached the Pole.[citation needed]
Although heavily disputed by modern historians, Peary & his team were given credit for the discovery of the North Pole by the contemporary press.
The distances and speeds that Peary claimed to have achieved once the last support party turned back seem incredible to many people, almost three times that which he had accomplished up to that point. Peary's account of a journey to the Pole and back while traveling along the direct line – the only strategy that is consistent with the time constraints that he was facing – is contradicted by Henson's account of tortuous detours to avoidpressure ridges andopen leads.
The British explorerWally Herbert, initially a supporter of Peary, researched Peary's records in 1989 and found that there were significant discrepancies in the explorer's navigational records. He concluded that Peary had not reached the Pole.[11] Support for Peary came again in 2005, however, when British explorerTom Avery and four companions recreated the outward portion of Peary's journey with replica wooden sleds andCanadian Eskimo Dog teams, reaching the North Pole in 36 days, 22 hours – nearly five hours faster than Peary. However, Avery's fastest 5-day march was 90 nautical miles (170 km), significantly short of the 135 nautical miles (250 km) claimed by Peary. Avery writes on his web site that "The admiration and respect which I hold for Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and the four Inuit men who ventured North in 1909, has grown enormously since we set out fromCape Columbia. Having now seen for myself how he travelled across the pack ice, I am more convinced than ever that Peary did indeed discover the North Pole."[12]
The first claimed flight over the Pole was made on 9 May 1926 by U.S. naval officerRichard E. Byrd and pilotFloyd Bennett in aFokker tri-motor aircraft. Although verified at the time by a committee of theNational Geographic Society, this claim has since been undermined[13] by the 1996 revelation that Byrd's long-hidden diary's solarsextant data (which the NGS never checked) consistently contradict his June 1926 report's parallel data by over 100 mi (160 km).[14] The secret report's alleged en-route solar sextant data were inadvertently so impossibly overprecise that he excised all these alleged raw solar observations out of the version of the report finally sent to geographical societies five months later (while the original version was hidden for 70 years), a realization first published in 2000 by theUniversity of Cambridge after scrupulous refereeing.[15]
The first consistent, verified, and scientifically convincing attainment of the Pole was on 12 May 1926, by Norwegian explorerRoald Amundsen and his U.S. sponsorLincoln Ellsworth from theairshipNorge.[16]Norge, though Norwegian-owned, was designed and piloted by the ItalianUmberto Nobile. The flight started fromSvalbard in Norway, and crossed the Arctic Ocean to Alaska. Nobile, with several scientists and crew from theNorge, overflew the Pole a second time on 24 May 1928, in the airshipItalia. TheItalia crashed on its return from the Pole, with the loss of half the crew.
In May 1937 the world's firstNorth Pole ice station,North Pole-1, was established by Soviet scientists 20 kilometres (13 mi) from the North Pole after the ever first landing of four heavy and one light aircraft onto the ice at the North Pole. The expedition members — oceanographerPyotr Shirshov, meteorologistYevgeny Fyodorov, radio operatorErnst Krenkel, and the leaderIvan Papanin[17] — conducted scientific research at the station for the next nine months. By 19 February 1938, when the group was picked up by the ice breakersTaimyr andMurman, their station had drifted 2850 km to the eastern coast of Greenland.[18][19]
1940–2000
In May 1945 anRAFLancaster of theAries expedition became the firstCommonwealth aircraft to overfly the North Geographic and North Magnetic Poles. The plane was piloted by David Cecil McKinley of theRoyal Air Force. It carried an 11-man crew, with Kenneth C. Maclure of theRoyal Canadian Air Force in charge of all scientific observations. In 2006, Maclure was honoured with a spot inCanada's Aviation Hall of Fame.[20]
Discounting Peary's disputed claim, the first men to set foot at the North Pole were a Soviet party[21] including geophysicists Mikhail Ostrekin and Pavel Senko, oceanographers Mikhail Somov and Pavel Gordienko,[22] and other scientists and flight crew (24 people in total)[23] ofAleksandr Kuznetsov'sSever-2 expedition (March–May 1948).[24] It was organized by theChief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route.[25] The party flew on three planes (pilots Ivan Cherevichnyy, Vitaly Maslennikov and Ilya Kotov) fromKotelny Island to the North Pole and landed there at 4:44pm (Moscow Time,UTC+04:00) on 23 April 1948.[26] They established a temporary camp and for the next two days conducted scientific observations. On 26 April the expedition flew back to the continent.
Next year, on 9 May 1949[27] two other Soviet scientists (Vitali Volovich and Andrei Medvedev)[28] became the first people to parachute onto the North Pole.[29] They jumped from aDouglas C-47 Skytrain, registered CCCP H-369.[30]
The United States Navy submarineUSS Nautilus (SSN-571) crossed the North Pole on 3 August 1958. On 17 March 1959USS Skate (SSN-578) surfaced at the Pole, breaking through the ice above it, becoming the first naval vessel to do so.[32]
The first confirmed surface conquest of the North Pole was accomplished byRalph Plaisted, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean Luc Bombardier, who traveled over the ice bysnowmobile and arrived on 19 April 1968. The United States Air Force independently confirmed their position.
On 6 April 1969Wally Herbert and companions Allan Gill,Roy Koerner and Kenneth Hedges of the British Trans-Arctic Expedition became the first men to reach the North Pole on foot (albeit with the aid ofdog teams andairdrops). They continued on to complete the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean – and by its longest axis,Barrow, Alaska, toSvalbard – a feat that has never been repeated.[33][34] Because of suggestions (later proven false) of Plaisted's use of air transport, some sources classify Herbert's expedition as the first confirmed to reach the North Pole over the ice surface by any means.[34][35] In the 1980s Plaisted's pilotsWeldy Phipps and Ken Lee signed affidavits asserting that no such airlift was provided.[36] It is also said that Herbert was the first person to reach thepole of inaccessibility.[37]
Soviet icebreakerArktika, the firstsurface ship to reach the North Pole, 1977
In 1982Ranulph Fiennes andCharles R. Burton became the first people to cross the Arctic Ocean in a single season. They departed from Cape Crozier,Ellesmere Island, on 17 February 1982 and arrived at the geographic North Pole on 10 April 1982. They travelled on foot and snowmobile. From the Pole, they travelled towards Svalbard but, due to the unstable nature of the ice, ended their crossing at the ice edge after drifting south on an ice floe for 99 days. They were eventually able to walk to their expedition shipMV Benjamin Bowring and boarded it on 4 August 1982 at position 80:31N 00:59W. As a result of this journey, which formed a section of the three-yearTransglobe Expedition 1979–1982, Fiennes and Burton became the first people to complete a circumnavigation of the world via both North and South Poles, by surface travel alone.[38] This achievement remains unchallenged to this day. The expedition crew included aJack Russell Terrier namedBothie who became the first dog to visit both poles.[39]
In 1985Sir Edmund Hillary (the first man to stand on the summit of Mount Everest) andNeil Armstrong (the first man to stand on the moon) landed at the North Pole in a small twin-engined ski plane.[40] Hillary thus became the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest.
In 1986Will Steger, with seven teammates, became the first to be confirmed as reaching the Pole by dogsled and without resupply.
USSGurnard (SSN-662) operated in the Arctic Ocean under the polar ice cap from September to November 1984 in company with one of her sister ships, the attack submarineUSSPintado (SSN-672). On 12 November 1984Gurnard andPintado became the third pair of submarines to surface together at the North Pole. In March 1990,Gurnard deployed to the Arctic region during exercise Ice Ex '90 and completed only the fourth winter submerged transit of the Bering and Seas.Gurnard surfaced at the North Pole on 18 April, in the company of theUSSSeahorse (SSN-669).[citation needed]
In 1988 a team of 13 (9 Soviets, 4 Canadians)skied across the arctic from Siberia to northern Canada. One of the Canadians,Richard Weber, became the first person to reach the Pole from both sides of the Arctic Ocean.
Participants of the first German North Pole expedition 1990 fromUniversity of GiessenThe German North Pole expedition 1990, Ski-Doo for local research onpack-ice
On 4 May 1990Børge Ousland andErling Kagge became the first explorers ever to reach the North Pole unsupported, after a 58-day ski trek from Ellesmere Island in Canada, a distance of 800 km.[44]
On 7 September 1991 the German research vesselPolarstern and the SwedishicebreakerOden reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels.[45] Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a commontug of war and afootball game on an ice floe.Polarstern again reached the pole exactly 10 years later,[46] with theHealy.
In 1998, 1999, and 2000,Lada Niva Marshs (special very large wheeled versions made by BRONTO, Lada/Vaz's experimental product division) were driven to the North Pole.[47][48] The 1998 expedition was dropped by parachute and completed the track to the North Pole. The 2000 expedition departed from a Russian research base around 114 km from the Pole and claimed an average speed of 20–15 km/h in an average temperature of −30 °C.
Commercial airliner flights on thepolar routes may pass within viewing distance of the North Pole. For example, a flight fromChicago toBeijing may come close as latitude 89° N, though because of prevailing winds return journeys go over theBering Strait. In recent years journeys to the North Pole by air (landing by helicopter or on a runway prepared on the ice) or by icebreaker have become relatively routine, and are even available to small groups of tourists throughadventure holiday companies. Parachute jumps have frequently been made onto the North Pole in recent years. The temporary seasonal Russian camp ofBarneo has been established by air a short distance from the Pole annually since 2002, and caters for scientific researchers as well as tourist parties. Trips from the camp to the Pole itself may be arranged overland or by helicopter.
The first attempt atunderwater exploration of the North Pole was made on 22 April 1998 by Russian firefighter and diver Andrei Rozhkov with the support of the Diving Club ofMoscow State University, but ended in fatality. The next attempted dive at the North Pole was organized the next year by the same diving club, and ended in success on 24 April 1999. The divers were Michael Wolff (Austria), Brett Cormick (UK), and Bob Wass (USA).[49]
In 2005 the United States Navy submarineUSSCharlotte (SSN-766) surfaced through 155 cm (61 in) of ice at the North Pole and spent 18 hours there.[50]
In July 2007 British endurance swimmerLewis Gordon Pugh completed a 1 km (0.62 mi) swim at the North Pole. His feat, undertaken to highlight theeffects of global warming, took place in clear water that had opened up between the ice floes.[51] His later attempt to paddle akayak to the North Pole in late 2008, following the erroneous prediction of clear water to the Pole, was stymied when his expedition found itself stuck in thick ice after only three days. The expedition was then abandoned.
On 2 August 2007 a Russian scientific expeditionArktika 2007 made the first ever manned descent to the ocean floor at the North Pole, to a depth of 4.3 km (2.7 mi), as part of the research programme in support of Russia's2001 extended continental shelf claim to a large swathe of the Arctic Ocean floor. The descent took place in twoMIR submersibles and was led by Soviet and Russian polar explorerArtur Chilingarov. In a symbolic act of visitation, theRussian flag was placed on the ocean floor exactly at the Pole.[53][54][55]
The expedition was the latest in a series of efforts intended to give Russia a dominant influence in theArctic according toThe New York Times.[56]
MLAE 2009 Expedition
In 2009 the RussianMarine Live-Ice Automobile Expedition (MLAE-2009) withVasily Elagin as a leader and a team of Afanasy Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Alexey Shkrabkin, Sergey Larin, Alexey Ushakov and Nikolay Nikulshin reached the North Pole on two custom-built 6 x 6 low-pressure-tire ATVs. The vehicles, Yemelya-1 and Yemelya-2, were designed by Vasily Elagin, a Russian mountain climber, explorer and engineer. They reached the North Pole on 26 April 2009, 17:30 (Moscow time). The expedition was partly supported by Russian State Aviation. The Russian Book of Records recognized it as the first successful vehicle trip from land to the Geographical North Pole.
MLAE 2013 Expedition
Yemelya, an all terrain Russian amphibious vehicle
On 1 March 2013 the Russian Marine Live-Ice Automobile Expedition (MLAE 2013) with Vasily Elagin as a leader, and a team of Afanasy Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Alexey Shkrabkin, Andrey Vankov, Sergey Isayev and Nikolay Kozlov on two custom-built 6 x 6 low-pressure-tire ATVs—Yemelya-3 and Yemelya-4—started from Golomyanny Island (theSevernaya Zemlya Archipelago) to the North Pole across drifting ice of the Arctic Ocean. The vehicles reached the Pole on 6 April and then continued to the Canadian coast. The coast was reached on 30 April 2013 (83°08N, 075°59WWard Hunt Island), and on 5 May 2013 the expedition finished inResolute Bay, NU. The way between the Russian borderland (Machtovyi Island of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, 80°15N, 097°27E) and the Canadian coast (Ward Hunt Island, 83°08N, 075°59W) took 55 days; it was ~2300 km across drifting ice and about 4000 km in total. The expedition was totally self-dependent and used no external supplies. The expedition was supported by theRussian Geographical Society.[57]
Day and night
The sun at the North Pole is continuouslyabove the horizon during the summer and continuouslybelow the horizon during the winter.Sunrise is just before theMarch equinox (around 20 March); the Sun then takes three months to reach its highest point of near 23½° elevation at the summersolstice (around 21 June), after which time it begins to sink, reachingsunset just after theSeptember equinox (around 23 September). When the Sun is visible in the polar sky, it appears to move in a horizontal circle above the horizon. This circle gradually rises from near the horizon just after the vernal equinox to its maximum elevation (in degrees) above the horizon at summer solstice and then sinks back toward the horizon before sinking below it at the autumnal equinox. Hence the North and South Poles experience the slowest rates of sunrise and sunset on Earth.
Thetwilight period that occurs before sunrise and after sunset has three different definitions:
These effects are caused by a combination of the Earth'saxial tilt and its revolution around the Sun. The direction of the Earth's axial tilt, as well as its angle relative to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, remains very nearly constant over the course of a year (both change very slowly over long time periods). At northern midsummer the North Pole is facing towards the Sun to its maximum extent. As the year progresses and the Earth moves around the Sun, the North Pole gradually turns away from the Sun until at midwinter it is facing away from the Sun to its maximum extent. A similar sequence is observed at the South Pole, with a six-month time difference.
Sincelongitude is undefined at the north pole, the exact time is a matter of convention. Polar expeditions use whatever time is most convenient, such asGreenwich Mean Time or the time zone of their origin.[58]
Climate, sea ice at North Pole
Arctic ice shrinkages of 2007 compared to 2005 and also compared to the 1979–2000 average.
The North Pole is substantially warmer than theSouth Pole because it lies at sea level in the middle of an ocean (which acts as a reservoir of heat), rather than at altitude on a continental land mass. Despite being an ice cap, the northernmost weather station in Greenland has a tundra climate (KöppenET) due to the July and August mean temperatures peaking just above freezing.[a]
Winter temperatures at thenorthernmost weather station in Greenland can range from about −50 to −13 °C (−58 to 9 °F), averaging around −31 °C (−24 °F), with the North Pole being slightly colder. However, a freak storm caused the temperature to reach 0.7 °C (33.3 °F) for a time at aWorld Meteorological Organization buoy, located at 87.45°N, on 30 December 2015. It was estimated that the temperature at the North Pole was between −1 and 2 °C (30 and 35 °F) during the storm.[59] Summer temperatures (June, July, and August) average around the freezing point (0 °C (32 °F)). The highest temperature yet recorded is 13 °C (55 °F),[60] much warmer than the South Pole's record high of only −12.3 °C (9.9 °F).[61] A similar[clarification needed] spike in temperatures occurred on 15 November 2016 when temperatures hit freezing.[62] Yet again, February 2018 featured a storm so powerful that temperatures at Cape Morris Jesup, the world's northernmost weather station in Greenland, reached 6.1 °C (43.0 °F) and spent 24 straight hours above freezing.[63] Meanwhile, the pole itself was estimated to reach a high temperature of 1.6 °C (34.9 °F)[clarification needed]. This same temperature of 1.6 °C (34.9 °F) was also recorded at theHollywood Burbank Airport inLos Angeles at the very same time.[64]
The sea ice at the North Pole is typically around 2 to 3 m (6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in) thick,[65] although ice thickness, its spatial extent, and the fraction of open water within the ice pack can vary rapidly and profoundly in response to weather and climate.[66] Studies have shown that the average ice thickness has decreased in recent years.[67] It is likely thatglobal warming has contributed to this, but it is not possible to attribute the recent abrupt decrease in thickness entirely to the observed warming in the Arctic.[68] Reports have also predicted that within a few decades the Arctic Ocean will be entirely free of ice in the summer.[69] This may have significant commercial implications; see "Territorial claims", below.
The retreat of the Arctic sea ice will accelerate global warming, as less ice cover reflects less solar radiation, and may have serious climate implications by contributing to Arctic cyclone generation.[70]
Polar bears are believed to travel rarely beyond about 82° North, owing to the scarcity of food, though tracks have been seen in the vicinity of the North Pole, and a 2006 expedition reported sighting a polar bear just 1 mi (1.6 km) from the Pole.[71][72] Theringed seal has also been seen at the Pole, andArctic foxes have been observed less than 60 km (37 mi) away at 89°40′ N.[73][74]
Fish have been seen in the waters at the North Pole, but these are probably few in number.[75] A member of the Russian team that descended to the North Pole seabed in August 2007 reported seeing no sea creatures living there.[54] However, it was later reported that asea anemone had been scooped up from the seabed mud by the Russian team and that video footage from the dive showed unidentifiedshrimps andamphipods.[76]
Territorial claims to the North Pole and Arctic regions
Currently, underinternational law, no country owns the North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The five surrounding Arctic countries, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark (via Greenland), and the United States, are limited to a 200-nautical-mile (370 km; 230 mi)exclusive economic zone off their coasts, and the area beyond that is administered by theInternational Seabed Authority.
Upon ratification of theUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country has 10 years to make claims to an extended continental shelf beyond its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. If validated, such a claim gives the claimant state rights to what may be on or beneath the sea bottom within the claimed zone.[77] Norway (ratified the convention in 1996[78]), Russia (ratified in 1997[78]), Canada (ratified in 2003[78]) and Denmark (ratified in 2004[78]) have all launched projects to base claims that certain areas of Arctic continental shelves should be subject to their sole sovereign exploitation.[79][80]
In 1907 Canada invoked the "sector principle" to claim sovereignty over a sector stretching from its coasts to the North Pole. This claim has not been relinquished, but was not consistently pressed until 2013.[81][82]
This association reflects an age-old esoteric mythology ofHyperborea that posits the North Pole, the otherworldly world-axis, as the abode of God and superhuman beings.[86]
AsHenry Corbin has documented, the North Pole plays a key part in the cultural worldview ofSufism and Iranian mysticism. "The Orient sought by the mystic, the Orient that cannot be located on our maps, is in the direction of the north, beyond the north.".[87]
Owing to its remoteness, the Pole is sometimes identified with a mysterious mountain of ancientIranian tradition calledMount Qaf (Jabal Qaf), the "farthest point of the earth".[89][90] According to certain authors, the Jabal Qaf ofMuslim cosmology is a version ofRupes Nigra, a mountain whose ascent, likeDante's climbing of theMountain of Purgatory, represents the pilgrim's progress through spiritual states.[91] In Iranian theosophy, the heavenly Pole, the focal point of the spiritual ascent, acts as a magnet to draw beings to its "palaces ablaze with immaterial matter."[92]
^The North Pole Flight of Richard E. Byrd: An Overview of the ControversyArchived 13 October 2007 at theWayback Machine, Byrd Polar Research Center of the Ohio State University. See alsoDIOArchived 14 February 2012 at theWayback Machine Vol. 10 [2000] (refereed both at University of Cambridge and by theDIO board), which reveals errors of grade school arithmetic in the Byrd-defenses of W.Molett (pp. 55 & 98) and consultant J. Portney (pp. 73–75), neither of whom attempts to explain Byrd's surgical censoring of his original June report, or his and the National Geographic's hiding of said report for decades. Similarly, Avery's chimeral try at replicating the Peary 1909 trip via 2005 ice, may divert from but cannot explain Peary's data-blanks, data-alterations, nor why he, when reading his diary to Congress on 7 January 1911, understandablydeletedArchived 24 January 2018 at theWayback Machine (only) its sole attempt at explaining (crudely and inadequately) his steering: "setting course by moon, our shadows etc". SeeThe Washington Post 20 April 1989. Compare diary 2 April 1909 to p. 302 of the Peary Hearings: complete verbatim copy at 1916Congressional Record Vol. 53, Appendix pp. 293–327.
^D. RawlinsPolar Record (Scott Polar Research Institute) vol. 36 pp. 25–50. SPRI's preface: the paper "is considered to be of such significance to the community that it has been published here despite an expanded version being published this same month inDIO." Both versions (p. 38 and 59, respectively) note that while Byrd's New York ticker-tape parade and his National Geographic Society gold medal presentation were on 23 June 1926, the NGS exam of his later-hidden original report was from early 23 June through late 28 June (six days, mistakenly cited as "five consecutive days" in the report), a chronology so revealing that the SeptemberNational Geographic pp. 384–385 stripped out the dates (only) from the NGS' own report, which was published uncensored (thanks to the Secretary of the Navy) atThe New York Times 30 June, p. 5.
^Уфаркин, Николай Васильевич."Черевичный Иван Иванович". Патриотический интернет проект "Герои Страны".Archived from the original on 2 February 2012. Retrieved12 January 2012.
_surfaced_in_Arctic_-_1959.jpg)
