Search This Blog

Saturday 8 October 2016

North Pole

EXPLORATION

The North Pole is the point that is farthest north on the planet Earth. It is not a land mass, but rather a body of water that is almost permanently covered in a 2-3m thick ice sheet.

Christopher Michel ·North Pole Wikipedia

American explorer Robert Peary claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909. His crew included Inuits Ooqeah, Ootah, Egingwah, and Seeglo, and fellow American explorer Matthew Henson. Peary's claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century. However it is now believed that Peary did not reach the pole, although he may have been as close as 60 miles (97 km).

American aviator Floyd Bennett took part in an expedition to Greenland with retired American naval officer Richard Byrd during the spring of 1926. On May 9, 1926, Bennett claimed he was at the controls as the two men made the first flight to the North Pole. However, in 1996 it was revealed that Byrd's long-hidden diary's solar sextant data consistently contradict his June 1926 report's parallel data by over 100 miles (160 km).

The first consistent, verified, and scientifically convincing attainment of the North Pole was on May 12, 1926, by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his US sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth from the Italian built airship Norge.


The first confirmed men to set foot at the Geographic North Pole were Aleksandr Kuznetsov's Sever-2 expedition. The party flew on three planes (pilots Ivan Cherevichnyy, Vitaly Maslennikov and Ilya Kotov) from Kotelny Island to the North Pole and landed there on April 23, 1948.  Cherevichnyy's plane was the first one to land at 4:44pm (Moscow Time, UTC+04:00)

Soundings made by the Sever-2 expedition were the first to indicate an underwater mountain ridge beneath the ice and water at the North Pole.

The USS Nautilus was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine. Under the command of Commander William R. Anderson, it left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and embarked on a historic journey to the North Pole. On August 3, 1958, after navigating under the Arctic ice for nearly 1,300 miles, the USS Nautilus reached the geographic North Pole, making it the first ship to achieve this feat. The submarine then surfaced to commemorate the occasion and display the American flag at the North Pole. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."

The Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika was the first surface vessel to reach the North Pole. 
The Arktika's journey was part of an expedition to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution. The expedition was led by Captain Gennady Lyachin, and it also included a team of scientists. The Arktika reached the North Pole on August 17, 1977, after a journey of 18 days. The crew planted a Soviet flag at the Pole, and they also conducted a number of scientific experiments.

Icebreaker Arktika,.By RIA Novosti archive, Wikipedia

On April 29, 1978 Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone. The Japanese adventurer reached the North Pole after a 54-day journey. Uemura was a mountaineer, skier, and dog musher who had already set several records, including becoming the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest solo.

In 1985 expedition leader Mike Dunn organized a trip of the "greatest explorers" to the North Pole. Among them were Neil Armstrong, Steve Fossett and Sir Edmund Hillary. Armstrong said that he accepted the invitation because he only ever saw the North Pole from space and not from the ground.

FUN NORTH POLE FACTS

There is a star, called the North Star or Polaris, that is always in the sky above the North Pole. People can tell how far north they are by seeing how high the North Star appears in the sky.

At the North Pole, the Sun does not rise in December; at the South Pole, it does not set.


Because of the Earth's bulge, if you weigh 150lb at the Equator you'll weigh 151lb at the North Pole.

The North and South Poles have no official time zones. In the North, countries which have research stations follow their respective countries' times.

The North Magnetic Pole is one of two places on the Earth where its magnetic field points vertically downwards.

The North Magnetic Pole is not identical to the North Pole, which is the geographic north pole. It moves over time due to magnetic changes in the Earth's core.

Location of the North Magnetic Pole and the North Geomagnetic Pole in 2016.By Cavit - Wikipedia

The North Magnetic Pole, once located over Canada, is now in the Arctic Ocean and is wandering slowly towards Russia.

No comments:

Post a Comment