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North Pole tourist information
North Pole tourist information
Although there's more than one definition of "the North Pole", the most popularly accepted one is geographic: a fixed location in the northern hemisphere at the Earth's axis of rotation, latitude 90�N (longitude not applicable). Unlike the South Pole, which is located on the continent of Antarctica, the geographic North Pole is covered by nothing but a sheet of shifting ice on the surface of the Arctic Ocean. There is thus no permanent habitation nor even an official marker for the position, as the ice moves from year to year. Although it was once an elusive goal that took the lives of many explorers, thanks to modern aviation and other technology, it is now the destination of commercial travel expeditions.
"The North Pole" is also defined magnetically. One definition is the point on the surface that magnetic compasses point to, following the Earth's geomagnetic field. Another uses the Earth's more broad magnetosphere (which affects the Aurora Borealis) as a reference. These positions drift, and are currently off Ellef Ringnes Island (one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands in Nunavut, Canada), and off Qaanaaq, Greenland, respectively.
A somewhat arbitrary definition is the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility, the farthest point from any coastline. This is a fixed location (barring major sea level changes that might redefine coastlines) at 84°03'N 174°51'W.
The Arctic Circle city of Rovaniemi, Finland and the nearly-Arctic Interior Alaskan city of North Pole both somewhat disingenuously claim to be the home of Santa Claus, and Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada has a year-round Santa Claus park as does North Pole, New York.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about North Pole
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in North Pole - updated May 2024
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North Pole Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
