Life of Pi - Wikipedia Life of Pi Jump to : navigation , search This article is about the novel by Yann Martel . For the film based on the novel and directed by Ang Lee , see Life of Pi ( film ) . Life of Pi Life of Pi cover Author Yann Martel Original title Life of Pi Country Canada Language English Genre Fiction Publisher Knopf Canada Publication date September 11 , 2001 ( Canada ) ISBN 0 - 676 - 97376 - 0 ( first edition , hardcover ) OCLC 46624335 Preceded by Self Followed by Beatrice and Virgil Life of Pi is a Canadian fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001 . The protagonist is Piscine Molitor `` Pi '' Patel , an Indian boy from Pondicherry who explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age . He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker . The novel has sold more than ten million copies worldwide . It was rejected by at least five London publishing houses before being accepted by Knopf Canada , which published it in September 2001 . The UK edition won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year . It was also chosen for CBC Radio 's Canada Reads 2003 , where it was championed by author Nancy Lee . The French translation L'Histoire de Pi was chosen in the French CBC version of the contest Le combat des livres , where it was championed by Louise Forestier . The novel won the 2003 Boeke Prize , a South African novel award . In 2004 , it won the Asian / Pacific American Award for Literature in Best Adult Fiction for years 2001 -- 2003 . In 2012 it was adapted into a feature film directed by Ang Lee with a screenplay by David Magee . Contents ( hide ) 1 Plot 1.1 Part one 1.2 Part two 1.3 Part three 2 Major themes 2.1 Life is a story 2.2 Growth through adversity 3 Inspiration 3.1 Richard Parker and shipwreck narratives 3.2 Moacyr Scliar 4 Narrative structure 5 Setting 6 Characters 6.1 Piscine Molitor `` Pi '' Patel 6.2 Richard Parker 7 Reception 8 Adaptations 8.1 Illustrated edition 8.2 Film adaptation 8.3 Theatrical adaptations 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External links Plot ( edit ) The novel begins with a note from the author , which is an integral part of it . Unusually , the note describes entirely fictional events . It serves to establish and enforce one of the book 's main themes : the relativity of truth . Life of Pi is subdivided into three sections : Part one ( edit ) In the first section , the main character , by the name of Piscine Patel , an adult Canadian , reminisces about his childhood in India . His father owns a zoo in Pondicherry . The livelihood provides the family with a relatively affluent lifestyle and some understanding of animal psychology . The narrator describes how he acquired his full name , Piscine Molitor Patel , as a tribute to the swimming pool in France . After hearing schoolmates tease him by transforming the first name into `` Pissing '' , he establishes the short form of his name as `` Pi '' when he starts secondary school . The name , he says , pays tribute to the irrational number which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter . In recounting his experiences , Pi describes several other unusual situations involving proper names : two visitors to the zoo , one a devout Muslim , and the other a committed atheist , bear identical names ; and a 450 - pound tiger at the zoo bears the name Richard Parker as the result of a clerical error , in which human and animal names were reversed . Pi is raised as a Hindu who practices vegetarianism . At the age of fourteen , he investigates Christianity and Islam , and decides to become an adherent of all three religions , much to his parents ' dismay , saying he `` just wants to love God . '' He tries to understand God through the lens of each religion , and comes to recognize benefits in each one . A few years later in 1977 , during the period when Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares `` The Emergency '' , Pi 's father decides to sell the zoo and immigrate with his wife and sons to Canada . Part two ( edit ) The second part of the novel begins with Pi 's family aboard the Tsimtsum , a Japanese freighter that is transporting animals from their zoo to North America . A few days out of port from Manila , the ship encounters a storm and sinks . Pi manages to escape in a small lifeboat , only to learn that the boat also holds a spotted hyena , an injured Grant 's zebra , and an orangutan named Orange Juice . Much to the boy 's distress , the hyena kills the zebra and then Orange Juice . A tiger has been hiding under the boat 's tarpaulin : it 's Richard Parker , who had boarded the lifeboat with ambivalent assistance from Pi himself some time before the hyena attack . Suddenly emerging from his hideaway , Richard Parker kills and eats the hyena . Frightened , Pi constructs a small raft out of rescue flotation devices , tethers it to the bow of the boat and makes it his place of retirement . He begins conditioning Richard Parker to take a submissive role by using food as a positive reinforcer , and seasickness as a punishment mechanism , while using a whistle for signals . Soon , Pi asserts himself as the alpha animal , and is eventually able to share the boat with his feline companion , admitting in the end that Richard Parker is the one who helped him survive his ordeal . Pi recounts various events while adrift in the Pacific Ocean . At his lowest point , exposure renders him blind and unable to catch fish . In a state of delirium , he talks with a marine `` echo '' , which he initially identifies as Richard Parker having gained the ability to speak , but it turns out to be another blind castaway , a Frenchman , who boards the lifeboat with the intention of killing and eating Pi , but is eventually killed by Richard Parker . Some time later , Pi 's boat comes ashore on a floating island network of algae and inhabited by hundreds of thousands of meerkats . Soon , Pi and Richard Parker regain strength , but the boy 's discovery of the carnivorous nature of the island 's plant life forces him to return to the ocean . Two hundred and twenty - seven days after the ship 's sinking , the lifeboat washes onto a beach in Mexico , after which Richard Parker disappears into the nearby jungle without looking back , leaving Pi heartbroken at the abrupt farewell . Part three ( edit ) The third part of the novel describes a conversation between Pi and two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport , who are conducting an inquiry into the shipwreck . They meet him at the hospital in Mexico where he is recovering . Pi tells them his tale , but the officials reject it as unbelievable . Pi then offers them a second story in which he is adrift on a lifeboat not with zoo animals , but with the ship 's cook , a Taiwanese sailor with a broken leg , and his own mother . The cook amputates the sailor 's leg for use as fishing bait , then kills the sailor himself as well as Pi 's mother for food , and soon he is killed by Pi , who dines on him . The investigators note parallels between the two stories . They soon conclude that the hyena symbolizes the cook , the zebra the sailor , the orangutan Pi 's mother , and the tiger represents Pi . Pi points out that neither story can be proven and neither explains the cause of the shipwreck , so he asks the officials which story they prefer : the one without animals or the one with animals . They eventually choose the story with the animals . Pi thanks them and says : `` And so it goes with God . '' The investigators then leave and file a report . Major themes ( edit ) Life is a story ( edit ) Life of Pi , according to Yann Martel , can be summarized in three statements : `` Life is a story ... You can choose your story ... A story with God is the better story . '' A recurring theme throughout the novel seems to be believability . Pi at the end of the book asks the two investigators `` If you stumble at mere believability , what are you living for ? '' According to Gordon Houser there are two main themes of the book : `` that all life is interdependent , and that we live and breathe via belief . '' Growth through adversity ( edit ) PBS has described Martel 's story as one of `` personal growth through adversity . '' The main character learns that `` tigers are dangerous '' at a young age when his father forces him to watch the zoo 's Royal Bengal tiger patriarch , Mahisha , devour a live goat . Later , after he has been reduced to eking out a desperate existence on the lifeboat with the company of a fully grown tiger , Pi develops `` alpha '' qualities as he musters the strength , will and skills he needs to survive . Inspiration ( edit ) In a 2002 interview with PBS , Martel said `` I was sort of looking for a story , not only with a small ' s ' but sort of with a capital ' S ' -- something that would direct my life . '' He spoke of being lonely and needing direction in his life , and found that writing the novel met this need . Richard Parker and shipwreck narratives ( edit ) The name of Martel 's tiger , Richard Parker , was inspired by a character in Edgar Allan Poe 's nautical adventure novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket ( 1838 ) . In this book , Richard Parker is a mutineer who is stranded and eventually cannibalized on the hull of an overturned ship ( and there is a dog aboard who is named Tiger ) . The author also had in mind another occurrence of the name , in the famous legal case R v Dudley and Stephens ( 1884 ) where a shipwreck again results in the cannibalism of a cabin boy named Richard Parker , this time in a lifeboat . A third Richard Parker drowned in the sinking of the Francis Spaight in 1846 , described by author Jack London , and later the cabin boy ( not Richard Parker ) was cannibalized . Having read about these events , Yann Martel thought , `` So many victimized Richard Parkers had to mean something . '' Moacyr Scliar ( edit ) Martel has mentioned that a book review he read of Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar 's 1981 novella Max and the Cats accounts in part for his novel 's premise . Scliar 's story describes a Jewish - German refugee crossing the Atlantic Ocean with a jaguar in his boat . Scliar said that he was perplexed that Martel `` used the idea without consulting or even informing me , '' and indicated that he was reviewing the situation before deciding whether to take any action in response . After talking with Martel , Scliar elected not to pursue the matter . A dedication to Scliar `` for the spark of life '' appears in the author 's note of Life of Pi . Literary reviews have described the similarities between Life of Pi and Max and the Cats as superficial . Reviewer Peter Yan wrote : `` Reading the two books side - by - side , one realizes how inadequate bald plot summaries are in conveying the unique imaginative impact of each book , '' and noted that Martel 's distinctive narrative structure is not found in Scliar 's novella . The themes of the books are also dissimilar , with Max and the Cats being an allegory for Nazism . In Life of Pi , 211 of 354 pages are devoted to Pi 's experience in the lifeboat , compared to Max and the Cats , in which 17 of its 99 pages depict time spent in a lifeboat . Narrative structure ( edit ) According to the reviewer Peter Yan , ' Life of Pi ' is told from two alternating points of view , the main character Pi in a flashback and Yann Martel himself , who is the `` visiting writer '' ( Martel 101 ) interviewing Pi many years after the tiger in the boat story . This technique of the intrusive narrator adds the documentary realism to the book , setting up , like a musical counter-point , the myth - making , unreliable narrator , Pi . The reader is left to ponder at the end whether Pi 's story is an allegory of another set of parallel events . Setting ( edit ) The novel is a work of fiction set in the summer of 1977 that draws on places and historical events in India . The Patel Family 's discussions of the political situation refer to the Emergency period of the mid-1970s , when Indira Gandhi 's administration ruled by decree , curtailed press freedoms , and imprisoned political opponents . Pondicherry is a former French colony in India . It does have an Indian Coffee House and Botanical Gardens . The Botanical Garden had a zoo in 1977 but did not have any animals bigger than a deer . Munnar , the destination for the Patel family 's vacation , is a small but popular hill station in Kerala . Madurai , also referenced in the novel , is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site in Tamil Nadu . Characters ( edit ) Piscine Molitor `` Pi '' Patel ( edit ) He acquires layer after layer of diverse spirituality and brilliantly synthesizes it into a personal belief system and devotional life that is breathtaking in its depth and scope . His youthful exploration into comparative religion culminates in a magnificent epiphany of sorts . `` '' -- Phoebe Kate Foster of PopMatters Piscine Molitor Patel , known to all as just `` Pi '' , is the narrator and protagonist of the novel . He was named after a swimming pool in Paris , despite the fact that neither his mother nor his father particularly liked swimming . The story is told as a narrative from the perspective of a middle - aged Pi , now married with his own family , and living in Canada . At the time of main events of the story , he is sixteen years old . He recounts the story of his life and his 227 - day journey on a lifeboat when his ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during a voyage to North America . Richard Parker ( edit ) A Bengal tiger Richard Parker is a royal Bengal tiger who is stranded on the lifeboat with Pi when the ship sinks . Richard Parker lives on the lifeboat with Pi and is kept alive with the food and water Pi delivers . Richard Parker develops a relationship with Pi that allows them to coexist in their struggle . In the novel , a hunter named Richard Parker is hired to kill a panther thought to have killed seven people within two months . Instead , he accidentally immobilizes a female Bengal tiger with tranquilizer darts while her cub escapes hiding in a bush . Parker names the cub Thirsty after his enthusiasm when drinking from a nearby river . The paperwork that accompanies the shipment of the two tigers to Pi 's family 's zoo in Pondicherry states that the cub 's name is `` Richard Parker '' and the hunter 's given name is `` Thirsty '' and his surname is `` None Given '' , due to a mix - up with the names . Pi 's father finds the story so amusing that they continue to call the tiger `` Richard Parker '' . Reception ( edit ) Brian Bethune of Maclean 's describes Life of Pi as a `` head - scratching combination of dense religious allegory , zoological lore and enthralling adventure tale , written with warmth and grace '' . Master Plots suggested that the `` central themes of Life of Pi concern religion and human faith in God '' . Reutter said , `` So believable is Pi 's story telling that readers will be amazed . '' Gregory Stephens added that it `` achieves something more quietly spectacular . '' Smith stated that there was `` no bamboozlement here . '' Gary Krist of The New York Times praised the book , but added that at times Martel `` pushes the didactic agenda of his story too hard . '' In 2010 , U.S. President Barack Obama wrote a letter directly to Martel , describing Life of Pi as `` an elegant proof of God , and the power of storytelling . '' Adaptations ( edit ) Illustrated edition ( edit ) In October 2005 , a worldwide competition was launched to find an artist to illustrate Life of Pi . The competition was run by Scottish publisher Canongate Books and UK newspaper The Times , as well as Australian newspaper The Age and Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail . Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was chosen as the illustrator for the new edition , which was published in September 2007 . Film adaptation ( edit ) Main article : Life of Pi ( film ) A 2012 adaptation directed by Ang Lee and based on an adapted screenplay by David Magee was given a wide release in the United States on 21 November 2012 . At the 85th Academy Awards it won four awards from eleven nominations , including Best Director . Theatrical adaptations ( edit ) This novel has also been adapted as a play by Keith Robinson , artistic director of the youth - oriented Twisting Yarn Theatre Company . Andy Rashleigh wrote the adaptation , which was directed by Keith Robinson . The premier / original cast contained only six actors -- Tony Hasnath ( Pi ) , Taresh Solanki ( Richard Parker ) , Melody Brown ( Mother ) , Conor Alexander ( Father ) , Sanjay Shalat ( Brother ) and Mark Pearce ( Uncle ) . The play was produced at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford , England , in 2003 . The company toured England and Ireland with the play in 2004 and 2007 . Keith Robinson also directed a second version of the play . He brought some of his company to work with students of the BA ( Hons ) Drama , Applied Theatre and Education Course at the Central School of Speech and Drama . The joint production was performed at the Minack Theatre , in Cornwall , England , in late June 2008 . It was well received by the press and community . References ( edit ) Jump up ^ ' Life of Pi ' a surprise success story around the world Jump up ^ Gibbons , Fiachra ( 24 October 2002 ) . `` Top publishers rejected Booker winner '' . The Guardian . UK . Retrieved 31 August 2010 . Jump up ^ `` Life of Pi '' . Man Booker Prize . Archived from the original on 2 December 2010 . Retrieved 31 August 2010 . Jump up ^ Kipen , David ( 23 October 2002 ) . `` Canadian wins Booker Prize / ' Life of Pi ' is tale of a boy who floats across the ocean from India '' . San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 31 August 2010 . Jump up ^ Reynolds , Nigel ( 30 September 2002 ) . `` Life of Pi wins Booker '' . The Daily Telegraph . UK . Retrieved 3 September 2010 . Jump up ^ `` Canada Reads 2003 '' . Canada Reads . Retrieved 1 September 2010 . Jump up ^ `` Martel seeks quiet of Saskatoon '' . CBC News . Retrieved 1 September 2010 . Jump up ^ `` Asian Pacific American Award for Literature ( APAAL ) 2001 -- 2003 '' . APAAL . Archived from the original on 6 February 2009 . Retrieved 19 October 2010 . Jump up ^ Martel , p. 14 Jump up ^ Martel , p. 69 Jump up ^ `` Life of Pi ( review ) '' . Archived from the original on 29 May 2012 . Retrieved 10 October 2011 . Jump up ^ Renton , Jennie . `` Yann Martel Interview '' . Textualities . Retrieved 19 May 2013 . Jump up ^ Martel , Yann ( 2001 ) . Life of Pi . New York : Knopf Canada . Jump up ^ Houser , Gordon ( 2003 ) . `` The Life of Pi '' . The Christian Century . 120 ( 3 ) : 34 + . Retrieved 5 June 2013 . ^ Jump up to : `` Life of Pi ' Author Reveals to PBS ... org That The Inspiration For His Best - Selling Book And Now Hit Film Came From A Little Known Book About A Shipwrecked German Boy '' . Retrieved 15 May 2013 . Jump up ^ Martel , Yann ( 11 November 2002 ) . `` Conversation : Life of PI '' . PBS NewsHour ( Interview ) . Interview with Ray Suarez . PBS . Retrieved 16 January 2015 . Jump up ^ Martel , Yann ( 27 October 2002 ) . `` Triumph of a castaway adrift in the sea of his imagination '' . The Sunday Times . UK . Retrieved 19 October 2010 . Jump up ^ Oldsaltblog.com Jump up ^ `` Yann Martel on tigers , cannibals and Edgar Alan Poe '' . Canongate Books . 14 May 2002 . Archived from the original on 18 March 2008 . Retrieved 1 September 2010 . Jump up ^ Martel , Yann . `` How Richard Parker Came to Get His Name '' . Amazon.com . Retrieved 1 September 2010 . Jump up ^ `` From the Author -- Yann Martel -- Powell 's Books '' . Powells.com . Archived from the original on 14 January 2013 . Retrieved 30 December 2012 . Jump up ^ Mitgang , Herbert ( 11 July 1990 ) . `` Books of The Times ; Fleeing the Nazis With a Jaguar That May Be Real '' . The New York Times . Retrieved 2 September 2010 . Jump up ^ Rohter , Larry ( 11 July 1990 ) . `` Tiger in a Lifeboat , Panther in a Lifeboat : A Furor Over a Novel '' . The New York Times . Retrieved 2 September 2010 . Jump up ^ Veja.abril.com Jump up ^ Scliar , Moacyr ( 16 July 2006 ) . `` Writers & Company '' ( Interview ) . Interview with Eleanor Wachtel . CBC Radio 1 . ^ Jump up to : `` Review '' . Books in Canada . Retrieved 2012 - 12 - 30 . ^ Jump up to : `` '' Hollow at the core `` : Deconstructing Yann Martel 's Life of Pi Stratton Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne '' . Journals.hil.unb.ca . Retrieved 2012 - 12 - 30 . Jump up ^ Foster , Phoebe Kate ( 4 September 2002 ) . `` Life of Pi : A Novel by Yann Martel '' . PopMatters . London . Retrieved 27 August 2011 . Jump up ^ Bethune , Brian ( 13 April 2010 ) . `` The missing half of Yann Martel 's new novel : His plan for his long - awaited follow - up to ' Life of Pi ' did n't quite work out '' . Maclean 's . Retrieved 31 August 2010 . Jump up ^ Cockeram , Paul ( November 2010 ) . `` Life of Pi '' . Master Plots 4 edition : 1 -- 3 . Jump up ^ Reutter , Vicki ( 2004 ) . `` Martel , Yann . Life of Pi '' . School Library Journal . access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ Stephens , Gregory ( 14 May 2013 ) . `` Feeding tiger , finding God : science , religion , and ' the better story ' in Life of Pi '' . 1 . 14 . Jump up ^ Smith , Jean ( 2003 ) . `` Yann Martel . Lif eof Pi '' . The Review of Contemporary Fiction. 23 ( 1 ) . access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ Krist , Gary ( 2002 - 07 - 07 ) . `` Taming the Tiger '' . The New York Times . ISSN 0362 - 4331 . Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 07 . Jump up ^ `` Life of Pi author Martel hears from Obama '' . Saskatoon StarPhoenix . Winnipeg Free Press . 8 April 2010 . Retrieved 6 September 2011 . Jump up ^ `` Life of Pi : The Illustrated Edition by Yann Martel and Tomislav Torjanac '' . The Sunday Times . UK . 15 September 2007 . Archived from the original on 21 May 2009 . Retrieved 19 October 2010 . Jump up ^ Martel , Yann ( 15 April 2006 ) . `` A brush with the art of Pi '' . The Sunday Times . UK . Archived from the original on 16 June 2011 . Retrieved 19 October 2010 . Jump up ^ `` The Illustrated Life of Pi '' . The Guardian . UK . 27 September 2007 . Retrieved 19 October 2010 . Jump up ^ Cooper , Neil ( 15 March 2007 ) . `` Life Of Pi , Citizens ' Theatre , Glasgow '' . The Herald . Retrieved 19 October 2010 . Jump up ^ `` A remarkable journey from novel to stage '' . Yorkshire Post . 6 December 2004 . Retrieved 19 October 2010 . Jump up ^ `` Production which goes for the jugular '' . This is Cornwall . Northcliffe Media . 18 June 2008 . Archived from the original on 21 April 2013 . Retrieved 22 March 2012 . Bibliography ( edit ) Busby , Brian ( 2003 ) . Character Parts : Who 's Really Who in CanLit . Toronto : Knopf . ISBN 0 - 676 - 97579 - 8 . Davies , Hugh ( September 2002 ) . `` £ 50,000 Booker winner ' stole idea from Brazilian author ' '' . London : Telegraph Group . Dwyer , June ( 2005 ) . `` Yann Martel 's Life of Pi and the Evolution of the Shipwreck Narrative '' . Modern Language Studies . 35 ( 2 ) : 9 -- 21 . JSTOR 30039823 . `` ' May Richard Parker be always at your side ' '' . The Guardian . UK . November 2002 . Fialkoff , Francine ( December 2002 ) . `` Too Sensitized to Plagiarism ? '' . Library Journal . McMurtrie , John ( October 2005 ) . `` French director swept away by ' Life of Pi ' '' . San Francisco Chronicle . Varughese , Samson ( February 2013 ) . `` Does `` The Life of Pi '' Prove the existence of God ? `` . TheMinistryRookie.com . External links ( edit ) Wikiquote has quotations related to : Life of Pi Jennie Renton Interview textualities.net `` Life is a story . You can choose your story . A story with God is the better story . '' Guardian Q&A Interview on Radio Praha The story behind the Illustrated Life of Pi Life of Pi reading group questions and global read - along Reviews The Guardian review by Justine Jordan Salon.com review by Suzy Hansen London Review of Books BBC News Entertainment Movie Review of Life Of Pi at Funbench.com Dan Schneider at Hack Writers Awards Preceded by True History of the Kelly Gang Man Booker Prize recipient 2002 Succeeded by Vernon God Little Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Life_of_Pi&oldid=822164300 '' Categories : 2001 Canadian novels 2000s fantasy novels 1977 in fiction Novels by Yann Martel Canadian fantasy novels Canadian magic realism novels Adventure novels Biographical novels Philosophical novels Novels about animals Novels set in India Canadian novels adapted into plays Castaways in fiction Fictional works set in the Pacific Ocean Tigers in popular culture Metafictional novels Books about spirituality Fiction with unreliable narrators Alfred A. Knopf books Man Booker Prize - winning works Canadian novels adapted into films Solitude in fiction Travel novels Hidden categories : All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from May 2011 Articles with dead external links from December 2017 Articles with permanently dead external links Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL Use Canadian English from December 2014 All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English Use dmy dates from August 2011 Pages to import images to Wikidata Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Кыргызча Magyar മലയാളം Malti Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Suomi Svenska ไทย Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 24 January 2018 , at 19 : 47 . Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply . By using this site , you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation , Inc. , a non-profit organization . About Wikipedia

Question: what is the tigers name in life of pi


North Pole - wikipedia North Pole Jump to : navigation , search For other uses , see North Pole ( disambiguation ) . Not to be confused with North Magnetic Pole . Coordinates : 90 ° N 0 ° W  /  90 ° N - 0 ° E  / 90 ; - 0 An azimuthal projection showing the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole . The map also shows the 75th parallel north and 60th parallel north . Sea ice at the North Pole in 2006 The North Pole , also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole , is ( subject to the caveats explained below ) defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth 's axis of rotation meets its surface . The North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth , lying diametrically opposite the South Pole . It defines geodetic latitude 90 ° North , as well as the direction of true north . At the North Pole all directions point south ; all lines of longitude converge there , so its longitude can be defined as any degree value . Along tight latitude circles , counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west . The North Pole is at the center of the Northern Hemisphere . While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass , the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice . This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole ( unlike the South Pole ) . However , the Soviet Union , and later Russia , constructed a number of manned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937 , some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole . Since 2002 , the Russians have also annually established a 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 of Arctic ice shrinkage , with timescales varying from 2016 to the late 21st century or later . The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m ( 13,980 ft ) by the Russian Mir submersible in 2007 and at 4,087 m ( 13,410 ft ) by USS Nautilus in 1958 . The nearest land is usually said to be Kaffeklubben Island , off the northern coast of Greenland about 700 km ( 430 mi ) away , though some perhaps semi permanent gravel banks lie slightly closer . The nearest permanently inhabited place is Alert in the Qikiqtaaluk Region , Nunavut , Canada , which is located 817 km ( 508 mi ) from the Pole . Contents ( hide ) 1 Precise definition 2 Exploration 2.1 Pre-1900 2.2 1900 -- 40 2.3 1940 -- 2000 2.4 21st century 2.4. 1 2007 descent to the North Pole seabed 2.4. 2 MLAE 2009 Expedition 2.4. 3 MLAE 2013 Expedition 3 Day and night 4 Time 5 Climate 6 Flora and fauna 7 Territorial claims to the North Pole and Arctic regions 8 Cultural associations 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Precise definition ( edit ) See also : Polar motion 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 mathematician Leonhard 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 the Chandler 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 can not be used as a definition of a fixed North Pole ( or South Pole ) when metre - scale precision is required . It is desirable to tie the system of Earth coordinates ( latitude , longitude , and elevations or orography ) to fixed landforms . Of course , given plate tectonics and isostasy , there is no system in which all geographic features are fixed . Yet the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the International Astronomical Union have defined a framework called the International Terrestrial Reference System . Exploration ( edit ) See also : Arctic exploration , Farthest North , List of Arctic expeditions , and List of firsts in the Geographic North Pole Pre-1900 ( edit ) Gerardus Mercator 's map of the North Pole from 1595 C.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 the Polynya or Open Polar Sea . 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 officer William Edward Parry , who in 1827 reached latitude 82 ° 45 ′ North . In 1871 the Polaris expedition , a US attempt on the Pole led by Charles Francis Hall , ended in disaster . Another British Royal Navy attempt on the pole , part of the British Arctic Expedition , by Commander Albert H. Markham reached a then - record 83 ° 20'26 '' North in May 1876 before turning back . An 1879 -- 1881 expedition commanded by US naval officer George W. DeLong ended tragically when their ship , the USS Jeanette , was crushed by ice . Over half the crew , including DeLong , were lost . Nansen 's ship Fram in the Arctic ice In April 1895 the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen struck out for the Pole on skis after leaving Nansen 's icebound ship Fram . The pair reached latitude 86 ° 14 ′ North before they abandoned the attempt and turned southwards , eventually reaching Franz Josef Land . In 1897 Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée and two companions tried to reach the North Pole in the hydrogen balloon Örnen ( `` Eagle '' ) , but came down 300 km ( 190 mi ) north of Kvitøya , the northeasternmost part of the Svalbard archipelago . They trekked to Kvitøya but died there three months later . In 1930 the remains of this expedition were found by the Norwegian Bratvaag Expedition . The Italian explorer Luigi Amedeo , Duke of the Abruzzi and Captain Umberto Cagni of the Italian Royal Navy ( Regia Marina ) sailed the converted whaler Stella 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 the Stella Polare left Rudolf Island heading south and the expedition returned to Norway . 1900 -- 40 ( edit ) Peary 's sledge party at what they claimed was the North Pole , 1909 . From left : Ooqueah , Ootah , Henson , Egingwah , Seeglo . The US explorer Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908 with two Inuit men , Ahwelah and Etukishook , but he was unable to produce convincing proof and his claim is not widely accepted . The conquest of the North Pole was for many years credited to US Navy engineer Robert Peary , who claimed to have reached the Pole on 6 April 1909 , accompanied by Matthew 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 ( Western ) navigation , and thus could not independently confirm his navigational work , which some claim to have been particularly sloppy as he approached the Pole . 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 avoid pressure ridges and open leads . The British explorer Wally 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 . Support for Peary came again in 2005 , however , when British explorer Tom Avery and four companions recreated the outward portion of Peary 's journey with replica wooden sleds and Canadian 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 , significantly short of the 135 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 from Cape 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 . '' Ivan Papanin at North Pole - 1 drifting station , 1937 Another rejection of Peary 's claim arrived in 2009 , when E. Myles Standish of the California Institute of Technology , an experienced referee of scientific claims , reported numerous alleged lacunae and inconsistencies . The first claimed flight over the Pole was made on 9 May 1926 by US naval officer Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett in a Fokker tri-motor aircraft . Although verified at the time by a committee of the National Geographic Society , this claim has since been undermined by the 1996 revelation that Byrd 's long - hidden diary 's solar sextant data ( which the NGS never checked ) consistently contradict his June 1926 report 's parallel data by over 100 mi ( 160 km ) . 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 the University of Cambridge after scrupulous refereeing . According to Standish , `` Anyone who is acquainted with the facts and has any amount of logical reasoning can not avoid the conclusion that neither Cook , nor Peary , nor Byrd reached the North Pole ; and they all knew it . '' The first consistent , verified , and scientifically convincing attainment of the Pole was on 12 May 1926 , by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his US sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth from the airship Norge . Norge , though Norwegian - owned , was designed and piloted by the Italian Umberto Nobile . The flight started from Svalbard in Norway , and crossed the Arctic Ocean to Alaska . Nobile , with several scientists and crew from the Norge , overflew the Pole a second time on 24 May 1928 , in the airship Italia . The Italia crashed on its return from the Pole , with the loss of half the crew . In May 1937 the world 's first North Pole ice station , North Pole - 1 , was established by Soviet scientists by air 20 kilometres ( 13 mi ) from the North Pole . The expedition members : oceanographer Pyotr Shirshov , meteorologist Yevgeny Fyodorov , radio operator Ernst Krenkel , and the leader Ivan Papanin conducted scientific research at the station for the next nine months . By 19 February 1938 , when the group was picked up by the ice breakers Taimyr and Murman , their station had drifted 2850 km to the eastern coast of Greenland . 1940 -- 2000 ( edit ) In May 1945 an RAF Lancaster of the Aries expedition became the first Commonwealth aircraft to overfly the North Geographic and North Magnetic Poles . The plane was piloted by David Cecil McKinley of the Royal Air Force . It carried an 11 - man crew , with Kenneth C. Maclure of the Royal Canadian Air Force in charge of all scientific observations . In 2006 , Maclure was honoured with a spot in Canada 's Aviation Hall of Fame . Discounting Peary 's disputed claim , the first men to set foot at the North Pole were a Soviet party including geophysicists Mikhail Ostrekin and Pavel Senko , oceanographers Mikhail Somov and Pavel Gordienko , and other scientists and flight crew ( 24 people in total ) of Aleksandr Kuznetsov 's Sever - 2 expedition ( March -- May 1948 ) . It was organized by the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route . The party flew on three planes ( pilots Ivan Cherevichnyy , Vitaly Maslennikov and Ilya Kotov ) from Kotelny Island to the North Pole and landed there at 4 : 44pm ( Moscow Time , UTC + 04 : 00 ) on 23 April 1948 . 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 two other Soviet scientists ( Vitali Volovich and Andrei Medvedev ) became the first people to parachute onto the North Pole . They jumped from a Douglas C - 47 Skytrain , registered CCCP H - 369 . On 3 May 1952 U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict , along with scientist Albert P. Crary , landed a modified Douglas C - 47 Skytrain at the North Pole . Some Western sources considered this to be the first landing at the Pole until the Soviet landings became widely known . USS Skate at drift station Alpha , 1958 The United States Navy submarine USS Nautilus ( SSN - 571 ) crossed the North Pole on 3 August 1958 . On 17 March 1959 USS Skate ( SSN - 578 ) surfaced at the Pole , breaking through the ice above it , becoming the first naval vessel to do so . Setting aside Peary 's claim , the first confirmed surface conquest of the North Pole was that of Ralph Plaisted , Walt Pederson , Gerry Pitzl and Jean Luc Bombardier , who traveled over the ice by snowmobile and arrived on 19 April 1968 . The United States Air Force independently confirmed their position . On 6 April 1969 Wally 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 of dog teams and airdrops ) . They continued on to complete the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean -- and by its longest axis , Barrow , Alaska to Svalbard -- a feat that has never been repeated . 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 . In the 1980s Plaisted 's pilots Weldy Phipps and Ken Lee signed affidavits asserting that no such airlift was provided . It is also said that Herbert was the first person to reach the pole of inaccessibility . Icebreaker Arktika , the first surface ship to reach the North Pole . On 17 August 1977 the Soviet nuclear - powered icebreaker Arktika completed the first surface vessel journey to the North Pole . In 1982 Ranulph Fiennes and Charles 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 ship MV 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 - year Transglobe 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 . This achievement remains unchallenged to this day . In 1985 Sir Edmund Hillary ( the first man to stand on the summit of Mount Everest ) and Neil Armstrong ( the first man to stand on the moon ) landed at the North Pole in a small twin - engined ski plane . Hillary thus became the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest . In 1986 Will Steger , with seven teammates , became the first to be confirmed as reaching the Pole by dogsled and without resupply . USS Gurnard ( 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 submarine USS Pintado ( SSN - 672 ) . On 12 November 1984 Gurnard and Pintado 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 April 18 , in the company of the USS Sea Horse ( SSN - 669 ) . On 6 May 1986 USS Archerfish ( SSN 678 ) , USS Ray ( SSN 653 ) and USS Hawkbill ( SSN - 666 ) surfaced at the North Pole , the first tri-submarine surfacing at the North Pole . On 21 April 1987 Shinji Kazama of Japan became the first person to reach the North Pole on a motorcycle . On 18 May 1987 USS Billfish ( SSN 676 ) , USS Sea Devil ( SSN 664 ) and HMS Superb ( S 109 ) surfaced at the North Pole , the first international surfacing at the North Pole . In 1988 a 13 - man strong team ( 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 . On 4 May 1990 Børge Ousland and Erling 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 . On 7 September 1991 the German research vessel Polarstern and the Swedish icebreaker Oden reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels . Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a common tug of war and a football game on an ice floe . Polarstern again reached the pole exactly 10 years later with the Healy . 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 . 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 . 21st century ( edit ) USS Charlotte at the North Pole in 2005 Commercial airliner flights on the Polar routes may pass within viewing distance of the North Pole . For example , the flight from Chicago to Beijing may come close as latitude 89 ° N , though because of prevailing winds return journeys go over the Bering 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 through adventure holiday companies . Parachute jumps have frequently been made onto the North Pole in recent years . The temporary seasonal Russian camp of Barneo 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 at underwater 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 of Moscow 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 ) . In 2005 the United States Navy submarine USS Charlotte ( SSN - 766 ) surfaced through 155 cm ( 61 in ) of ice at the North Pole and spent 18 hours there . In July 2007 British endurance swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh completed a 1 km ( 0.62 mi ) swim at the North Pole . His feat , undertaken to highlight the effects of global warming , took place in clear water that had opened up between the ice floes . His later attempt to paddle a kayak 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 . By September 2007 the North Pole had been visited 66 times by different surface ships : 54 times by Soviet and Russian icebreakers , 4 times by Swedish Oden , 3 times by German Polarstern , 3 times by USCGC Healy and USCGC Polar Sea , and once by CCGS Louis S. St - Laurent and by Swedish Vidar Viking . 2007 descent to the North Pole seabed ( edit ) Main article : Arktika 2007 MIR submersible , one of the two vehicles that were used in the first ever manned descent to the seabed under the North Pole On 2 August 2007 a Russian scientific expedition Arktika 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 's 2001 extended continental shelf claim to a large swathe of the Arctic Ocean floor . The descent took place in two MIR submersibles and was led by Soviet and Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov . In a symbolic act of visitation , the Russian flag was placed on the ocean floor exactly at the Pole . The expedition was the latest in a series of efforts intended to give Russia a dominant influence in the Arctic according to the New York Times . The warming Arctic climate and summer shrinkage of the iced area has attracted the attention of many countries , such as China and the United States , toward the top of the world , where resources and shipping routes may soon be exploitable . MLAE 2009 expedition ( edit ) In 2009 the Russian Marine Live - Ice Automobile Expedition ( MLAE - 2009 ) with Vasily 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 -- Yemelya - 1 and Yemelya - 2 , designed by Vasily Elagin , a known Russian mountain climber , explorer and engineer . The vehicles 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 ( edit ) Yemelya -- all terrain 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 ( the Severnaya 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 ° 59W Ward Hant Island ) , and on 5 May 2013 the expedition finished in Resolute Bay , NU . The way between the Russian borderland ( Machtovyi Island of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago , 80 ° 15N , 097 ° 27E ) and the Canadian coast ( Ward Hant 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 the Russian Geographical Society . Day and night ( edit ) The sun at the North Pole is continuously above the horizon during the summer and continuously below the horizon during the winter . Sunrise is just before the March equinox ( around 20 March ) ; the sun then takes three months to reach its highest point of near 231⁄2 ° elevation at the summer solstice ( around 21 June ) , after which time it begins to sink , reaching sunset just after the September 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 . A civil twilight period of about two weeks occurs before sunrise and after sunset , a nautical twilight period of about five weeks occurs before sunrise and after sunset and an astronomical twilight period of about seven weeks occurs before sunrise and after sunset . These effects are caused by a combination of the Earth 's axial 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 . Time ( edit ) In most places on Earth , local time is determined by longitude , such that the time of day is more - or-less synchronised to the position of the sun in the sky ( for example , at midday the sun is roughly at its highest ) . This line of reasoning fails at the North Pole , where the sun rises and sets only once per year , and all lines of longitude , and hence all time zones , converge . There is no permanent human presence at the North Pole and no particular time zone has been assigned . Polar expeditions may use any time zone that is convenient , such as Greenwich Mean Time , or the time zone of the country from which they departed . Climate ( edit ) Arctic ice shrinkages of 2007 compared to 2005 and also compared to the 1979 -- 2000 average . Main article : Climate of the Arctic See also : Climate change in the Arctic The North Pole is substantially warmer than the South 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 , it shares some characteristics with a tundra climate ( ETf ) due to the July and August temperatures peaking just above freezing . Winter temperatures at the North Pole can range from about − 50 to − 13 ° C ( − 58 to 9 ° F ) , averaging around − 31 ° C ( − 24 ° F ) . However , a freak storm caused the temperature to reach 0.7 ° C ( 33 ° F ) for a time at a World Meteorological Organization buoy , located at 87.45 ° N , on December 30 , 2015 . It was estimated that the temperature at the North Pole was between 30 and 35 ° F ( − 1 and 2 ° C ) during the storm . 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 ) , much warmer than the South Pole 's record high of only − 12.3 ° C ( 9.9 ° F ) . A similar spike in temperatures occurred on November 15 , 2016 when temperatures hit freezing . Yet again , February of 2018 featured a storm so powerful that temperatures at Cape Morris Jesup , the world northermost weather station in Greenland , reached 6.1 ° C ( 43 ° F ) and spent 24 straight hours above freezing . Meanwhile , the pole itself was estimated to reach a high temperature of 1.6 ° C ( 35 ° F ) . This same temperature of 1.6 ° C ( 35 ° F ) was also recorded at the Hollywood Burbank Airport in Los Angeles at the very same time . The sea ice at the North Pole is typically around 2 to 3 m ( 6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in ) thick , although ice thickness , its spatial extent , and the fraction of open water within the ice pack can very rapidly and profoundly in response to weather and climate . Studies have shown that the average ice thickness has decreased in recent years . It is likely that global 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 . Reports have also predicted that within a few decades the Arctic Ocean will be entirely free of ice in the summer . 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 . ( hide ) Climate data for Greenlandic Weather Station ( eleven year average observations ) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high ° C ( ° F ) − 13 ( 9 ) − 14 ( 7 ) − 11 ( 12 ) − 6 ( 21 ) ( 37 ) 10 ( 50 ) 13 ( 55 ) 12 ( 54 ) 7 ( 45 ) − 2 ( 28 ) 0.6 ( 33.1 ) 0.7 ( 33.3 ) 13 ( 55 ) Average high ° C ( ° F ) − 29 ( − 20 ) − 31 ( − 24 ) − 30 ( − 22 ) − 22 ( − 8 ) − 9 ( 16 ) 0 ( 32 ) ( 36 ) ( 34 ) − 7 ( 19 ) − 18 ( 0 ) − 25 ( − 13 ) − 26 ( − 15 ) − 16.2 ( 2.9 ) Daily mean ° C ( ° F ) − 31 ( − 24 ) − 32 ( − 26 ) − 31 ( − 24 ) − 23 ( − 9 ) − 11 ( 12 ) − 1 ( 30 ) ( 34 ) 0 ( 32 ) − 9 ( 16 ) − 20 ( − 4 ) − 27 ( − 17 ) − 28 ( − 18 ) − 17.7 ( 0.2 ) Average low ° C ( ° F ) − 33 ( − 27 ) − 35 ( − 31 ) − 34 ( − 29 ) − 26 ( − 15 ) − 12 ( 10 ) − 2 ( 28 ) 0 ( 32 ) − 1 ( 30 ) − 11 ( 12 ) − 22 ( − 8 ) − 30 ( − 22 ) − 31 ( − 24 ) − 19.7 ( − 3.7 ) Record low ° C ( ° F ) − 47 ( − 53 ) − 50 ( − 58 ) − 50 ( − 58 ) − 41 ( − 42 ) − 24 ( − 11 ) − 12 ( 10 ) − 2 ( 28 ) − 12 ( 10 ) − 31 ( − 24 ) − 41 ( − 42 ) − 41 ( − 42 ) − 47 ( − 53 ) − 50 ( − 58 ) Average relative humidity ( % ) 83.5 83.0 83.0 85.0 87.5 90.0 90.0 89.5 88.0 84.5 83.0 83.0 85.83 Source : Weatherbase Flora and fauna ( edit ) Polar bears are believed rarely to travel 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 . The ringed seal has also been seen at the Pole , and Arctic foxes have been observed less than 60 km ( 37 mi ) away at 89 ° 40 ′ N . Birds seen at or very near the Pole include the snow bunting , northern fulmar and black - legged kittiwake , though some bird sightings may be distorted by the tendency of birds to follow ships and expeditions . Fish have been seen in the waters at the North Pole , but these are probably few in number . A member of the Russian team that descended to the North Pole seabed in August 2007 reported seeing no sea creatures living there . However , it was later reported that a sea anemone had been scooped up from the seabed mud by the Russian team and that video footage from the dive showed unidentified shrimps and amphipods . Territorial claims to the North Pole and Arctic regions ( edit ) Main article : Territorial claims in the Arctic Sunset over the North Pole at the International Dateline , 2015 Currently , under international law , no country owns the North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it . The five surrounding Arctic countries , Russian Federation , Canada , Norway , Denmark ( via Greenland ) , and the United States ( via Alaska ) , 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 the International Seabed Authority . Upon ratification of the United 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 . Norway ( ratified the convention in 1996 ) , Russia ( ratified in 1997 ) , Canada ( ratified in 2003 ) and Denmark ( ratified in 2004 ) have all launched projects to base claims that certain areas of Arctic continental shelves should be subject to their sole sovereign exploitation . In 1907 Canada invoked a `` 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 . Cultural associations ( edit ) In some children 's Western cultures , the geographic North Pole is described as the location of Santa Claus ' workshop and residence , although the depictions have been inconsistent between the geographic and magnetic North Pole . Canada Post has assigned postal code H0H 0H0 to the North Pole ( referring to Santa 's traditional exclamation of `` Ho ho ho ! '' ) . This association reflects an age - old esoteric mythology of Hyperborea that posits the North Pole , the otherworldly world - axis , as the abode of God and superhuman beings . The popular figure of the pole - dwelling Santa Claus thus functions as an archetype of spiritual purity and transcendence . As Henry Corbin has documented , the North Pole plays a key part in the cultural worldview of Sufism and Iranian mysticism . `` The Orient sought by the mystic , the Orient that can not be located on our maps , is in the direction of the north , beyond the north . '' Owing to its remoteness , the Pole is sometimes identified with a mysterious mountain of ancient Iranian tradition called Mount Qaf ( Jabal Qaf ) , the `` farthest point of the earth '' . According to certain authors , the Jabal Qaf of Muslim cosmology is a version of Rupes Nigra , a mountain whose ascent , like Dante 's climbing of the Mountain of Purgatory , represents the pilgrim 's progress through spiritual states . 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 . '' See also ( edit ) Arctic portal Arctic cooperation and politics Arctic Council Biome Celestial pole Ecliptic pole Inuit Circumpolar Council North Pole , Alaska Polaris Poles of astronomical bodies Willem Barentsz Notes ( edit ) A. ^ Data is from a Greenlandic Weather Station at 83 ° 38 ′ N 033 ° 22 ′ W  /  83.633 ° N 33.367 ° W  / 83.633 ; - 33.367  ( Greenlandic Weather Station ) located 709 km ( 441 mi ) from the North Pole . References ( edit ) Jump up ^ Black , Richard ( 8 April 2001 ) . New warning on Arctic sea ice melt . BBC Jump up ^ Ljunggren , David ( 5 March 2009 ) . Arctic summer ice could vanish by 2013 : expert . Reuters Jump up ^ Russian sub plants flag at North Pole , Reuters , 2 August 2007 Jump up ^ Андерсон , Уильям Роберт ( 1965 ) . `` '' Наутилус '' у Северного полюса `` . Воениздат . Retrieved 12 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Mouton , M.W. ( 1968 ) . The International Regime of the Polar Regions . Acadimie de Droit International de La Ha . pp. 202 ( 34 ) . ISBN 9028614427 . Retrieved 12 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Wright , John K. ( July 1953 ) . `` The Open Polar Sea '' . Geographical Review . 43 ( 3 ) : 338 -- 365 . Jump up ^ `` At the North Pole , 6 -- 7 April 1909 : Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web '' . Heritage.nf.ca . Archived from the original on 22 May 2013 . Retrieved 16 February 2011 . Jump up ^ Robert Bryce Cook and Peary : the Polar Controversy Resolved Stackpole 1997 ; Henderson , B. ( 2005 ) True North WW Norton & Company ISBN 0 - 393 - 32738 - 8 Jump up ^ `` Sir Wally Herbert '' . The Independent . 16 June 2007 . Archived from the original on 24 December 2008 . Jump up ^ Tom Avery website . Retrieved May 2007 ^ Jump up to : Roald Amundsen First to Each Pole -- Three Prior North Pole Claims : Each Unproven & Highly Suspect . Dioi.org . Retrieved 4 July 2012 . Jump up ^ The North Pole Flight of Richard E. Byrd : An Overview of the Controversy Archived 13 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine. , Byrd Polar Research Center of The Ohio State University . See also DIO Vol. 10 ( 2000 ) ( refereed both at University of Cambridge and by the DIO 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 can not explain Peary 's data - blanks , data - alterations , nor why he , when reading his diary to Congress on 7 January 1911 , understandably deleted ( only ) its sole attempt at explaining ( crudely and inadequately ) his steering : `` setting course by moon , our shadows etc '' . See The Washington Post 20 April 1989 . Compare diary 2 April 1909 to p. 302 of the Peary Hearings : complete verbatim copy at 1916 Congressional Record Vol. 53 , Appendix pp. 293 -- 327 . Jump up ^ Did Byrd Reach Pole ? His Diary Hints ' No ' . The New York Times . ( 9 May 1996 ) . Retrieved 2012 - 07 - 04 . Jump up ^ D. Rawlins Polar 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 in DIO . '' 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 September National Geographic pp. 384 -- 385 stripped out the dates ( only ) from the NGS ' own report , which fortunately was published uncensored ( thanks to the Secretary of the Navy ) at The New York Times 30 June , p. 5 . Jump up ^ Tierney , John . ( 7 September 2009 ) Who Was First at the North Pole ? . Tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com . Retrieved 2012 - 07 - 04 . Jump up ^ `` North Pole Drifting Stations ( 1930s -- 1980s ) '' . Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . 17 August 2011 . Retrieved 8 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Lockerby , Patrick ( 15 July 2010 ) . `` Arctic Heroes # 2 -- North Pole 1 '' . Retrieved 8 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Armstrong , Terence ( 2011 ) . The Russians in the Arctic . Nabu Press . ISBN 978 - 1 - 245 - 58209 - 4 . Retrieved 8 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Halliday , Hugh A. ( January / February 2004 ) The Aries Flights Of 1945 , Legion Magazine Jump up ^ Mills , William James ( 2003 ) . Exploring polar frontiers : a historical encyclopedia . ABC - CLIO . ISBN 978 - 1 - 57607 - 422 - 0 . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ `` Советские граждане были доставлены на точку Северного полюса , где , образно говоря , проходит земная ось '' . Вокруг Света . Retrieved 8 January 2012 . Jump up ^ `` Concise chronology of approach to the poles '' . Scott Polar Research Institute ( SPRI ) . February 2001 . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ `` Высокоширотная воздушная экспедиция `` Север - 2 '' ( 1948 г . ) `` . ФГБУ `` Арктический и антарктический научно - исследовательский институт '' ( ФГБУ `` ААНИИ '' ) . 2005 -- 2008 . Archived from the original on 3 February 2010 . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Уфаркин , Николай Васильевич . `` Черевичный Иван Иванович '' . Патриотический интернет проект `` Герои Страны '' . Retrieved 12 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Loginov , Dmitri . `` Великий полярный водоворот просыпается '' . Archived from the original on 11 November 2013 . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ `` Volovich Vitaly Georgievich '' . Polar World . Archived from the original on 18 December 2008 . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Barlow , John Matthew ( 29 July 2010 ) . `` The Cold War in the Arctic '' ( PDF ) . Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute ( CDFAI ) . Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 5 June 2013 . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ `` Arctic Aerial Exploration '' . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Safronov , Ivan , Jr. ( 29 July 2009 ) . `` Десантников отправят на Северный полюс '' . Коммерсантъ . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Aviation History Facts , U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission Jump up ^ Jensen , Joel FIRST SUBMARINE TO SURFACE AT THE NORTH POLE . militaryhonors.sid-hill.us Jump up ^ Jenny Booth ( 13 June 2007 ) . ' Greatest polar explorer ' Sir Wally Herbert dies , The Times . ^ Jump up to : Bob Headland ( 15 June 2007 ) . Sir Wally Herbert , The Guardian . Jump up ^ Polar History . northpolewomen.com . Retrieved 4 July 2012 . Jump up ^ Ramstad , C.J. & Pickering , Keith ( 2011 ) . First to the Pole . North Star Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 87839 - 446 - 3 . Jump up ^ Sir Wally Herbert . Polarworld.co.uk . Retrieved 4 July 2012 . Jump up ^ Bruhns , Sarah ( 27 August 2013 ) When Neil Armstrong and Edmund Hillary Took a Trip to the North Pole . atlasobscura.com . Retrieved 9 September 2013 . Jump up ^ `` North and South Pole successful '' . ExplorersWeb Inc. 16 June 2004 . Retrieved 10 December 2012 . Jump up ^ `` Japanese Is First to Reach North Pole by Motorcycle '' . Associated Press . 21 April 1987 . Retrieved 10 December 2012 . Jump up ^ First people to reach the north pole . Guinnessworldrecords.com . Retrieved 4 July 2012 . Jump up ^ Fütterer , D. et al. ( 1992 ) `` The Expedition ARK - VIII / 3 of RV Polarstern in 1991 '' , Reports on Polar and Marine Research , Bremerhaven , 107 , hdl : 10013 / epic. 10107. d001 Jump up ^ Thiede , J. et al. ( 2002 ) `` POLARSTERN ARKTIS XVII / 2 Cruise Report : AMORE 2001 ( Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge Expedition ) '' , Reports on Polar and Marine Research , Bremerhaven , 421 , hdl : 10013 / epic. 10426. d001 Jump up ^ `` Lada Oddities '' . ladaniva.co.uk . Jump up ^ Rosloot , Hans `` Amphihans '' . `` The Amphiclopedia Vi to Wa '' . amphibiousvehicle.net . Jump up ^ Cormick , Brett ( February 2000 ) . `` Diving the top of the world '' . Diver . Archived from the original on 24 March 2012 . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ Ozeck , Dave ( 12 January 2005 ) USS Charlotte Achieves Milestone During Under - Ice Transit . news.navy.mil . Jump up ^ Swimmer rises to Arctic challenge , BBC news ( 15 July 2007 ) . Jump up ^ Банько , Юрий ( 19 September 2007 ) . `` Вчера и сегодня мы -- первые . А завтра ? '' . Российская газета . Retrieved 9 January 2012 . Jump up ^ ( in Russian ) `` Академик Федоров '' -- выходит из порта Санкт - Петербург в экспедицию `` Арктика - 2007 '' . Press release of the AARI ( 9 July 2007 ) . ^ Jump up to : Russia plants flag under N Pole , BBC News ( 2 August 2007 ) . Jump up ^ ( in Russian ) News video of the Russian descent at the North Pole Jump up ^ Russia 's North Pole Obsession , The New York Times ( 2 August 2007 ) . Jump up ^ `` The Big Melt '' , The New York Times ( October 2005 ) . Jump up ^ `` Diary of MLAE - 2013 '' . yemelya.ru . Jump up ^ Fritz , Angela ; Fritz , Angela ( 30 December 2015 ) . `` Freak storm pushes North Pole 50 degrees above normal to melting point '' -- via washingtonpost.com . ^ Jump up to : `` CLOSEST DATA FOR NORTH POLE - 440 MI / 709 KM , GREENLAND '' . Weatherbase . Retrieved 19 September 2015 . Jump up ^ `` Antarctic Sun : Heat Wave '' , US Antarctic Program Jump up ^ `` Bizarre Temperatures : North Pole Rises Above Freezing While Parts of Russia Plunge Below - 40 Degrees '' . Jump up ^ `` February 2018 heatwave across the Far North '' . NOAA . Jump up ^ `` NOWData - NOAA Online Weather Data '' . NOAA / NWS . Jump up ^ Beyond `` Polar Express '' : Fast Facts on the Real North Pole , National Geographic News Jump up ^ `` Sea Ice '' . State of the Cryosphere . NSIDC . Retrieved 6 March 2012 . Jump up ^ `` Arctic ice thickness drops by up to 19 percent '' , The Daily Telegraph ( 28 October 2008 ) . Jump up ^ `` Model - Based Estimates of Change '' . IPCC . Retrieved 6 March 2012 . Jump up ^ Jonathan Amos ( 12 December 2006 ) . Arctic sea ice `` faces rapid melt '' , BBC . Jump up ^ `` Future of Arctic Climate and Global Impacts '' . NOAA . Archived from the original on 9 September 2013 . Retrieved 6 March 2012 . Jump up ^ Polar Bear -- Population & Distribution , WWF , January 2007 Jump up ^ Explorers ' Blog Archived 13 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine. , Greenpeace Project Thin Ice ( 1 July 2006 ) . Jump up ^ Halkka , Antti ( February 2003 ) . Ringed seal makes its home on the ice . suomenluonto.fi Jump up ^ Tannerfeldt , Magnus . The Arctic Fox Alopex lagopus . zoologi.su.se ^ Jump up to : `` FARTHEST NORTH POLAR BEAR ( Ursus maritimus ) '' ( PDF ) . Retrieved 16 February 2011 . Jump up ^ `` North Pole sea anemone named most northerly species '' , Observer , 2 August 2009 Jump up ^ `` United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ( Annex 2 , Article 4 ) '' . Retrieved 26 July 2007 . ^ Jump up to : Status of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , of the Agreement relating to the implementation of Part XI of the Convention and of the Agreement for the implementation of the provisions of the Convention relating to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks . un.org ( 4 June 2007 ) . Jump up ^ `` Territorial claims in the Arctic '' ( PDF ) . Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 8 August 2008 . Retrieved 16 February 2011 . Jump up ^ The Battle for the Next Energy Frontier : The Russian Polar Expedition and the Future of Arctic Hydrocarbons , by Shamil Yenikeyeff and Timothy Fenton Krysiek , Oxford Institute for Energy Studies , August 2007 Jump up ^ Noronha , Charmaine ( 9 December 2013 ) . `` Canada plans claim that would include North Pole '' . 9 December 2013 . Associated Press . Retrieved 9 December 2013 . Jump up ^ `` Arctic Sovereignty : Loss by Dereliction ? '' . Northern Perspectives. 22 ( 4 ) . Winter 1994 -- 1995 . Retrieved 16 February 2011 . Jump up ^ Jeffers , Harry Paul ( 2000 ) . Legends of Santa Claus . Twenty - First Century Books . p. 20 . ISBN 0 - 8225 - 4983 - 2 . Jump up ^ `` Meet your neighbor : Santa Claus of the North Pole '' . Jump up ^ `` Canada Post Launches 24th Annual Santa Letter - writing Program -- Post Office Sends Joy to Salvation Army with $25,000 Donation '' . Canada Post . 15 November 2006 . Archived from the original on 11 April 2008 . Jump up ^ Godwin , Joscelyn ( 1993 ) . Arktos : The Polar Myth in Science , Symbolism , and Nazi Survival . Grand Rapids : Phanes Press . ISBN 0932813356 . Jump up ^ `` Pole - Spirits North and South '' . Livingheritage.org . Retrieved 4 July 2012 . Jump up ^ Corbin , Henry and Pearson , N. ( Translator ) ( 1978 ) . The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism . Shambhala . ISBN 0394734416 . CS1 maint : Uses authors parameter ( link ) Jump up ^ Ibrahim Muhawi & Sharif Kanaana . Speak , Bird , Speak Again : Palestinian Arab Folktales . Berkeley : University of California Press . CS1 maint : Uses authors parameter ( link ) Jump up ^ Irgam Yigfagna . al - Jabal al - Lamma . Jump up ^ Irgam Yigfagna . al - Jabal al - Lamma . p. 44 . Jump up ^ Irgam Yigfagna . al - Jabal al - Lamma . p. 11 . Further reading ( edit ) Frederick , Albert ; Cook , Robert E. Peary , George W. Melville ( 2003 ) . Finding the North Pole . The Lyons press . ISBN 1 - 59228 - 072 - 2 . CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list ( link ) Pal , Christopher ( 2002 ) . The Oddest Place on Earth : Rediscovering the North Pole . Writer 's Showcase . ISBN 0 - 595 - 21454 - 1 . Fairfield , William ( 1885 ) . Paradise Found a Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole a Study of the Prehistoric World . Houghton , Mifflin . ISBN 0 - 665 - 37759 - 2 . External links ( edit ) Wikimedia Commons has media related to North Pole . Arctic Council The Northern Forum North Pole Web Cam FAQ on the Arctic and the North Pole Daylight , Darkness and Changing of the Seasons at the North Pole Video of the Nuclear Icebreaker Yamal visiting the North Pole in 2001 Polar Discovery : North Pole Observatory Expedition Polar exploration Arctic Ocean History Expeditions Research stations Farthest North North Pole Barentsz Hudson Marmaduke Carolus Parry North Magnetic Pole J. Ross J.C. Ross Abernethy Kane Hayes Polaris Polaris C.F. Hall British Arctic Expedition HMS Alert Nares HMS Discovery Stephenson Markham Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Greely Lockwood Brainard 1st Fram expedition Fram Nansen Johansen Sverdrup Jason Amedeo F. Cook Peary Sedov Byrd Airship Norge Amundsen Nobile Wisting Riiser - Larsen Ellsworth Airship Italia Nautilus Wilkins ANT - 25 Chkalov Baydukov Belyakov `` North Pole '' manned drifting ice stations NP - 1 Papanin Shirshov E. Fyodorov Krenkel NP - 36 NP - 37 Sedov Badygin Wiese USS Nautilus USS Skate Plaisted Herbert NS Arktika Barneo Arktika 2007 Mir submersibles Sagalevich Chilingarov Iceland Greenland Pytheas Brendan Papar Vikings Naddodd Svavarsson Arnarson Norse colonization of the Americas Ulfsson Galti Erik the Red Christian IV 's expeditions J. Hall Cunningham Lindenov C. Richardson Danish colonization Egede Scoresby Jason Nansen Sverdrup Peary Rasmussen Northwest Passage Northern Canada Cabot G. Corte - Real M. Corte - Real Frobisher Gilbert Davis Hudson Discovery Bylot Baffin Munk I. Fyodorov Gvozdev HMS Resolution J. Cook HMS Discovery Clerke Mackenzie Kotzebue J. Ross HMS Griper Parry HMS Hecla Lyon HMS Fury Hoppner Crozier J.C. Ross Coppermine Expedition Franklin Back Dease Simpson HMS Blossom Beechey Franklin 's lost expedition HMS Erebus HMS Terror Collinson Rae -- Richardson Expedition Rae J. Richardson Austin McClure Expedition HMS Investigator McClure HMS Resolute Kellett Belcher Kennedy Bellot Isabel Inglefield 2nd Grinnell Expedition USS Advance Kane Fox McClintock HMS Pandora Young Fram Sverdrup Gjøa Amundsen Rasmussen Karluk Stefansson Bartlett St. Roch H. Larsen Cowper North East Passage Russian Arctic Pomors Koch boats Willoughby Chancellor Barentsz Mangazeya Hudson Poole Siberian Cossacks Perfilyev Stadukhin Dezhnev Popov Ivanov Vagin Permyakov Great Northern Expedition Bering Chirikov Malygin Ovtsyn Minin V. Pronchishchev M. Pronchishcheva Chelyuskin Kh . Laptev D. Laptev Chichagov Lyakhov Billings Sannikov Gedenschtrom Wrangel Matyushkin Anjou Litke Lavrov Pakhtusov Tsivolko Middendorff Austro - Hungarian Expedition Weyprecht Payer Vega Expedition A.E. Nordenskiöld Palander USS Jeannette De Long Yermak Makarov Zarya Toll Kolomeitsev Matisen Kolchak Sedov Rusanov Kuchin Brusilov Expedition Sv . Anna Brusilov Albanov Konrad Wiese Nagórski Taymyr / Vaygach Vilkitsky Maud Amundsen AARI Samoylovich Begichev Urvantsev Sadko Ushakov Glavsevmorput Schmidt Aviaarktika Shevelev Sibiryakov Voronin Chelyuskin Krassin Gakkel Nuclear - powered icebreakers NS Lenin Arktika class Antarctic Continent History Expeditions Southern Ocean Roché Bouvet Kerguelen HMS Resolution J. Cook HMS Adventure Furneaux Smith San Telmo Vostok Bellingshausen Mirny Lazarev Bransfield Palmer Davis Weddell Morrell Astrolabe Dumont d'Urville United States Exploring Expedition USS Vincennes Wilkes USS Porpoise Ringgold Ross expedition HMS Erebus ( J.C. Ross Abernethy ) HMS Terror ( Crozier ) Cooper Challenger expedition HMS Challenger Nares Murray Jason C.A. Larsen `` Heroic Age '' Belgian Antarctic Expedition Belgica de Gerlache Lecointe Amundsen Cook Arctowski Racoviță Dobrowolski Southern Cross Southern Cross Borchgrevink Discovery Discovery Discovery Hut Gauss Gauss Drygalski Swedish Antarctic Expedition Antarctic O. Nordenskjöld C.A. Larsen Scottish Antarctic Expedition Bruce Scotia Orcadas Base Nimrod Expedition Nimrod French Antarctic Expeditions Pourquoi - Pas Charcot Japanese Antarctic Expedition Shirase Amundsen 's South Pole expedition Fram Amundsen Framheim Polheim Terra Nova Terra Nova Scott Wilson E.R. Evans Crean Lashly Filchner Australasian Antarctic Expedition SY Aurora Mawson Far Eastern Party Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition Endurance Ernest Shackleton Wild James Caird Ross Sea party Mackintosh Shackleton -- Rowett Expedition Quest IPY IGY Modern research Christensen Byrd BANZARE BGLE Rymill New Swabia Ritscher Operation Tabarin Marr Operation Highjump Captain Arturo Prat Base British Antarctic Survey Operation Windmill Ketchum Ronne Expedition F. Ronne E. Ronne Schlossbach Operation Deep Freeze McMurdo Station Commonwealth Trans - Antarctic Expedition Hillary V. Fuchs Soviet Antarctic Expeditions 1st Somov Klenova Mirny 2nd Tryoshnikov 3rd Tolstikov Antarctic Treaty System Transglobe Expedition Fiennes Burton Lake Vostok Kapitsa Farthest South South Pole HMS Resolution J. Cook HMS Adventure Furneaux Weddell HMS Erebus J.C. Ross HMS Terror Crozier Southern Cross Borchgrevink Discovery Barne Nimrod Shackleton Wild Marshall Adams South Magnetic Pole Mawson David Mackay Amundsen 's South Pole expedition Fram Amundsen Bjaaland Helmer Hassel Wisting Polheim Terra Nova Scott E. Evans Oates Wilson Bowers Byrd Balchen McKinley Dufek Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station Hillary V. Fuchs Pole of Cold Vostok Station Pole of inaccessibility Pole of Inaccessibility Station Tolstikov Crary A. Fuchs Messner North Pole manned drifting ice stations Soviet Union NP - 1 : Ivan Papanin , Pyotr Shirshov , Yevgeny Fyodorov , Ernst Krenkel NP - 2 : Mikhail Somov NP - 3 : Alexey Tryoshnikov NP - 4 : Yevgeny Tolstikov , Aleksandr Dralkin NP - 5 NP - 6 NP - 7 NP - 8 NP - 9 NP - 10 NP - 11 NP - 12 NP - 13 NP - 14 NP - 15 NP - 16 NP - 17 NP - 18 NP - 19 : Artur Chilingarov NP - 20 NP - 21 NP - 22 NP - 23 NP - 24 NP - 25 NP - 26 NP - 27 NP - 28 NP - 29 NP - 30 NP - 31 Russia NP - 32 NP - 33 NP - 34 NP - 35 NP - 36 NP - 37 NP - 38 NP - 39 NP - 40 NP - 2015 See also Icebreaker Yermak Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route : Otto Schmidt Aviaarktika : Mark Shevelev Icebreaker Sedov : Konstantin Badygin , Vladimir Wiese Barneo VIAF : 236847368 GND : 4117914 - 6 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=North_Pole&oldid=837303813 '' Categories : Extreme points of Earth Northern Canada Navigation Polar regions of the Earth Geography of the Arctic Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Articles with Russian - language external links CS1 maint : Uses authors parameter Wikipedia indefinitely move - protected pages Use dmy dates from March 2015 Coordinates on Wikidata All articles lacking reliable references Articles lacking reliable references from March 2016 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017 Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014 CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Navigation Contents About Wikipedia Wikivoyage Acèh Afrikaans Alemannisch አማርኛ Ænglisc Aragonés Asturianu Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца )  Български Boarisch Bosanski Brezhoneg Буряад Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Davvisámegiella Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Fiji Hindi Français Frysk Galego 贛 語 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hornjoserbsce Hrvatski Ilokano Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ಕನ್ನಡ Къарачай - малкъар ქართული Қазақша Kernowek Kiswahili Kurdî Кыргызча Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Limburgs Magyar Македонски Malagasy മലയാളം मराठी مصرى Bahasa Melayu Монгол မြန်မာဘာသာ Nederlands नेपाली 日本 語 Нохчийн Norsk Norsk nynorsk Occitan Oromoo Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Piemontèis Polski Português Qaraqalpaqsha Română Runa Simi Русиньскый Русский Саха тыла Scots Shqip Sicilianu සිංහල Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga کوردی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் Tarandíne Татарча / tatarça ไทย Türkçe Türkmençe Українська اردو ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche Vepsän kel ' Tiếng Việt Võro 文言 Winaray Wolof 吴语 ייִדיש 粵語 Žemaitėška 中文 ГӀалгӀай 116 more Edit links This page was last edited on 20 April 2018 , at 00 : 16 . Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply . By using this site , you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation , Inc. , a non-profit organization . About Wikipedia

Question: where is the north pole on the world map