We all have heard of the North Pole. It’s where Santa Claus lives with Mrs. Santa and his elves. His toy shop is there and it is busy all year round making toys for the girls and boys on Santa’s good list which he examines very carefully at Christmas time. We think of life outside of Santa’s Village as a barren wasteland. But did you know that there are two North Poles? The North Terrestial Pole is one and the North Magnetic Pole is the other. Let’s learn some amazing facts about both of the North Poles.

The Terrestial North Pole

• The North Terrestrial Pole works together with the South Terrestrial Pole to keep Earth on its axis. Without these two poles, the Earth would not rotate. It would fall on its side.

• The imaginary lines that we see on a map or globe are called longitude. They begin at the North Terrestrial Pole and stretch to the South Terrestrial Pole.

The North Magnetic Pole

• If you hold a compass in your hand, it will always point north. It is pointing to the North Magnetic Pole.

• The North Magnetic Pole moves between 6 and 25 miles every year. Why? It is affected by particles from the sun and molten metal beneath the Earth’s surface.

• The North Magnetic Pole and the Terrestrial North Pole are 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) apart.

Other Interesting Facts

• Some day compasses may all point south. Why? Because scientists believe that the North Magnetic Pole is reversing (going backward,) which means that the Earth’s magnetic pole may someday be located at the South Pole.

• The ice at the North Magnetic Pole has no land under it. The Arctic ice cap floats. It is 2 to 3 meters (6.5 to 10 feet) deep and is the size of the United States during the winter months. Half of this ice melts in the summer.

• The Arctic tern, which is a very small bird, migrates from the North Pole where it breeds to the South Pole where it lives during the winter months. The trip is 35,000 kilometers (21, 750 miles.)

• The first man to ever reach the North Pole was Robert E. Peary. He and four Eskimos reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909, just one month before Floyd Bennet and Richard Byrd arrived there by plane. Peary and his team traveled to the North Pole by dogsled, which was an amazing feat.

by Mary M. Alward