What is the Difference Between the North Pole and the South Pole

The North Pole and South Pole. The northernmost point on earth, and the southernmost point on earth, on opposite ends of the globe. Outsourcing, an entirely new operation, based at, and this is going to be tough for you to hear, based at the South Pole. Both kind of get one really long day each year, with six months of daylight, followed by six months of night. So only one sunrise and sunset a year.

This is due to the earth being tilted on its axis. The axis of the earth is almost always pointing in the same direction in space. However, relative to the Sun, the tilt direction changes as the earth orbits it. Each pole tilts toward the Sun for half the year and then away from the Sun the other half of the year. Anyway, this is also why it gets very, very, very freaking cold at both places. However, it gets much colder at the South Pole. The lowest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole was -82.8°C, or -117°F, whereas the lowest temperature ever recorded at the North Pole was -50°C, or -58°F. Now, the lowest temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).

And that was at the Vostok Station in Antarctica, which is about 798 miles, or 1,284 km, from the South Pole. Now, the highest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole was only -12.3°C, or 10°F. Yep, it never gets anywhere close to above freezing there. The North Pole, on the other hand, once recorded a temperature of 13 °C, or 55 °F. This is why some wildlife has been spotted near the North Pole, but basically only a rare type of bacteria has ever been actively observed at the South Pole, although that has been disputed. Even animals like polar bears and arctic foxes have been known to wander near the North Pole, and one animal, a type of sea anemone, apparently lives in the water at and around the North Pole. Craziness. This is what the North Pole actually looks like, those are people running at the North Pole.

There’s a North Pole Marathon apparently? But the North Pole is in the middle of the ocean, and because in recent years it’s been getting warmer and warmer up there in the summer, the ice has been melting and you see little areas of just water. Most of the time, however, the ice at the North Pole is around 2-3 meters, or 6-10 feet, thick. The depth of the ocean at the North Pole is more than 4,000 meters, or 13,123 feet. The South Pole is in the middle of a giant continent, the aforementioned Antarctica. Because the South Pole is on land and sits on a very thick blanket of ice, it’s at a much higher elevation. 2835 meters, or 9,300 feet above sea level.

In fact, a few years ago Buzz Aldrin (the Buzz Aldrin who walked on the moon) had to evacuate the South Pole due to altitude sickness. The North Pole is at sea level because it’s at sea. That’s also why it gets warmer there. So, who controls the North Pole and South Pole?

Both poles are not controlled by any one country. The North Pole is on international waters, and the South Pole is open to any country for scientific purposes as established by the Antarctic Treaty System. The South Pole has a permanent scientific research station there called the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, named for the two folks who raced to be the first humans to ever make it to that location- Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott. The station is permanently inhabited. Yep, even in the very cold, very dark winters, around 45-50 people live there. For the logistics of working and living at the Amundsen-Scott station. But scientists research the North Pole, too. Because of the North Pole being over water, they send out manned drifting research stations. Russia sends one out almost every year, calling them NP stations.

The NP stands for “North Pole.” In recent years, the United States has put up webcams at the North Pole so that’s groovy. Both the North Pole and South Pole are basically deserts, getting very low precipitation. However, the North Pole gets more precipitation. (NP- 9.8 inches (25cm) a year, SP- 2.3 inches (5.8 cm) a year), how can an ocean be a desert? A desert just means a part of the earth that gets low precipitation. The North and South Poles are in polar deserts. Due to harsh conditions, humans only started to attempt to go to both poles beginning in the 1900s. They got to the North Pole before the South Pole.

? Roald Amundsen? Well, this freaking guy was the first human being to ever get to the South Pole. Oh, and the first human to ever reach the North Pole. Both the American explorer Frederick Cook and American Navy engineer Robert Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole before Amundsen, but the evidence is shaky regarding whether or not both actually made it to the North Pole.

Amundsen, along with his American sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth, was the first one who led a consistent, verified, and scientifically persuasive trip there on May 12, 1926, which was 14 and a half years after he first reached the South Pole. Man, Amundsen, way to dominate the poles. But anyway, you might be surprised to hear that lots of people have been to the North Pole and South Pole since then. According to my own estimates, thousands, if not tens of thousands, have been to the South Pole, and likely hundreds of thousands have been to the North Pole. Although, it can be hard for people to tell if they’re actually at the North Pole or not. Nowadays, people know they are there thanks to GPS, but before GPS, it was difficult since there is no permanent marker since it’s all ice, and sometimes it’s shifting ice.

It is better to have lots of money if you want to go there. A cruise can take you there for around $30,000, although one for as cheap as $20,000 and, according to one cruise line a “luxury” 16-day voyage there is going to cost up to around $37,000. You can fly there or near there for much cheaper. For more money, you can fly there by helicopter. You can go by dog sled. Seriously. And some people still, believe it or not, just put on their skis and trek up there by foot. That said, less than 50 people have done this without any outside support whatsoever. Also, due to temperatures dramatically rising at the poles in recent years, the trek has become increasingly dangerous due to melting and shifting ice on the Arctic Ocean. What about the South Pole?

Well, it’s going to be even more expensive. You can fly there, but it will cost you at least $50,000. And strangely, if you want to spend even more money, you can travel there by foot? There is a dude who apparently paid more than $64,000 to trek there on skis. Dang people are crazy. But remember, people can actually LIVE at the South Pole. Thousands have actually LIVED there. 1,604 people have spent entire winters there. One dude has apparently spent 15 winters living there. The North Pole is not in a time zone since no one lives there. The South Pole is unofficially in the New Zealand time zone since that’s where planes fly in from. But yeah, at the North Pole it is, uh, whatever time you want it to be. Because of the movement of the ice at the South Pole, each year they have to move the mark where it’s actually at. This pole here is actually some 300 meters away from the actual South Pole, but it sure does make a great photo op if you can make it there. There are at least six places in the world named North Pole.