The Arctic and the North Pole

Podcast Transcript

Located above 66°33? Latitude North is the region we call the Arctic.

The Arctic is unlike any other environment on Earth, even the Antarctic. It is sparsely populated and has unique wildlife and a biome that can’t be found anywhere else.

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It completely dark in the winter and the sun never sets in the summer…and of course, it is really cold.

Learn more about the Arctic and what makes it so special on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

If you’ve never been to the Arctic, you might think of it as a desolate wasteland.

It is not.

It is an environment that is unique in the world, and there are many things that set it apart even from the Earth’s polar region in the south.

So, what exactly is the Arctic?

The Arctic is defined by the Arctic Circle, which lies at 66°33?50.1 latitude North. Everything above that imaginary line is considered the Arctic.

What is so special about that exact latitude?

That latitude corresponds to the axial tilt of the Earth. The Arctic Circle is the point where the sun doesn’t set above that line on the summer solstice, and the sun doesn’t rise above that line on the winter solstice.

The axial tilt of the Earth also defines the Antarctic Circle in the south and the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer.

The Arctic Circle is not a fixed point. It changes over time, but very, very slowly. Every year, the Arctic Circle moves 14.5 meters or 48 feet north. This will continue for another 10,000 years, at which point the precession of the Earth’s axial tilt will go the other way, and the Arctic Circle will begin moving back south.

At the center of the Arctic Circle is the North Pole.

The North Pole is the point on the surface of the Earth that meets the planet’s axis of rotation. It is also defined as the point at 90 degrees latitude, where all points of longitude meet in the north.

The star, which is often used to define the Earth’s axis, Polaris, isn’t perfectly aligned with the North Pole. It is off by 0.7 degrees, which is good enough for basic navigation but not for calibrating instruments.

In addition to the geographic North Pole, the Arctic contains the magnetic North Pole. Unlike the geographic North Pole, the magnetic pole wanders around constantly depending on the Earth’s magnetic field.

Since the 17th century, the magnetic north pole has been in Canadian territory for most of recorded history. However, it has recently moved out into the Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the Earth’s oceans. The Arctic Ocean makes the Arctic, in many ways, the opposite of the Antarctic.

The Antarctic is a continent surrounded by oceans, whereas the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents.

The Arctic Ocean is approximately 5.4 million square miles or 13.9 million square kilometers. During the winter, almost all of the ocean is covered with sea ice.

The average thickness of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean varies depending on the location, time of year, and specific measurement methods. There are roughly two types of sea ice:

First-year ice is ice that forms and melts within a single year. The thickness of first-year ice typically ranges from about 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6.5 feet).

Multi-Year Ice is ice that survives through multiple summer melt seasons and is generally thicker than first-year ice. Multi-year ice averages between 2 to 4 meters (6.5 to 13 feet) in thickness, but it can be thicker in some areas.

The overall average thickness of Arctic sea ice, combining both first-year and multi-year ice, is generally estimated to be around 2 to 3 meters or 6.5 to 10 feet.

The Arctic Ocean is home to a wide variety of sea life.

Narwhals, often called the “unicorns of the sea,” are unique to the Arctic. These marine mammals have a long, spiral tusk, which is actually an elongated tooth. Other sea mammals include species like walruses, seals, and beluga whales.

Arctic Char, Atlantic Wolffish, Arctic Cod, and Polar Cod are all native to the Arctic Ocean as is the Greenland Shark, which has a life expectancy of over 400 years.

Almost all of the land surrounding the Arctic Ocean is permafrost.

Permafrost is a layer of soil, rock, or sediment that remains frozen for at least two consecutive years, typically found in polar regions like the Arctic. It can extend from just a few meters below the surface to hundreds of meters deep.

While permafrost lies below the surface, the soil on top of it can and does thaw during the summer, which can cause huge problems for anything built above it. As the ground thaws, it can become unstable, leading to problems like sinkholes, landslides, and the collapse of buildings and roads.

Overcoming this is a huge engineering challenge. One of the best examples of this is the Dempster Highway.

The Dempster Highway connects Dawson City, Yukon, and Inuvik, Northwest Territories, well above the Arctic Circle. The ground that its built over is largely permafrost.

In order to avoid the buckling of the thawing soil that would otherwise destroy a road, the Dempster Highway is built on a gravel berm. The berm actually insulates the permafrost so it does not melt and the road does not buckle.

I actually drove the Dempster Highway up to the Arctic Circle once and I was amazed at the quality of the road given its location and the conditions.

It is perhaps the world’s most high-tech and expensive gravel road.

Just as an aside, the Canadian government has recently extended the road with the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway. This highway is an all-weather road that reaches the shore of the Arctic Ocean.

That means it is literally possible, if you live in North America, to now drive all the way to the Arctic Ocean…if you are so inclined.

Permafrost can also preserve fossils exceptionally well due to its ability to keep organic material frozen and protected from decay for thousands or possibly even millions of years. When plants, animals, or other organisms die in regions where permafrost is present, they can become quickly buried by soil or sediment, which then freezes.

The cold temperatures slow down the decomposition process significantly, preventing bacteria and other decomposers from breaking down the organic material. As a result, the remains of these organisms, including bones, tissues, and sometimes even DNA, can remain intact for long periods.

If you remember back to my episode on the wooly mammoth, fully intact mammoths have been found in the permafrost. They were found so commonly that there were actually recipes developed for frozen mammoth.

On this permafrost lies an ecosystem unlike any other on Earth.

This is perhaps the biggest difference between the Arctic and the Antarctic. There really is no ecosystem to speak of in Antarctica because almost all of the land is covered in ice, and the bits that aren’t are the driest places on the planet. There are no native plants in Antarctica beyond some lichen.

While the land in the Arctic is mostly frozen year-round below the surface, most of it is ice-free in the summers. That makes all the difference in the world.

The land which is furthest north is tundra. The word tundra actually means ?“treeless uplands.” Here, you will find some ground shrubs, grasses, mosses, and lichens, but you will not see any trees.

On the Dalton Highway in Alaska, which goes all the way to Prudhoe Bay on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, there is a spot on the road where you can actually see the last tree.

While this isn’t a lot of plant life, it is plant life enough to sustain an ecosystem. Muskoxen and caribou, both of which are large mammals can live in this environment.

Of course, the king of the Arctic is the polar bear. Polar bears are actually very closely related to grizzly bears, and they two can breed with each other.

Polar bears feed almost exclusively on seals, particularly seal blubber. They hunt seals on sea ice in the winter and live off their stored fat during the summer months.

They are the largest land carnivores in the world and are capable of swimming up to 60 miles or 100 kilometers in search of prey. They can reach weights of 1,600 pounds or 725 kilograms.

South of the tundra, you will find a type of forest known as taiga.

Taiga is defined by its small coniferous trees, which comprise much of the landscape. The size of the trees will depend on the latitude and elevation.

The trees in this region will vary from small to scrawny. Due to the condition, they can’t grow very tall, and it takes a very long time for them to reach the heights they do.

Many of the animals found in the tundra can be found in the taiga as well, in addition to animals such as arctic foxes.

The taiga extends beyond the Arctic Circle into a region known as the Subarctic. The subarctic is basically the taiga that exists south of the Arctic Circle. Taiga makes up almost 12% of the Earth’s land and the vast majority of the land in both Canada and Russia.

One of the most prolific animals found in the Arctic is, of course, human beings.

The largest native group in the Arctic is the Inuit, who live in Canada, the United States, and Greenland. Inuit covers many different groups of people who all are culturally related to each other and live in the same geographic area.

In Russia, there are many different indigenous groups, including the Yupiit, Chukchi, and Koryak people.

In Western Europe, the Sámi people inhabit parts of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.

There are also a few proper cities north of the Arctic Circle. The largest city is Murmansk, Russia, which has a population of about 250,000. However, that is down from a peak of about 450,000 at the end of the Cold War.

Norilsk, Russia, also has a population over 100,000.

Other notable communities outside of Russia are Tromsø, Norway, (ee-KAL-oo-it;), Canada, and Utqiagvik )UUT-kee-AH-vik; (formerly Barrow), Alaska.

The Arctic has become more and more important economically over time. In 1977, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline opened, which took crude oil 800-mile or 1,200 kilometers from the high Arctic to the Pacific Ocean.

The United States Geological Survey has estimated that as much as 22% of the world’s natural gas and petroleum reserves might be in the Arctic.

In addition to oil, there are known deposits of phosphate, bauxite, iron ore, copper, nickel, and diamond.

Tourism to the Arctic has been increasing as well. Expedition ships can take you to Baffin Island or through the Northwest Passage. If you have the money, it is even possible to take a Russian nuclear powered icebreaker to the North Pole.

The borders and resources in the Arctic have become more contentious now that the Arctic Ocean is often free of sea ice during the summer. Not only would this make accessing resources such as oil and minerals easier, but it would also offer a much more direct route for shipping between Asia and Europe.

Many geopolitical thinkers are concerned that the Arctic might become a conflict zone in the future because of its increasing importance.

I’ve covered a lot in this episode, and some of the topics will be explored more fully in future shows.

What you should take away is that the Arctic is not a cold, barren wasteland….well, OK, it is cold. But it is a fascinating place in its own right. I’ve visited the Arctic several times, and I enjoyed each trip.

The Arctic is, in many ways, the Earth’s last frontier. It is a place where few people live, and few people visit, but has one of the most interesting geographies and ecosystems in the world.