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Introduction
Polar exploration is the process of exploration of the polar regions of Earth – the Arctic region and Antarctica – particularly with the goal of reaching the North Pole and South Pole, respectively. Historically, this was accomplished by explorers making often arduous travels on foot or by sled in these regions, known as a polar expedition. More recently, exploration has been accomplished with technology, particularly with satellite imagery.
From 600 BC to 300 BC, Greek philosophers theorized that the planet was a Spherical Earth with North and South polar regions. By 150 AD, Ptolemy published Geographia, which notes a hypothetical Terra Australis Incognita. However, due to harsh weather conditions, the poles themselves would not be reached for centuries after that. When they finally were reached, the achievement was realized only a few years apart. (Full article...)
Selected general articles
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Image 1
The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed to rotate in three dimensions, it will point straight down). There is only one location where this occurs, near (but distinct from) the geographic north pole. The geomagnetic north pole is the northern antipodal pole of an ideal dipole model of the Earth's magnetic field, which is the most closely fitting model of Earth's actual magnetic field.
The north magnetic pole moves over time according to magnetic changes and flux lobe elongation in the Earth's outer core. In 2001, it was determined by the Geological Survey of Canada to lie west of Ellesmere Island in northern Canada at . It was situated at in 2005. In 2009, while still situated within the Canadian Arctic at , it was moving toward Russia at between 55 and 60 km (34 and 37 mi) per year. In 2013, the distance between the north magnetic pole and the geographic north pole was approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi). As of 2021, the pole is projected to have moved beyond the Canadian Arctic to . (Full article...) -
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Artur Nikolaevich Chilingarov (Russian: Артур Николаевич Чилингаров; 25 September 1939 – 1 June 2024) was an Armenian-Russian polar explorer, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1986 and the title of Hero of the Russian Federation in 2008. He was the president of State Polar Academy.
Chilingarov was a member of the United Russia party; he was a member of the State Duma from 1993 to 2011, and again from 2016 until his death in 2024 and was the representative of Tula Oblast in the Federation Council between 2011 and 2014. (Full article...) -
Image 3
Alexander Vasilyevich Belyakov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Беляко́в; 21 December 1897 [O.S. 9 December] – 28 November 1982) was a Soviet flight navigator who, together with command pilot Valery Chkalov and co-pilot Georgy Baydukov, set a record for the longest uninterrupted flight in 1936 and made the first non-stop flight across the North Pole [ru], flying from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington.
He was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and served as a lieutenant general of the Soviet Air Forces. (Full article...) -
Image 4
Sir Allen William Young, CB, CVO (12 December 1827 – 20 November 1915) was an English master mariner and explorer, best remembered for his role in Arctic exploration including the search for Sir John Franklin. (Full article...) -
Image 5
Sir Horatio Thomas Austin KCB (10 March 1800 – 16 November 1865) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer. (Full article...) -
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William Lashly (25 December 1867 – 12 June 1940) was a Royal Navy seaman who served as lead stoker on both the Discovery expedition and the Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal. Lashly was also recognised with the Albert Medal for playing a key role in saving the life of a comrade on the second of the two expeditions. (Full article...) -
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Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup (31 October 1854, in Bindal Municipality in Helgeland – 26 November 1930) was a Norwegian sailor and Arctic explorer. (Full article...) -
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Vasily Yakovlevich Chichagov (Russian: Василий Яковлевич Чичагов, romanized: Vasiliy Yakovlevič Čičagov; 11 March [O.S. 28 February] 1726 – 16 April [O.S. 4 April] 1809) was an admiral in the Russian Navy who distinguished himself in the Russian–Swedish war by fighting three major battles, and an explorer who researched Svalbard.
He was the father of Pavel Chichagov, a Russian admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. (Full article...) -
Image 9
Captain Robert Falcon Scott CVO (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–13.
On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, less than five weeks after Amundsen's South Pole expedition. A planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed, despite Scott's written instructions, and at a distance of 162 miles (261 km) from their base camp at Hut Point and approximately 12.5 miles (20.1 km) from the next depot, Scott and his companions died. When Scott and his party's bodies were discovered, they had in their possession the first Antarctic fossils discovered. The fossils were determined to be from the Glossopteris tree and proved that Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. (Full article...) -
Image 10
Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842).
During the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865, he commanded USS San Jacinto during the Trent Affair in which he stopped a Royal Mail ship and removed two Confederate diplomats, which almost led to war between the United States and the United Kingdom. (Full article...) -
Image 11Avgust Karlovich Tsivolko, also spelled as Tsivolka (Russian: Август Карлович Циволько) (1810 – March 28 (O.S. March 16), 1839) was a Russian navigator and Arctic explorer.
In 1834–1835, Avgust Tsivolko took part in the Pakhtusov expedition towards Novaya Zemlya. In 1837, Tsivolko commanded a schooner named Krotov during the Baer expedition towards Novaya Zemlya. He was the one to map the Matochkin Strait in the course of this expedition. In 1838 Tsivolko was put in charge of the mapping expedition and sent towards the northern and northeastern shores of Novaya Zemlya. (Full article...) -
Image 12
The Ross expedition was a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic in 1839 to 1843, led by James Clark Ross, with two unusually strong warships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. It explored what is now called the Ross Sea and discovered the Ross Ice Shelf. On the expedition, Ross discovered the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, named after each ship. The young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker made his name on the expedition.
The expedition confirmed the existence of the continent of Antarctica, inferred the position of the South Magnetic Pole and made substantial observations of the zoology and botany of the region, resulting in a monograph on the zoology and a series of four detailed monographs by Hooker on the botany, collectively called Flora Antarctica, published in parts between 1843 and 1859. Among the expedition's biological discoveries was the Ross seal, a species confined to the pack ice of Antarctica. The expedition was also the last major voyage of exploration made wholly under sail. (Full article...) -
Image 13
Dmitry Leontiyevich Ovtsyn (Russian: Дмитрий Леонтьевич Овцын) (unknown - after 1757) was a Russian hydrographer and Arctic explorer. The Ovtsyn family is one of the oldest Russian noble families, originating from the descendants of Rurik, the Murom princes. (Full article...) -
Image 14Nikolay Nikolayevich Urvantsev (Russian: Николáй Николáевич Урвáнцев; 29 January [O.S. 17 January] 1893 – 20 February 1985) was a Soviet geologist and explorer. He was born in the town of Lukoyanov in the Lukoyanovsky Uyezd of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire to the family of a merchant. He graduated from the Tomsk Engineering Institute in 1918.
Urvantsev was among the discoverers of the Norilsk coal basin and Norilsk copper-nickel ore region in 1919-1922 and was among the founders of Norilsk town. (Full article...) -
Image 15
Fram ("Forward") is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. It was designed and built by the Scottish-Norwegian shipwright Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen's 1893 Arctic expedition in which the plan was to freeze Fram into the Arctic ice sheet and float with it over the North Pole.
Fram is preserved as a museum ship at the Fram Museum in Oslo, Norway. (Full article...) -
Image 16
David Legge Brainard (December 21, 1856 – March 22, 1946) was a career officer in the United States Army. He enlisted in 1876, received his officer's commission in 1886, and served until 1919. Brainard attained the rank of brigadier general and served during World War I as U.S. military attaché in Lisbon, Portugal.
A native of Norway, New York, Brainard was raised and educated in Norway and nearby Freetown, and graduated from the State Normal School in Cortland, New York. (Full article...) -
Image 17
Maria Pronchishcheva (Russian: Мария Прончищева; before 1713 – 23 September [O.S. 12 September] 1736), also known as Tatiana Fyodorovna Pronchishcheva (Russian: Татьяна Фёдоровна Прончищева), was a Russian explorer. She is considered the first female polar explorer. (Full article...) -
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Sir James Clark Ross DCL FRS FLS FRAS (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic, participating in two expeditions led by his uncle John Ross, and four led by William Edward Parry, and, in particular, for his own Antarctic expedition from 1839 to 1843. (Full article...) -
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Rudolf (Ruvim) Lazarevich Samoylovich (Russian: Рудольф Лазаревич Самойлович) (13 September (O.S. 1 September), 1881 – 4 March 1939) was a Soviet polar explorer, professor, and doctor of geographic sciences. (Full article...) -
Image 20
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is a United States scientific research station at the South Pole of the Earth. It is the southernmost point under the jurisdiction (not sovereignty) of the United States. The station is located on the high plateau of Antarctica at 9,301 feet (2,835 m) above sea level. It is administered by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation, specifically the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). It is named in honor of Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Briton Robert F. Scott, who led separate teams that raced to become the first to the pole in the early 1900s.
The original Amundsen–Scott Station was built by Navy Seabees for the federal government of the United States during November 1956, as part of its commitment to the scientific goals of the International Geophysical Year, an effort lasting from January 1957 to June 1958 to study, among other things, the geophysics of the polar regions of Earth. (Full article...) -
Image 21
Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen (15 May 1867 – 3 January 1913) was a Norwegian polar explorer. He participated on the first and third Fram expeditions. He shipped out with the Fridtjof Nansen expedition in 1893–1896, and accompanied Nansen to notch a new Farthest North record near the North Pole. Johansen also participated in the expedition of Roald Amundsen to the South Pole in 1910–1912. (Full article...) -
Image 22Alexey Fyodorovich Tryoshnikov (Russian: Алексе́й Фёдорович Трёшников) (14 April 1914, Pavlovka, Karsunsky Uyezd, Simbirsk Governorate – 18 November 1991, Saint Petersburg) was a Soviet polar explorer and leader of the 2nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition and the 13th Soviet Antarctic Expedition.
He was involved in defending the Northern Sea Route during World War II and participated in the Soviet Antarctic Expedition. Between 1954 and 1955, he was the leader of the North Pole-3 ice station in the Arctic Ocean. (Full article...) -
Image 23The Third Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1957–59) was led by Yevgeny Tolstikov on the continent and included Czech future astronomer Antonín Mrkos; the marine expedition on the Ob was led by I V Maksimov.
Two diesel-electric ships were used to transport the expedition. RV Ob (flagship; captain I. A. Man [ru]) and Kooperatsiya (captain A S Yantselevich), used mainly as a transport vessel. The ships arrived in Antarctica in November – December 1957. Together with the ships' crews the expedition consisted of 445 men, of whom 183 were scheduled for wintering. (Full article...) -
Image 24
The Rusanov expedition, led by geologist Vladimir Rusanov, was a 1912 Russian expedition to the Arctic, with an initial objective of establishing mineral claims on Spitsbergen. Following completion of its official programme, Rusanov expanded the expedition's scope to include an investigation of the Northeast Passage, though it remains unclear exactly which route he proposed to take. Rusanov's ship Hercules reached Novaya Zemlya in August 1912, where he sent a message that he was continuing east; this was the last ever heard of the expedition and its 11 personnel.
Artefacts found decades later on islands off the Taymyr Peninsula show that Rusanov managed to round Novaya Zemlya and cross the Kara Sea, and suggest that at least some of the party survived well into 1913, and possibly later. It is generally thought the expedition met an unknown fate in the area of the Pyasina estuary: it has also been suggested that Rusanov, an experienced Arctic explorer, went as far east as Severnaya Zemlya and the Laptev Sea. The fate of Hercules and its crew remains one of the great mysteries of Russian exploration of the Arctic. (Full article...) -
Image 25
The Jeannette expedition of 1879–1881, officially called the U.S. Arctic Expedition, was an attempt led by George W. De Long to reach the North Pole by pioneering a route from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait. The premise was that a temperate current, the Kuro Siwo, flowed northwards into the strait, providing a gateway to the hypothesized Open Polar Sea and thus to the pole.
This theory proved illusory; the expedition's ship, USS Jeannette and its crew of thirty-three men, was trapped by ice and drifted for nearly two years before she was crushed and sunk north of the Siberian coast. De Long then led his men on a perilous journey by sled, dragging the Jeannette's whaleboat and two cutters, eventually switching to these small boats to sail for the Lena Delta in Siberia. During this journey, and in the subsequent weeks of wandering in Siberia before rescue, twenty of the ship's complement died, including De Long. (Full article...)
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Selected images
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Image 2Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting at the South Pole (from Polar exploration)
In the news
- 12 June 2024 –
- The Royal Canadian Geographical Society announces that a Canadian-led team has located the wreckage of Quest, the polar exploration ship of the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition off the coast of Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. (Reuters)
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