Material on geography (Grade 9) on the topic: Arctic expedition. Attraction Pole Animals of the North and South Pole
The polar regions of the Earth are the most severe places on our planet.
For centuries, people have tried at the cost of life and health to get and explore the Arctic and the Arctic Circle.
So what have we learned about the two opposite poles of the Earth?
1. Where is the North and South Pole: 4 types of poles
In fact, there are 4 types of the North Pole in terms of science:The north magnetic pole is the point on the earth's surface to which magnetic compasses are directed.
North geographic pole - located directly above the geographic axis of the Earth
North geomagnetic pole - connected with the Earth's magnetic axis
The North Pole of Inaccessibility is the northernmost point in the Arctic Ocean and the farthest from the earth on all sides
Similarly, 4 types of the South Pole were established:
The south magnetic pole is the point on the earth's surface where the earth's magnetic field is directed upward
Geographic South Pole - a point located above the geographic axis of rotation of the Earth
South geomagnetic pole - connected with the Earth's magnetic axis in the southern hemisphere
The South Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in Antarctica, the furthest from the coast of the Southern Ocean.
In addition, there is the ceremonial South Pole, an area designated for photography at Amundsen-Scott Station. It is located a few meters from the geographic south pole, but since the ice sheet is constantly moving, the mark shifts every year by 10 meters.
2. Geographic North and South Pole: ocean versus continent
The North Pole is essentially a frozen ocean surrounded by continents. In contrast, the South Pole is a continent surrounded by oceans.
In addition to the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic region (North Pole) includes part of Canada, Greenland, Russia, USA, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The southernmost point of the earth - Antarctica is the fifth largest continent, with an area of 14 million square meters. km, 98 percent of which is covered by glaciers. It is surrounded by the South Pacific Ocean, the South Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
Geographic coordinates of the North Pole: 90 degrees north latitude.
Geographic coordinates of the South Pole: 90 degrees south latitude.
All lines of longitude converge at both poles.
3. The South Pole is colder than the North Pole
The South Pole is much colder than the North Pole. The temperature in Antarctica (South Pole) is so low that in some places on this continent the snow never melts.
The average annual temperature in this area is -58 degrees Celsius in winter, and the highest temperature recorded here in 2011 was -12.3 degrees Celsius.
In contrast, the average annual temperature in the Arctic region (North Pole) is -43 degrees Celsius in winter and about 0 degrees in summer.
There are several reasons why the South Pole is colder than the North. Since Antarctica is a huge landmass, it receives little heat from the ocean. In contrast, the ice in the Arctic region is relatively thin and there is an entire ocean underneath, which moderates the temperature. In addition, Antarctica is located on a hill at an altitude of 2.3 km and the air here is colder than in the Arctic Ocean, which is at sea level.
4. There is no time at the poles
Time is determined by longitude. So, for example, when the Sun is directly above us, local time shows noon. However, at the poles, all lines of longitude intersect, and the Sun rises and sets only once a year on the equinoxes.
For this reason, scientists and explorers at the poles use whatever time zone they prefer. As a rule, they are guided by Greenwich Mean Time or the time zone of the country from which they arrived.
Scientists at Amundsen-Scott Station in Antarctica can do a quick run around the world, traversing 24 time zones in a few minutes.
5. Animals of the North and South Pole
Many people have the misconception that polar bears and penguins are in the same habitat.
In fact, penguins live only in the southern hemisphere - in Antarctica, where they have no natural enemies. If polar bears and penguins lived in the same area, polar bears wouldn't have to worry about their food source.
Among the marine animals of the South Pole are whales, porpoises and seals.
Polar bears, in turn, are the largest predators in the northern hemisphere. They live in the northern part of the Arctic Ocean and feed on seals, walruses and sometimes even beached whales.
In addition, animals such as reindeer, lemmings, foxes, wolves, as well as marine animals such as beluga whales, killer whales, sea otters, seals, walruses and more than 400 known species of fish live at the North Pole.
6. No Man's Land
Despite the fact that many flags of different countries can be seen at the South Pole in Antarctica, this is the only place on earth that does not belong to anyone and where there is no indigenous population.
There is an agreement on Antarctica, according to which the territory and its resources must be used exclusively for peaceful and scientific purposes. Scientists, explorers, and geologists are the only people who set foot on Antarctica from time to time.
On the contrary, more than 4 million people live in the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia.
7. Polar night and polar day
The poles of the Earth are unique places where the longest day is observed, which lasts 178 days, and the longest night, which lasts 187 days.
At the poles, there is only one sunrise and one sunset per year. At the North Pole, the Sun begins to rise in March on the vernal equinox and sets in September on the autumn equinox. At the South Pole, on the contrary, sunrise is during the autumn equinox, and sunset is on the day of the vernal equinox.
In summer, the Sun is always above the horizon here, and the South Pole receives sunlight around the clock. In winter, the Sun is below the horizon when there is 24-hour darkness.
8. Conquerors of the North and South Pole
Many travelers tried to get to the poles of the Earth, losing their lives on the way to these extreme points of our planet.Who first reached the North Pole?
There have been several expeditions to the North Pole since the 18th century. There is controversy over who reached the North Pole first. In 1908, American traveler Frederick Cook became the first to claim to have reached the North Pole. But his compatriot Robert Peary denied this statement, and on April 6, 1909, he officially began to be considered the first conqueror of the North Pole.
First flight over the North Pole: Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and Humberto Nobile on May 12, 1926 on the airship "Norway"
First submarine at the North Pole: nuclear submarine "Nautilus" August 3, 1956
First trip to the North Pole alone: Japanese Naomi Uemura, April 29, 1978, traveled 725 km by dog sled in 57 days
First skiing expedition: Dmitry Shparo's expedition, May 31, 1979. Participants walked 1,500 km in 77 days.
The first to swim across the North Pole: Lewis Gordon Pugh swam 1 km in water at -2 degrees Celsius in July 2007.
Who first reached the South Pole?
The first explorers of the South Pole were the Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and the British explorer Robert Scott, after whom the first station at the South Pole, Amundsen-Scott Station, was named. Both teams went different ways and reached the South Pole with a difference of several weeks, the first was Amundsen on December 14, 1911, and then R. Scott on January 17, 1912.
First flight over the South Pole: American Richard Byrd, in 1928
The first to cross Antarctica without the use of animals and mechanical transport: Arvid Fuchs and Reinold Meissner, December 30, 1989
9. North and South Magnetic Pole of the Earth
The Earth's magnetic poles are related to the Earth's magnetic field. They are in the north and south, but do not coincide with the geographic poles, as the magnetic field of our planet is changing. Unlike geographic, magnetic poles shift.
The north magnetic pole is not located exactly in the Arctic region, but is moving eastward at a rate of 10-40 km per year, as the magnetic field is influenced by underground molten metals and charged particles from the Sun. The South Magnetic Pole is still in Antarctica, but it is also moving westward at a rate of 10-15 km per year.
Some scientists believe that one day a change in the magnetic poles can occur, and this can lead to the destruction of the Earth. However, the reversal of the magnetic poles has already occurred, hundreds of times over the past 3 billion years, and this has not led to any dire consequences.
10. Melting ice at the poles
Ice in the Arctic at the North Pole tends to melt in the summer and refreeze in the winter. However, in recent years, the ice cap has been melting at a very rapid pace.
Many researchers believe that by the end of the century, and maybe in a few decades, the Arctic zone will remain without ice.
On the other hand, the Antarctic region at the South Pole contains 90 percent of the world's ice. Ice thickness in Antarctica averages 2.1 km. If all the ice in Antarctica melted, sea levels around the world would rise by 61 meters.
Fortunately, this will not happen in the near future.
Some interesting facts about the North and South Pole:
1. There is an annual tradition at Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. After the last food plane leaves, the researchers watch two horror films: The Thing (about an alien creature that kills the inhabitants of a polar station in Antarctica) and The Shining (about a writer who stays in an empty remote hotel in winter)
2. The Arctic Tern bird makes a record flight from the Arctic to Antarctica every year, flying over 70,000 km.
3. Kaffeklubben Island - a small island in the north of Greenland is considered to be the piece of land that is closest to the North Pole, 707 km from it.
Ecology
The polar regions of the Earth are the most severe places on our planet.
For centuries, people have tried at the cost of life and health to get and explore the Arctic and the Arctic Circle.
So what have we learned about the two opposite poles of the Earth?
1. Where is the North and South Pole: 4 types of poles
In fact, there are 4 types of the North Pole in terms of science:
north magnetic pole point on the earth's surface to which magnetic compasses are directed
north geographic pole- located directly above the geographic axis of the Earth
North geomagnetic pole- linked to the earth's magnetic axis
North Pole of Inaccessibility- the northernmost point in the Arctic Ocean and the farthest from the earth on all sides
4 types of South Pole were also established:
south magnetic pole point on the earth's surface where the earth's magnetic field is directed upward
south geographic pole- a point located above the geographic axis of rotation of the Earth
South geomagnetic pole- linked to Earth's magnetic axis in the southern hemisphere
South Pole of Inaccessibility- a point in Antarctica, the most distant from the coast of the Southern Ocean.
In addition, there ceremonial south pole– area designated for photography at Amundsen-Scott station. It is located a few meters from the geographic south pole, but since the ice sheet is constantly moving, the mark shifts every year by 10 meters.
2. Geographic North and South Pole: ocean versus continent
The North Pole is essentially a frozen ocean surrounded by continents. In contrast, the South Pole is a continent surrounded by oceans.
In addition to the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic region (North Pole) includes part of Canada, Greenland, Russia, USA, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The southernmost point of the earth - Antarctica is the fifth, largest continent, with an area of 14 million square meters. km, 98 percent of which is covered by glaciers. It is surrounded by the South Pacific Ocean, the South Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
Geographic coordinates of the North Pole: 90 degrees north latitude.
Geographical coordinates of the South Pole: 90 degrees south latitude.
All lines of longitude converge at both poles.
3. The South Pole is colder than the North Pole
The South Pole is much colder than the North Pole. The temperature in Antarctica (South Pole) is so low that in some places on this continent the snow never melts.
The average annual temperature in this area is -58 degrees Celsius in winter, and the highest temperature was recorded here in 2011 and amounted to -12.3 degrees Celsius.
In contrast, the average annual temperature in the Arctic region (North Pole) is – 43 degrees Celsius in winter and about 0 degrees in summer.
There are several reasons why the South Pole is colder than the North. Since Antarctica is a huge landmass, it receives little heat from the ocean. In contrast, the ice in the Arctic region is relatively thin and there is an entire ocean underneath, which moderates the temperature. In addition, Antarctica is located on a hill at an altitude of 2.3 km and the air here is colder than in the Arctic Ocean, which is at sea level.
4. There is no time at the poles
Time is determined by longitude. So, for example, when the Sun is directly above us, local time shows noon. However, at the poles, all lines of longitude intersect, and the Sun rises and sets only once a year on the equinoxes.
For this reason, scientists and explorers at the poles use the time of any time zone which they like best. As a rule, they are guided by Greenwich Mean Time or the time zone of the country from which they arrived.
Scientists at Amundsen-Scott Station in Antarctica can do a quick run around the world by walking 24 time zones in a few minutes.
5. Animals of the North and South Pole
Many people have the misconception that polar bears and penguins are in the same habitat.
In fact, penguins live only in the southern hemisphere - in Antarctica where they have no natural enemies. If polar bears and penguins lived in the same area, polar bears wouldn't have to worry about their food source.
Among the marine animals of the South Pole are whales, porpoises and seals.
Polar bears, in turn, are the largest predators in the northern hemisphere.. They live in the northern part of the Arctic Ocean and feed on seals, walruses and sometimes even beached whales.
In addition, animals such as reindeer, lemmings, foxes, wolves, as well as marine animals such as beluga whales, killer whales, sea otters, seals, walruses and more than 400 known species of fish live at the North Pole.
6. No Man's Land
Despite the fact that many flags of different countries can be seen at the South Pole in Antarctica, this the only place on earth that belongs to no one, and where there is no indigenous population.
There is an agreement on Antarctica, according to which the territory and its resources must be used exclusively for peaceful and scientific purposes. Scientists, explorers, and geologists are the only people who set foot on Antarctica from time to time.
Against, More than 4 million people live in the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia.
7. Polar night and polar day
The Earth's poles are unique places where the longest day, which lasts 178 days, and the longest night, which lasts 187 days.
At the poles, there is only one sunrise and one sunset per year. At the North Pole, the Sun begins to rise in March on the vernal equinox and sets in September on the autumn equinox. At the South Pole, on the contrary, sunrise is during the autumn equinox, and sunset is on the day of the vernal equinox.
In summer, the Sun is always above the horizon here, and the South Pole receives sunlight around the clock. In winter, the Sun is below the horizon when there is 24-hour darkness.
8. Conquerors of the North and South Pole
Many travelers tried to get to the poles of the Earth, losing their lives on the way to these extreme points of our planet.
Who first reached the North Pole?
There have been several expeditions to the North Pole since the 18th century. There is controversy over who reached the North Pole first. In 1908, American traveler Frederick Cook became the first to claim to have reached the North Pole. But his compatriot Robert Peary refuted this statement, and on April 6, 1909, he officially began to be considered the first conqueror of the North Pole.
First flight over the North Pole: Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and Humberto Nobile on May 12, 1926 on the airship "Norway"
First submarine at the North Pole: nuclear submarine "Nautilus" 3 August 1956
First solo trip to the North Pole: Japanese Naomi Uemura, April 29, 1978, traveled 725 km on a dog sled in 57 days
First ski expedition: expedition of Dmitry Shparo, May 31, 1979. Participants walked 1,500 km in 77 days.
First to cross the North Pole: Lewis Gordon Pugh covered 1 km in -2 degrees Celsius water in July 2007.
Who first reached the South Pole?
The first conquerors of the South Pole were the Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and British explorer Robert Scott, after whom the first station at the South Pole, Amundsen-Scott Station, was named. Both teams went different ways and reached the South Pole with a difference of several weeks, the first was Amundsen on December 14, 1911, and then R. Scott on January 17, 1912.
First flight over the South Pole: American Richard Baird, in 1928
First to cross Antarctica without the use of animals and mechanical transport: Arvid Fuchs and Reinold Meissner, December 30, 1989
9. North and South Magnetic Pole of the Earth
The Earth's magnetic poles are related to the Earth's magnetic field. They are in the north and south, but do not coincide with geographic poles, as the magnetic field of our planet is changing. Unlike geographic, magnetic poles shift.
The north magnetic pole is not exactly in the arctic region, but moving east at a rate of 10-40 km per year, since the underground molten metals and charged particles from the Sun influence the magnetic field. The South Magnetic Pole is still in Antarctica, but it is also moving westward at a rate of 10-15 km per year.
Some scientists believe that one day a change in the magnetic poles can occur, and this can lead to the destruction of the Earth. However, the reversal of the magnetic poles has already occurred, hundreds of times over the past 3 billion years, and this has not led to any dire consequences.
10. Melting ice at the poles
Ice in the Arctic at the North Pole tends to melt in the summer and refreeze in the winter. However, in recent years, the ice cap has been melting at a very rapid rate.
Many researchers believe that already by the end of the century, and maybe in a few decades, the Arctic zone will remain without ice.
On the other hand, the Antarctic region at the South Pole contains 90 percent of the world's ice. Ice thickness in Antarctica averages 2.1 km. If all the ice of Antarctica melted, sea levels worldwide would rise by 61 meters.
Fortunately, this will not happen in the near future.
Some interesting facts about the North and South Pole:
1. There is an annual tradition at Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. After the last food plane leaves, explorers watch two horror movies: the film "The Thing" (about an alien creature that kills the inhabitants of a polar station in Antarctica) and the film "The Shining" (about a writer who is in an empty remote hotel in winter)
2. Arctic tern bird makes a record flight from the Arctic to Antarctica every year flying more than 70,000 km.
3. Kaffeklubben Island - a small island in the north of Greenland is considered a piece of land that is located closest to the North Pole 707 km from it.
The Arctic Ocean, washing the shores of five countries, including Russia, can turn into an arena for a fierce battle for natural resources. However, is it worth our country to fight for the Arctic?
The Russian authorities intend to stake out special rights to the natural resources of the Arctic. The conventional wisdom is that countless amounts of minerals lurk at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. It is extremely difficult to get to them, given the specifics of the region, and how profitable oil and gas production near the North Pole is is also an extremely debatable issue. But, judging by the statements of Russian officials, we are talking about fixing positions for the long term. At the same time, we are already preparing to protect by force the undiscovered Arctic pantries, without waiting for the warming of the climate predicted by scientists.
Thirst for resources
According to the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, Sergei Donskoy, in February, an international group of experts, members of the so-called Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, should begin to consider the application of Russia, which claims to expand its “controlled” territory in the Arctic by 1.2 million square meters. km. In 2002, a similar Russian application was rejected as insufficiently substantiated, the commission issued recommendations for its revision.
Millions of square kilometers is an impressive area, but we are not talking about the fact that the North Pole will fall under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. The essence of the Russian claim is to obtain special economic rights on the continental shelf (this is how one of the elements of the seabed, which is part of the underwater margin of the continents, is called in the natural sciences).
In the future, if Russia manages to prove that its “territorial claims” to the bottom of the Arctic are justified, Russian companies will receive the exclusive right to develop oil and gas deposits that are supposed to lie in the ocean, where 40% of the area is less than 200 m deep.
“There is the concept of a 12-mile zone, where state sovereignty also applies to airspace, and water area, and subsoil, and resources. Then comes the so-called exclusive economic zone - 200 nautical miles, - explains the senior researcher at IMEMO. Primakov, Pavel Gudev. - In this zone, one or another state has exclusive rights to develop and exploit living and non-living resources. But state sovereignty no longer extends to this zone.”
As the expert notes, the 200-mile boundary of the exclusive economic zone always corresponds to the 200-mile boundary of the continental shelf. There is the same "resource jurisdiction" for the development of living and non-living resources - crabs, for example, or oil.
“We are now trying to prove that the underwater margin of the mainland extends beyond the 200-mile limit of the exclusive economic zone,” says Pavel Gudev.
That is, we lay claim to resources located far from Russian shores.
The process of "territorial expansion" - the definition of the boundaries of the continental shelf - in the Arctic was launched back in 1997, after Russia acceded to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. At the same time, Russia became the first coastal state in the world to take care of its continental shelf.
One might get the feeling that all this strongly smacks of big geopolitics. But the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which will study Russian claims, is not made up of politicians, but experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrography, who are elected by the states parties to the 1982 Convention by secret ballot from among their citizens for a period of five years. Russia is also represented there, by the way.
It is these specialists who should analyze the new scientific data that Russia will present.
It is worth noting that the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf does not make decisions, but makes recommendations, with which the applicant state has the right to agree or disagree, and, if necessary, submit a new, updated application.
As Pavel Gudev notes, a Russian application submitted again will be considered out of turn. And, perhaps, closer to the summer, the commission's experts will publish their recommendations.
Perhaps the commission recognizes that from a scientific point of view, the underwater Arctic landscapes claimed by Russia are indeed a continuation of the mainland. But this does not mean at all that from now on oil, gas and sea spiders fall under the resource jurisdiction of Russia.
The problem is that not only Russia is involved in the battle for the Arctic bottom.
"No man's" bottom
In December 2014, Denmark - one of the five subarctic states (in addition to Denmark, this five includes Russia, Norway, Canada and the United States) - also claimed its rights to the Arctic shelf extending north of Greenland. We are talking about approximately 900 thousand square kilometers of the shelf - in terms of volume, these are the territories of Germany and France combined. But most importantly, the Danes claim the same areas of the Arctic bottom as Russia.
As expected, Canada will also announce its claims in the Arctic in the next year or two.
“The Danes specifically submitted the maximum bid so that they could somehow bargain. And Canadians, if they submit their application, will also ask for the maximum. The intersection of claims between Russia and Canada is inevitable,” notes Pavel Gudev.
Will Russia be able to agree on the division of the Arctic bottom in the face of a tough confrontation with its "partners"? Trying to answer this question is like wondering when global warming will melt the ice in the Arctic Ocean.
A modest illustration: when in April last year a delegation with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who heads the State Commission for the Development of the Arctic, made a technical stop on the Norwegian archipelago of Spitsbergen on their way to the North Pole, Oslo immediately followed. After all, the Deputy Prime Minister appears on the EU sanctions list, which Norway has also joined.
“Putin wants to get the North Pole,” one Norwegian online publication stated. And wondered: "When will he want the South Pole?"
When a Russian scientific expedition planted a titanium Russian flag on the seabed near the North Pole in 2007, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter McKay said Moscow was acting in the style of a 15th-century colonial power.
Cold but rich
Domestic politicians, substantiating Russia's claims to the Arctic bottom, first of all commemorate the natural resources hidden there. Indeed, according to US geologists, about 30% of the world's unexplored natural gas reserves and 15% of oil reserves lie in this region. True, the question arises: how much should a barrel of oil cost to make it profitable to pump it from the bottom of the Arctic Ocean?
Another project, the Northern Sea Route, has very illusory prospects. It is along the Arctic Ocean, near the Russian coast, that the shortest route between East Asia and Europe lies. For example, from Murmansk to Yokohama through the Suez Canal, a ship needs to go a little more than 12.8 thousand nautical miles (almost 23.8 thousand kilometers), while between these two points along the Northern Sea Route it will take a little less than six thousand miles.
However, now this route is difficult to navigate due to climatic conditions. The Northern Sea Route is suitable for navigation only two or three months a year. However, scientists believe that by 2050-2060 the Arctic Ocean will be completely free of ice in summer and the navigation period along the Northern Sea Route will become longer.
The essence of the Russian Arctic policy was figuratively formulated by the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, Sergey Donskoy. “Although they say that it is silent and there is no one here, but in today's world, if you are not active, someone will definitely come and stake,” Channel One quoted a high-ranking official.
Russia is "piling up" now. And he is preparing to defend the Arctic pantry from the encroachments of competitors.
Among hummocks and icebergs
The Arctic is gradually turning into one of the world's centers of hydrocarbon production and a powerful hub of international transport communications, so many states are striving to claim their rights to the continental shelf and islands in the Arctic Ocean, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu emphasized in one of his public speeches. “Currently, a wide range of potential challenges and threats to the security of our country is being formed in the Arctic. In this regard, one of the priority areas of activity of the Ministry of Defense is the development of military infrastructure in this zone,” the minister said at the time.
It is noteworthy that in the Military Doctrine of Russia, adopted in 2014, ensuring the national interests of the Russian Federation in the Arctic is named one of the main tasks of the armed forces - other regions have not received such an honor. The Arctic is also noted in particular in the Russian Naval Doctrine, approved last summer.
But, judging by public opinion polls, the prospects for the development of the northern latitudes do not excite the imagination of Russians as sharply as the annexation of Crimea that has already happened.
According to a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation last year, more than two-thirds of Russians (67%) believe that having a significant part of the Arctic coast is useful and beneficial for Russia. Only 6% of Russians are sure that the ownership of land in the Arctic is useless and does not give the country any benefits. Difficult to answer 27% of the participants in the survey conducted on June 13-14 among 1500 respondents in 104 settlements in 53 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
The development of the Arctic requires significant funds, but it is important, and such expenses are justified, 50% of respondents are sure. At the same time, 26% believe that the money is better spent on other tasks. Almost the same number (24%) found it difficult to answer.
But 37% of Russians would like to visit the Arctic. More than half - 56% - do not feel such a desire.
There are many myths and legends associated with the Arctic. In the 19th century, for example, many researchers tried to find the mythical Sannikov Land, a ghost island in the Arctic Ocean. And only in the 30s of the last century, scientists came to the conclusion that the island does not exist. According to researchers, Sannikov Land, like many other Arctic islands, was made of fossil ice, on top of which a layer of soil was applied. The ice melted and Sannikov Land disappeared, leaving only books and movies.
Russian officials who oversee development programs in the Arctic region say that more than 200 billion rubles are needed to finance them. It is clear that, given the scale of the current crisis in the domestic economy, the conquest of the Arctic may be as painful as the search for Sannikov Land.
Millions of people in different countries have read, are reading, re-reading the wonderful books of Yakov Isidorovitch Perelman "Entertaining physics", "Entertaining astronomy", "Entertaining arithmetic", - algebra, - geometry, - mechanics ... The word "entertaining" in combination with the names different sciences here is not just a title, it is a special literary genre. Perelman was one of the founders of entertaining science and the creator of the genre of scientific and entertaining literature. He possessed an amazing gift about complex natural phenomena, about dry scientific laws to tell simply, easily, fun, excitingly interesting and at the same time absolutely scientifically reliable. All his books are written this way - and there are more than 100 of them and 18 more textbooks - a whole library. These are books that grab the reader's attention from the very first lines, make you wonder what is hidden in the most ordinary things and phenomena, and most importantly, teach you to think.
Perelman is not only the author of books. He was an excellent teacher, a brilliant lecturer, and also the creator of the world's first House of Entertaining Science. This truly unique cultural and educational institution, something like the Kunstkamera of Entertaining Sciences, was opened in Leningrad in 1935 on the idea and with the direct participation of Yakov Isidorovich. 350 large and several hundred small exhibits - devices, operating models became the material embodiment of what is described in his books. All the exhibits of the House of Entertaining Science could not only be touched, but looked at, turned in hands, launched, even broken... lectures to army and navy scouts. He taught them to orientate themselves on the ground and to determine distances to the target without any instruments... We offer readers the text of a talk on physical geography. Yakov Isidorovich prepared this conversation for a radio broadcast, which sounded at the end of 1937. After that, neither during the life of the author, nor after his death (Ya. I. Perelman died of starvation in besieged Leningrad in March 1942), this material was not published.
The constellation Ursa Major in the old "Star Atlas" by Jan Hevelius.
For many hundreds of kilometers beyond the Arctic Circle of the European part of Russia, there is an area that geographers call the Bolshezemelskaya tundra.
Astronomy enthusiasts near a refractor telescope on a summer playground in the garden of the House of Entertaining Science. 1939
The four points within the borders of the Arctic are called the poles.
Yakov Isidorovich Perelman is a student at the St. Petersburg Forestry Institute. 1907
Let's start our conversation with an explanation of the very name of the Arctic. It comes from the Greek word "arktos", meaning "bear". It should not be thought, however, that the ancients so called this country because of the polar bears found there. The bear, which gave the Arctic its name, does not live on any land, but adorns the northern starry sky. We are talking about the famous seven-star Ursa Major, which circles in the sky of the Arctic, never falling below the horizon. The name of the Arctic comes from this celestial bear.
What area is designated by this name? Many believe that the Arctic is bounded by the Arctic Circle; in other words, they think that the Arctic and the cold belt of the Northern Hemisphere are one and the same. This, however, is not true. The Arctic boundary does not coincide with the 66.5 degree parallel; it follows the line separating the forest region from the tundra region, and, consequently, the position of the Arctic border is determined not astronomically (by the tilt of the earth's axis), but climatically - by air temperature. This line connects all those points where the average July temperature is plus 10 degrees on land and plus 5 degrees at sea. Therefore, the border of the Arctic is not a circle, but a bizarrely meandering curve, which deviates from the polar circle first in one direction, then in the other.
Within the Arctic there are several remarkable points that have been given the name "poles". There are four main poles in the Arctic, namely: geographic, magnetic, pole of cold and pole of inaccessibility. Contrary to popular belief, these four points in the Northern Hemisphere do not coincide, do not merge with the geographic pole, but rather widely scattered. The geographic pole is a point on the earth's surface through which the axis of rotation of the globe passes. The magnetic needle of the compass is not directed to this point, but is oriented to the point of the magnetic pole located quite far from it.
The Pole of Cold is the coldest place on earth. In the Northern Hemisphere, it also does not coincide with the geographic pole. There is, it turns out, a corner on the globe that is colder than the North Pole. This place is located in Eastern Siberia near the settlement of Oymyakon: the temperature in winter sometimes drops there to 69 degrees below zero. This is the pole of cold.
The right to be considered the most inaccessible point on the globe belongs, again, not to the geographical pole, but to another point, which is called the pole of inaccessibility or the ice pole. This is the central point of a solid ice massif with an area of three million square kilometers, extending near the North Geographic Pole towards Alaska. The ice pole is several hundred kilometers away from the geographic one.
One of the four listed poles has strange features, namely, geographical. We will now consider some of its peculiar features.
We are accustomed to the fact that the position of each point on the earth's surface is determined by two data, two so-called geographic coordinates - longitude and latitude. The position of Leningrad, for example, is indicated as follows: longitude 30 degrees east, latitude 60 degrees north. Ost means east, in this case - east of the Greenwich meridian, taken as the initial one. Nord means north, in this case north of the equator. Both longitude and latitude can be zero. If, for example, the point is marked as follows: longitude zero, latitude 40 degrees north, then you will find it at the intersection of the prime meridian with the fortieth parallel of the Northern Hemisphere. It is easy to figure out where the point is located with coordinates: longitude zero, latitude zero; it lies on the initial (that is, zero) meridian, at the point of its intersection with the equator.
What, however, would you say about a point whose position is indicated by only one coordinate: latitude 90 degrees north? There is no mention of longitude here. But is there a place on the globe that has no longitude at all?
Yes, there is, and not even one, but two places that do not have any longitude. These unusual points are the North and South Poles of the Earth. They have no longitude, because any longitude, whatever you like, can be attributed to them with the same right. Recall that the poles lie where all the meridians of the globe meet each other. It may be asserted, therefore, that the point of the pole belongs to every meridian of the globe, and that, consequently, it has any longitude. Despite such apparent uncertainty, the coordinate - latitude 90 degrees north - speaks of a strictly defined point - one that is 90 degrees north from the equator; there is only one such point - the geographic North Pole.
In connection with the absence of longitude, there is another, no less strange feature of the geographic pole: the uncertainty of the time of day. When the clock in Moscow shows noon, what time do you think it is at the North Pole? It would seem that since the pole lies on the same meridian with Moscow, then the clocks at these points should show the same time. However, this is not a solution to the problem, because the meridians of Leningrad, Tomsk, Vladivostok, New York, Madrid - in general, any city that comes to mind also pass through the geographic pole. Every point on the globe has the right to claim that the time of day is calculated at the geographical poles by its clock. What time should a traveler stay at the Pole? He is free to choose the time of any meridian: the one on which the capital of his native country lies, or - if it turns out to be technically more convenient - the Greenwich meridian as the starting point, or the meridian of some other point ...
Here is another question, the answer to which may sound unexpected: in which direction of the horizon are the ends of the arrows of a magnetic compass placed at the North Pole directed?
The magnetic needle is always directed with one end to the nearest magnetic pole of the Earth, and the other end, of course, in the opposite direction. But the magnetic poles of the Earth, as already mentioned, do not coincide with the geographic ones. This means that one end of the magnetic needle installed at the North Geographic Pole should be directed away from it. Wherever he "looks", he certainly faces south, because there is no other direction from the North Pole: after all, the North Pole is the northernmost point of the globe, and everything around it is located in the south. In which direction does the other end of the magnetic needle "look"? It would seem to the north, since it is directed just in the opposite direction of the horizon. But this is the peculiarity of the North Pole, that in all directions from it lies the same side of the horizon - the south. Therefore, the other end of the magnetic needle is also directed to the south. We have come to an unusual but indisputable fact: both opposite ends of the compass needle at the North Pole point south!
There is a comic story by Kozma Prutkov about a Turk who supposedly once found himself in the "most eastern country": "And the east is in front and the east is on the sides. And the west? any, barely moving in the distance?
Not true! And behind the east! In short - everywhere and everywhere there is one endless east," the author writes.
Such a country, which is surrounded on all sides by the east, of course, cannot exist. But - as you have just seen - there is a place on the globe, which is surrounded by the south from everywhere: "one endless south" stretches in all directions from this place. And there is another point on our planet, surrounded on all sides by the north. You guess, no doubt, what this point is: the South Geographic Pole.
Let's move on to other features of the pole. What do you think: which of the inhabitants of the globe was closest to its center?
As you think about this question, you will probably think of those miners in the deepest mines of the world who do their hard work more than two kilometers closer to the center of the Earth than their comrades on the surface. However, they are not destined to be considered people who, more than anyone else, approached the center of our planet. This honor does not belong to the American explorer of the deep sea, William Biyba, who plunged in his "bathysphere" almost a whole kilometer under the water surface of the ocean. The right to be considered people who have advanced closest to the center of the globe undoubtedly remains with those who set foot on the point of the North Pole. They approached the earth's center a good ten kilometers more than a significant part of humanity. Why? Because our planet does not have a strictly spherical shape, but is "flattened" near the poles and somewhat "bloated" near the equator. The radius drawn from the center of the Earth to the pole is 21 kilometers shorter than the radius drawn to any point on the equator - if, of course, both points are taken at the same height above sea level. Let us add to this that the South Pole is occupied by a high mainland, while at the North Pole the sea extends; therefore, a person who is at the North Pole is closer to the center of the globe than one who is at the South.
The next question is: where on the earth's surface do things weigh the most?
Things weigh the most at the North Pole. This happens for two reasons. The first is the one that we have just talked about, namely, the oblateness of the Earth at the poles. The second reason is the rotation of our planet. As a result of the so-called centrifugal effect, which occurs with any rotation, things on the earth's surface press on their supports the weaker, the faster they move along a circular path; it is easy to see that in places far from the poles, points on the earth's surface run every second a longer arc than in places close to the poles. The heaviest things should be at those points that do not describe a circle at all, that is, at the poles - especially at the North: remember that a hill extends over the South Pole, and with distance from the center of the Earth, gravity weakens.
Due to the combined action of these two causes, each thing at the North Pole weighs more than at the equator, about half a percent. A product weighing a ton at the equator would add 5 kilograms in weight if it were delivered to the North Pole. When carrying things to the pole from other latitudes, the weight gain is less; however, for large loads, it can still be expressed in impressive numbers. A ship weighing 20,000 tons with cargo in the middle latitudes would add 50 tons in weight if it could reach the North Pole. An airplane with a flight weight of 24 tons in Moscow would become 50 kilograms heavier when it landed on the North Pole. It is possible to detect such increases, but only with the help of spring balances, because lever weights are also made correspondingly heavier on balances.
The last paradox that we will consider is this: where on the globe does the shadow of an object have the same length around the clock?
Such unusual shadows are cast by a pole erected at the geographic pole. The height of the Sun in the sky for this point does not change during the 24-hour daytime circumambulation of the celestial body in a circle. The daily path of the Sun (and any other luminary) is located there parallel to the horizon. And since the Sun does not change its height, then the shadows cast by things remain the same length for a whole day (recall that in the bright half of the year a multi-day day reigns at the poles).
In conclusion, I propose a few questions for independent decision:
1. Where on the globe can you build a house, the windows of all four walls of which would "look" to the south?
2. In what direction is the flag hoisted at the North Pole stretched in the wind?
3. Where on earth can only south winds blow?
4. Is there a place on Earth that can only be reached from the north side?
5. Why are there no "white nights" in the equatorial and mid-latitude regions?
