Humpday...A Bit OT Triviola

Re: Humpday...A Bit OT Triviola

I know of one near Lake Placid, one near Fairbanks and one in the middle of the Arctic Ice Pack.

On the right track.

Re: On the right track.

A little googling reveals another one near Pike's Peak.

The Golden Uni Stays Put...The Answer

Well, Bill gets a golden uni key chain for giving it the old college try. Of course I was referring to the North Pole. But oddly enough there are 4 places officially designated as "North Poles"!

WHAT ARE THE FOUR TYPES OF NORTH POLES FOUND ON PLANET EARTH?

What are the four types of North Poles on planet Earth typically recognized by science, three of which are different from the compass-designated Magnetic North?

Besides Magnetic North, intrepid explorers have found their way to the Geographic North Pole, Geomagnetic North Pole, and the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility. As previously mentioned, the short definition of Magnetic North is the spot on the Earth's surface toward which all magnetic compasses point.

Geographic North, by contrast, is the spot on the Earth's surface directly above the Earth's axis�think of it as the head of the pin around which the planet spins. This is the only location that can lay claim to the True North title, and it's the point of reference used to mark how far Magnetic North is "wandering" each year.

Not to be confused with the Geographic North or Magnetic North Poles is the obscure Geomagnetic North Pole. This one is a little trickier to explain, so bear with me. The Earth has a geographic axis, around which it spins. In addition, there is a magnetic axis, like a giant bar magnet, around which the Earth's magnetic field emanates.

The magnetic and geographic axes don't match up, with the magnetic axis offset from the geographic axis by about 11 degrees. If you were to extend the imaginary bar magnet so its ends touch the Earth's surface, you would have two geomagnetic poles. The pole closest to True North is the Northern Geomagnetic Pole.

Ironically, compasses don't point toward the Geomagnetic Pole because the imaginary bar magnet doesn't actually extend all the way to the Earth's surface (so to speak), with the field's endpoints actually underground.

The last North is perhaps the most bizarre. The Northern Pole of Inaccessibility is the northernmost point farthest from every possible coastline. In other words, it's the spot in the Arctic Ocean that's farthest from land on all sides.

Officially, it�s the middle of nowhere. The Pole of Inaccessibility has no magnetic or axial component. It's merely an artifact of cartography, navigation