Moving Poles

I thought I'd write in today with your friendly geography lesson for the week. We had a discussion today about moving poles, and that reminded me that I had been meaning to post on that for awhile now...

I took this photo in the cockpit of the C-130 on our flight from McMurdo to the Pole. If you look closely over the co-pilot's knee, you'll see the plane's electronic compass. And if you look really closely, you'll notice it says that we're flying North, not South. "What the?!", you might be asking yourself. "I thought you were going to the South Pole." Well, it turns out that the magnetic South Pole (the one on a compass) and the geographical South Pole (the point around which the Earth spins) are not in the same spot. The magnetic South Pole is quite a ways from here, and it's moving further away each year (the magnetic poles are moving pretty quickly and will eventually change place. Don't know when that's supposed to happen...) During our flight, we had already passed the magnetic South Pole, so technically, we were flying north again. At the magnetic South Pole, any direction you go in is north.

Funny geopolitical fact: After the U.S. established this base at the geographical pole, the Russians got pissed and wanted a piece of the action too. So they built Vostok station at what was then the magnetic pole. Unfortunately for them, it's not there anymore. Gotta love the Cold War.

You'll notice something else interesting in this photo at the geographic pole. I have no idea what Justin's trying to do with the Pole marker, but if you look back into the distance, you'll see a series of othe poles (and ice sculptures). Those poles are there because every year the location of the pole changes. While it feels like the ground underneath my feet is pretty stable, I'm actually sitting on top of a huge moving ice sheet. Ever year, the ice sheet flows a little bit downhill towards the ocean. The rock underneath it stays in the same place, so the actual geographic pole stays in the same place, but the place on the surface that's over the pole changes. Every New Year's, there's a ceremony here where they install a new pole. But I guess, technically, a few minutes later the Pole is no longer where that pole is... I think in a few years the Pole is going to intersect the station. Who knows--maybe the ceremonial marker will be sitting on top of someone's desk.