The South Pole and its conquest. What is the geographic breadth of the South Pole?

There are two points on the planet that are furthest from the equator line. This is the North Pole and the South Pole. And if the first is located in the middle of a frozen ocean, then the second is on the firmament of this mainland. This article is devoted to him.

What is the geographic breadth of the South Pole? What are its astronomical and climatic features? Who and when first conquered this harsh point of the globe? The answers to all these questions you will find in our article.

South Pole: how many are there?

The imaginary axis of rotation of our planet, as is known, crosses its surface at two points. The first is the North Pole, and the second is the South Pole. The distance between these two points is 12713.5 km.

However, not everyone knows that scientists allocate more than one South Pole, and five more! We list them:

• magnetic;
• geomagnetic;
• geographical;
• ceremonial;
• And the so-called "pole of inaccessibility".

The first two poles are connected with the magnetic field and the magnetic axis of the Earth. At the same time, the South magnetic pole is completely outside Antarctica. But the point on the mainland, which is the most remote from the ocean coast, is called the South Pole of Inaccessibility.

On the coldest continent of the planet there is a special place intended for photo and video filming of tourists and travelers. This is the so-called ceremonial pole of the Southern Hemisphere. And it does not coincide in location with the real (geographical) pole. In addition, under the influence of the movement of the glacial shell of the continent, it shifts by ten meters per year.

In this article we are interested in the geographical South Pole. Where is it located? What is interesting about this point on the surface of the Earth? And what geographical latitude does the South Pole have? We will learn all this further.

What is the geographic breadth of the South Pole?

If you look closely at the globe, you can see how a bunch of fine meridian lines come out of one point and then converge again into another, but on the opposite side of the globe. One of these points (the one that is located below) is called the South Pole.

The latitude of the South Pole of the Earth is 90 degrees south latitude (in the abbreviated form it is often written simply: SUS). In orographic terms, it is located within the Polar Plateau at an altitude of 2,800 meters above sea level.

Since 1956, the American polar station Amundsen-Scott operates a hundred meters from the South Pole. In the name of the station, the names of the first people who conquered this harsh point of the Earth are immortalized. Today, here is a special ceremonial site, created for tourists and travelers. It has a huge hemisphere surrounded by the flags of the so-called "Antarctic Treaty".

Astronomical and climatic features of the South Pole

Below are the most interesting astronomical and geographical features of this point of the planet:

• Day and night here are almost the same in duration (187 and 178 days respectively).
• The South Pole is one of the best points on Earth for conducting continuous astronomical observations.
• The celestial equator here completely coincides with the horizon line.
• At the South Pole, by and large, there is no customary time, since all meridians here converge to one point. For convenience, scientists at Amundsen-Scott station use New Zealand time.
• The South Pole, like the whole of Antarctica in general, does not belong to any of the states of the world.

The climate at this point of the planet is, of course, very harsh. The average annual air temperature here is -49 degrees Celsius. "Warmer" at the South Pole was on December 25, 2011 ("only" -12 degrees). By the way, for all temperature indicators, the South Pole is much colder than the North Pole.

Of course, it is very difficult to adapt to such severe climatic conditions for living organisms. There are no plants in the area of the pole at all, and from the representatives of the fauna one can find only penguins. And these animals here, for lack of enemies, feel quite free.

The conquest of the pole: how it was

The process of conquering the South Pole of the Earth has become triumphant for one European nation, and tragedy for another. Two expeditions competed for the right to mount their flag here first - the Norwegian expedition led by R. Amundsen and the British one led by Robert Scott.

Both groups went to the final "race to the pole" in the autumn of 1911. But the Norwegians reached the goal for a month and four days earlier. This happened on December 14, 1911. The exhausted group of Scott reached the South Pole only on 17 January. Seeing the fluttering Norwegian banner, the British even more lost courage. On the way back, all five members of Scott's team perished.

The reasons for Amundsen's victory in this "race" were several. First and foremost, he made a bet on sled dogs, and did not fail (Robert Scott used horses and motorized sledges, which immediately went out of order).

Secondly, the Norwegians were much better prepared physically. Thirdly, the British took with them far fewer products than they needed. Finally, a group of Norwegians was better and more competently dressed. Before the expedition, Rual Amundsen studied in detail the methods of adaptation to the severe colds of the Eskimos.

Conclusion

What is the geographic breadth of the South Pole? The answer to this question is quite obvious. The South Pole has a latitude of 90 ° 00 '00 ". But he does not have longitude at all. After all at this point of the Earth all the meridians of the planet converge.