September 13 North Magnetic Pole

 

The last midnight sun here for this year

And we arrived! Another auspicious day - the first vessel to reach the North Magnetic Pole in its current location 85 48’ N 176 09’ E. This prompted lots more bubbles of course – it is quite a significant achievement. On top of that we have witnessed the last midnight sun at this point on the Earth for this year. 

The scene outside is heavenly. The ice with its frosting of deep snow is a magical mixture of soft blue-white and palest pink where the sun picks out meringue-like peaks of snowy ice. The very newest ice rests like a thin sheet of silver praline over the deep dark blue of the ocean. The temperature is -8C (-14C with wind chill factor). It’s freezing - and breathtaking literally - but absolutely magnificent. 

The ship's horn blasted and red flares were lit - it was an occasion to celebrate

We really celebrated the occasion with bubbles on the helicopter deck then spent the rest of the day ‘parked’ along side a thick ice floe revelling in the unique beauty of this unique place. Some people went off skiing way off into the distance, others went on long hikes while others simply wandered marvelling at the sculptured surface of this humongous multifaceted ice sheet which caps Mother Earth. We were tethered to the ice floe so we drifted with it well over a km - the winds and ocean currents make this a place of constant motion. Fascinating! 

The scientists were out taking samples

Its a huge ship when you stand up close

Lindsay freezing his ears off!

They served us cheese fondue with morels and black truffle

That thing swinging from the  bow measures the thickness of the ice

A bunch of people braved the icy water to do a polar plunge - brave souls.

Just a little about the North Magnetic Pole. It is a ‘point’ on the surface of Earth's northern hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward so if a magnetic compass needle were allowed to rotate in three dimensions (which mine can’t), it will point straight down). There is only one location where this occurs – somewhere near but not necessarily at the geographic north pole – it fact it is currently at 85 48’ N 176 09’ E about 460km from the geographic North Pole. 

The fascinating thing is that the North Magnetic pole has and continues to move over time according to changes that occur in the Earth's molten core.   Same too with the South Magnetic Pole which was fist reached by Douglas Mawson on16 January 1909 with two others on Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition.

Tomorrow we sail on to reach the geographic North Pole ETA unknown.