During the first part of the twentieth century, having mapped and visited nearly the whole Earth, explorers turned their attentions to the Poles. Inhospitable, dangerous, and difficult to reach, the North and South Poles represented one of the...

Coordinates: 90° N 0° W An Azimuthal projection showing the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole. North Pole Scenery The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as...

In August, the New York Times stunned the world with the news that part of the North Pole had melted -- for the first time in 50 million years. The discovery of a mile-wide stretch of open water at the top of...

NORTH TO THE POLE By Will Steger with Paul Schurke Times Books. 339 pp. $19.95 THERE IS no doubt as to who first reached the South Pole: the Norwegian Roald Amundsen in 1911. The North Pole is a different matter. For...

The United States and Canada have scoffed at a Russian submarine expedition that planted a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole. Coming home to a hero's welcome Tuesday, the famous polar scientist who led the risky voyage did not mince words in...

A Russian expedition aiming to claim vast swaths of the Arctic Ocean seabed reached the North Pole on Wednesday, and scientists immediately began preparing to send two mini-submarines under the ice to mark the sea floor with a Russian flag.The Rossiya atomic icebreaker plowed a...