Santa at the North Pole with his sleigh

About this drawing

North Pole Santa lives in a cozy village with workshops and snowy pine trees, but the real North Pole looks nothing like that. There is no land at all, just the Arctic Ocean covered by a thick sheet of sea ice that drifts constantly.

The geographic North Pole is the spot where Earth's axis meets the surface in the north. It sits in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, hundreds of miles from the nearest coast. Because the ice moves with currents and wind, any marker or camp set up there slowly drifts away from the exact point.

There is also a magnetic North Pole, the spot a compass needle points toward. It is not in the same place as the geographic pole, and it wanders over time because of changes deep inside the planet. Scientists have tracked it moving from northern Canada toward Siberia.

Life near the pole is extreme. For about half the year the sun never sets, and for the other half it never rises. Polar bears, seals and Arctic foxes live in the surrounding region. Arctic sea ice has been shrinking as the climate warms, which is why researchers keep a close eye on this frozen part of the world.

• santa
• north pole
• sleigh
• merry christmas