The North Pole Keeps Moving – Here’s How that Affects Santa’s Holiday Travel & Yours
- camilarosiaz
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
When Santa is done delivering presents on Christmas Eve, he must get back home to the North Pole. He could use a compass, but then he has a challenge: He has to be able to find the right North Pole.
Could this be the next Blitzen? Feeding a reindeer in Lapland, Finland, north of the Arctic Circle. Photo/mary1826/pixabay
There are actually two North Poles – the geographic North Pole you see on maps and the magnetic North Pole that the compass relies on. They aren’t the same.
The two North Poles
The geographic North Pole, also called true north, is the point at one end of the Earth’s axis of rotation.
Compasses use a magnetized needle to align with Earth’s magnetic field. To find true north, a compass must be adjusted for the declination of its location, meaning the angle difference between true north and magnetic north for that spot. Tim Reckmann/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
Earth’s magnetic North Pole is different. Over 1,000 years ago, explorers began using compasses to find their way. The Earth has a magnetic field that acts like a giant magnet, and the compass needle aligns with it.
The magnetic North Pole is used by devices such as smartphones for navigation – and that pole moves around over time.
Why the magnetic north pole moves around
The movement of the magnetic North Pole is the result of the Earth having an active core. The inner core is solid, but the outer core is molten, consisting of melted iron and nickel.
The magnetic North Pole has wandered since the late 1500s, picking up speed in the recent century. The dates reflect observations from expeditions. The others are based on models, with data from NOAA. The map shows northern Canada’s islands. The edge of Greenland is visible to the far right side. Cavit/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
The movement of this iron-rich liquid induces a magnetic field that covers the entire Earth. As the molten iron in the outer core moves around, the magnetic North Pole wanders.
For most of the past 600 years, the pole has been wandering around over northern Canada. It was moving relatively slowly until around 1990, when its speed increased dramatically, up to 34 miles per year. It started moving in the general direction of the geographic North Pole about a century ago.
Getting Santa home
So, if Santa’s home is the geographic North Pole, how does he correct his compass bearing if the two North Poles are in different locations?
No matter what device he might be using – compass or smartphone – both rely on magnetic north as a reference. While modern GPS systems can tell you where you are, they cannot accurately tell which direction to go without knowing magnetic north.
Scientists work at a temporary research station near the Geographic North Pole in 1990. Lorenz.King@geogr.uni-giessen.de/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
If Santa is using an old-fashioned compass, he’ll need to adjust it for the difference between true north and magnetic north, known as declination. If you are using a smartphone, your phone has a built-in magnetometer that measures the Earth’s magnetic field and uses the World Magnetic Model to correct for navigation.
Whatever method Santa uses, he may be relying on magnetic north to find his way home again. Or maybe the reindeer just know the way.