North Pole

North Pole, point at the northern end of the Earth's axis of rotation. The geographical North Pole is situated in the central Arctic Ocean in a region covered by drifting pack ice. It is located some distance from the north magnetic pole to which a compass needle points. American explorer Robert Edwin Peary is generally credited with having led the first expedition to reach the North Pole. The expedition was made in 1909 and included Peary's chief assistant, Matthew A. Henson, and four Inuit. In 2004, the Danish Continental Shelf Project began a scientific survey of the Lomonosov Ridge to establish whether it is connected to Greenland, in the hope of being able to make an economic claim to the North Pole and its natural resources. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea allows those coastal countries that have ratified it to claim rights to a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone with respect to natural resources. Canada and Norway could also possibly lay claims to the North Pole under the terms of this convention. In August 2007, Russian submarines planted a Russian flag on the seabed of the Lomonosov Ridge beneath the North Pole. Russia has claimed that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of its Siberian continental shelf. For more information on exploration, see Polar Exploration: The North Pole.