Difference between the North Pole and the South Pole

The Earth is not completely round. It is slightly flattened at the poles: the North Pole and the South Pole. So, the North Pole and the South Pole refer to the extreme points of the Earth's axis. In other words, the Earth spins around its axis that is joined by the North Pole and the South Pole. Although both the poles share many features, they are different from each other. Let us see how they differ from each other!

North Pole:

The North Pole refers to the northernmost point of the Earth's axis. It is the Arctic region that has huge masses of ice sheets with on land mass. The Arctic region follows a natural cycle of melting in which around half of the huge ice masses melt in the summer and restored again during the winter. Thus, the huge ice masses restore size periodically. During winter, the area of ice masses becomes equal to the area of the United States of America.

The North Pole has a thin layer of ice, 12 to 15 feet in thickness, so it is very sensitive to changing climatic conditions. It is believed that almost half of the remaining oil reserves are under the ice of the Arctic Circle.

South Pole:

The South Pole refers to the southernmost point or tip of the Earth's axis where all of the Earth?s lines of longitude meet. It is a huge continent called Antarctica and is around 2900 meters above the sea level. Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole in 1911.

Antarctica does not have day and night like other parts of the world. Instead, it has six months of light followed by six months of darkness. It also does not follow a natural cycle of melting, so if the ice melts at Antarctica, it would not be due to natural causes and may be due to the global warming. If all the ice of the South Pole melts, the sea level would rise by 60 meters. Only penguins are found in Antarctica, terrestrial mammals are not found.

Based on the above information, some of the key differences between the North Pole and the South Pole are as follows: