How Thick Is That Ice

We hear it's all melting, these days all the time, so it must be real thick, right. Well one of the first visitors to the North Pole was the submarine USS Skate first surfaced at the geographic North Pole 17 March 1959. The photo below was taken at about that time.



A close examination of the ice leaning on the deck shows it's less than a few feet or so thick. There really isn't much floating at the North Pole. One thing they were concerned with, so they toolk a hard look with the periscope before venturing out, Polar bears, who may have thought a really big and edible seal was coming up.

The North Pole has been 'ice free' many times before, and last year, the unusually lean ice pack was determined to be the results of winds and currents.

Then of Course there is the recent discovery of massive volcanoes under the Arctic Ocean pm the Gakkel Ridge in the vicinity of the North Pole. Al Gore and his Gaia groupies are not happy about that.