Paraphrasing Scientific American (story here): “At the North Pole, 24 time zones collide at a single point, rendering them meaningless. It’s simultaneously all of Earth’s time zones and none of them. Sea captains choose their own time in the central Arctic. They may maintain the time zones of bordering countries—or they may switch based on ship activities. With no other people within hundreds of miles in all directions, the very concept of a time ‘zone’ seems meaningless. There is no time of day either. What we think of as a single day, flanked by sunrise and sunset, happens just once per year around the North Pole. Does a single day up North last for months? Is a year just a day long?”
Does this mean polar bears get to sleep in? They don’t care what time it is.
Photo: Because the ice pack drifts, no permanent North Pole marker is possible, because it wouldn’t stay in one place.
