NationStates Jolt Archive

There is information and a map of the North pole and arctic region at http://www.alaxsxa.com/arctic_circle.htm

Added that to my Maps folder :)

Now, who has been there? *raises hand excitedly* I lived in Inuvik for 3 years:)

Edit: and thank you for spelling Arctic correctly...it always seems to get spelled as Artic:(

Former Fairbanksan who spent a lotta time in Prudhoe and on the North Slope.

Never got over to the Dempster though.

Do you get paid for these threads?

Former Fairbanksan who spent a lotta time in Prudhoe and on the North Slope.

Never got over to the Dempster though.
Rip the shocks out of your vehicle, and drive up and down a street, constantly weaving on and off the curb, and you'll get an idea of what it's like:)

Rip the shocks out of your vehicle, and drive up and down a street, constantly weaving on and off the curb, and you'll get an idea of what it's like:)

I probably have somewhere around 100,000 miles logged on the Dalton. It can't be that different.

I probably have somewhere around 100,000 miles logged on the Dalton. It can't be that different.
Probably not...if you've driven one northern road, you've likely driven them all. Oh wait, there only IS one northern road? Oops. (hhehehehe)

It's kind of warm here in the Arctic region, well for us it is.

I took a look at the map, why do other nations allways name the strait between Iceland and Greenland the "Denmark Strait"? It's Grænlandssund or as you would say Greenland Strait!

It's kind of warm here in the Arctic region, well for us it is.
It always depends...Inuvik is in a delta, so it's warmer that it's surroundings, due in a big way to the scrub pine that protects us from the wind. Kugluktuk, however, where my father works, is a bare moon-scape and the wind drops the temperature by 20 degrees sometimes.

Nonetheless, the elders say the winters are not as cold as they used to be, and the permafrost seems to be proving them right...it is melting and causing big problems since all the buildings are built on pilings, and shifting. Apparently it isn't as dark up there during the winter as it used to be either, and I've heard that explained as ozone depletion or something.

Anything under minus 20 celcius is just damn cold.

I miss it a lot up there.

It always depends...Inuvik is in a delta, so it's warmer that it's surroundings, due in a big way to the scrub pine that protects us from the wind. Kugluktuk, however, where my father works, is a bare moon-scape and the wind drops the temperature by 20 degrees sometimes.

Nonetheless, the elders say the winters are not as cold as they used to be, and the permafrost seems to be proving them right...it is melting and causing big problems since all the buildings are built on pilings, and shifting. Apparently it isn't as dark up there during the winter as it used to be either, and I've heard that explained as ozone depletion or something.

Anything under minus 20 celcius is just damn cold.

Same thing here at home.
Minus 20 is not all that bad but the outsiders freeze to death, I have heard that the Spaniards get sick and some die in minus 1, we must be like Superman to them. :)

I miss it a lot up there.
Me too. Weird. The whole time I was there, I couldn't wait to leave, but I got to take certain things for granted up there that no longer apply. People are more laid back...they take their time about things. When I first got there, that drove me nuts, I wanted things done yesterday. Then I got used to it. Why rush? Things happen in their time.

I could go out into the bush for days and never see another person. I could skidoo 300 plus kilometres to Aklavik on a hunting trip and never see a road or a fence. Not so here. I could go to a cabin on the weekend and be blessedly, quietly surrounded by nature, instead of being surrounded by weekenders and their recreational water vehicles.

I ate caribou and northern fish all the time, and for free. It's stupidly expensive down here, if you can even get it, and caribou is my all time favourite meat.

People love kids in the north...the native way of raising children is more prevalent there, though it does cause some conflicts in school and such. Kids are allowed to make mistakes, and learn from them, instead of being alternately cosseted and disciplined. They learn how to survive on the land. They have skills, even if they can't do their multiplication tables.

People still live off the land, and will as long as they can up there. I really reconnected with my heritage in the north. I'd never really known what it meant to completely have to rely on yourself to provide yourself with food, clothing and shelter (on big hunts) and it was a really good feeling to know I can do it.

yeah, it's far away, the weather can be unforgiving and god help me, the black flies are enough to drive you insane, but there are also the stunning lakes EVERYWHERE, the pingos, the lichens, the caribou, the fish, the pure, unadulterated, untamed beauty of it. I definately plan to return at some point.

I used to live in Barrow, Alaska and i have been to Antarctica on a cruise.

Ah. Pingoes. That's not a word that you hear too often in the NY metro.

I think what I miss most is dropping down off the top of Atigun pass, out of the Brooks Range and onto the coastal plain. It's a long, straight shot down a cirque valley, like a fifty-mile half-pipe. Eatswise, I'll take moose over caribou, but there's nothing quite like the big migrations to inspire a little awe. One July, I saw a frost heave that had thrown a ten-foot thickness of clear ice up through the tundra just on the boundary of ANWR. Frikkin' amazing.

I don't really miss the mosquitoes either, but there's nothing quite like the bounce of walking on the spaghnum moss. Or stumbling onto acres of blueberry.

Sigh. Now I'm getting myself down.

Maybe it's just time to take a week and do some fishing:)

Living in calgary alberta, I can really feel the northern's pain as it can get as cold as bloody alert here. It just tends not to stay that way.

by the way its 20c here today lol :)

I LOVE ALASKA!!!!

Fairbanks, to be specific. Lord willing, I'm not moving.

Living in calgary alberta, I can really feel the northern's pain as it can get as cold as bloody alert here. It just tends not to stay that way.

by the way its 20c here today lol :)
Jay, you just hush your mouth. You're a southerner and that's it...cripes, even the Yellowknifers are really southerners...

Grumble *snowing here* grumble...

Useless. How about giving information on Arctic and Antarctic deserts?

Useless. How about giving information on Arctic and Antarctic deserts?
?
What exactly is useless...the map? Not sure what you want here...

Useless. How about giving information on Arctic and Antarctic deserts?

What do you want to know about them?

(It's kind of a misnomer. While the Arctic does qualify as a desert according to annual precipitation levels, it isn't an arid region at all because that precipitation is locked in ice for the bulk of the year and when it does melt it's prevented from escaping into the water table by an impermeable layer of permafrost. The reason the Arctic looks like a desert is not because of lack of moisture, but because that permafrost layer prevents the roots of large vegetation from penetrating the soil.)

Here are a few Antarctica facts:

Antarctica is the best place in the world to find meteorites. Dark meteorites show up against the white expanse of ice and snow and don't get covered by vegetation. In some places, the way the ice flows concentrates meteorites there.

The cold and dry conditions in the "Dry Valleys" region of Antarctica are so close to those on Mars that NASA did testing there for the Viking mission. It has not rained in the dry valleys for at least 2 million years.

Since the Antarctic convergence arose about 20 million years ago, there has been very little exchange of fish or other marine life in either direction.
Antarctic fish have lived at between +2°C and -2°C for 5 million years (-2°C is the freezing point of sea water, below zero because of the salt). They are therefore the best cold adapted animals that there are on the planet - now or ever.

The Arctic is the area around the Earth's North Pole. The Arctic includes parts of Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Lapland, and Norway (including Svalbard), as well as the Arctic Ocean. The 10°C (50°F) July isotherm is commonly used to define the border of the Arctic region.

The Arctic is also known as the Land of the Midnight Sun as it is within the Arctic Circle. The name Arctic comes from the ancient Greek αρκτος, meaning 'bear', and is a reference to the constellations of the Great Bear and Little Bear, which are located near the North Star (which is actually part of the Little Bear).

The Arctic has never been under the political control of any nation although some nation's militaries have attached a strategic importance to the region. In the 1950s and 1960s, the arctic was often used by submarines to test new weapons, sonar equipment, and depth testing.

During the Cold War, the Arctic region was extensively monitored by the United States military, since it was the opinion of the said military that the first warnings of a Soviet Union nuclear strike would have been indicated by ICBMs launched over the North Pole towards the United States. The United States placed such importance on the region that two military decorations, the Arctic Service Ribbon and Coast Guard Arctic Service Medal, were established for military duty performed within the arctic circle.

i wish i could move to qaanaaq or svalbard. it's so hard to get there...

My hometown, Arkhangel'sk, is just south of the Arctic Circle. Gets kinda chilly up there in winter.

Bump.

If any of you like traveling and want to go to all 7 continents then I recommend going to Antarctica on a cruise. I went and had a lot of fun.


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http://www.alaxsxa.com

Thats so far away.