Beneath the North Pole
At the top of the world, the ocean is covered by drifting sea ice. On August 3, 1958, a submarine traveled beneath that frozen cover and reached the geographic North Pole. The submarine was the USS Nautilus, and its journey showed how a new kind of power could take a vessel where submarines had not traveled before.
The geographic North Pole is the northernmost point on Earth, where the planet’s axis meets its surface. It is not a patch of land. It lies in the Arctic Ocean, and the sea ice above it moves with winds and currents. Someone standing on that ice would not necessarily remain at the Pole for long.
For a submarine, the ice presented a different problem. In open water, a submarine can rise to the surface. Beneath thick Arctic ice, a vessel must find a suitable opening or an area where the ice is thin enough to surface safely. The crew of Nautilus had to travel with a ceiling of ice above them while keeping track of the water below and around them.
- drifting:
- Moving from place to place without a fixed course.
- currents:
- Steady movements of water in a particular direction.
- suitable:
- Right or safe for a particular purpose.
- reactor:
- A device that produces energy through a controlled nuclear process.
- navigation:
- The process of finding and following a route.
- rivals:
- People or groups competing against each other.
- disputed:
- Questioned or disagreed about.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why was the sea ice a challenge for a submarine trying to surface?
- 2How did nuclear power help Nautilus travel beneath the ice?
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About this explanatory article passage for Upper Elementary
“Beneath the North Pole” is a explanatory article reading passage about Arctic exploration, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 3 minutes to read (479 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.