Geographical pole

{{short description|Points on a rotating astronomical body where the axis of rotation intersects the surface}}

File:Geographical and Magnetic Poles.png

A geographical pole or geographic pole is either of the two points on Earth where its axis of rotation intersects its surface.{{cite encyclopedia |title=pole; geographic pole |last1=Kotlyakov |first1=Vladimir |last2=Komarova |first2=Anna |encyclopedia=Elsevier's dictionary of geography : in English, Russian, French, Spanish and German |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=9780080488783 |page=557 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DhWw_cYLicC&pg=PA557 |access-date=22 June 2015}} The North Pole lies in the Arctic Ocean while the South Pole is in Antarctica. North and South poles are also defined for other planets or satellites in the Solar System, with a North pole being on the same side of the invariable plane as Earth's North pole.{{cite journal |last1=Archinal |first1=B. A. |last2=A’Hearn |first2=M. F. |last3=Bowell |first3=E. |last4=Conrad |first4=A. |last5=Consolmagno |first5=G. J. |last6=Courtin |first6=R. |last7=Fukushima |first7=T. |last8=Hestroffer |first8=D. |last9=Hilton |first9=J. L. |last10=Krasinsky |first10=G. A. |last11=Neumann |first11=G. |last12=Oberst |first12=J. |last13=Seidelmann |first13=P. K. |last14=Stooke |first14=P. |last15=Tholen |first15=D. J. |last16=Thomas |first16=P. C. |last17=Williams |first17=I. P. |title=Report of the IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements: 2009 |journal=Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy |date=February 2011 |volume=109 |issue=2 |pages=101–135 |doi=10.1007/s10569-010-9320-4|bibcode=2011CeMDA.109..101A |s2cid=189842666 }}

Relative to Earth's surface, the geographic poles move by a few metres over periods of a few years.{{cite web|last=Lovett |first=Richard A. |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-has-shifted-location-north-south-poles/ |title=Climate change has shifted the locations of Earth's North and South Poles |publisher=Scientific American |date=14 May 2013 |access-date=6 January 2019}} This is a combination of Chandler wobble, a free oscillation with a period of about 433 days; an annual motion responding to seasonal movements of air and water masses; and an irregular drift towards the 80th west meridian.{{cite web |title=Polar motion |url=https://www.iers.org/IERS/EN/Science/EarthRotation/PolarMotion.html |website=International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service |publisher=Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy |year=2013 |access-date=22 October 2020}} As cartography requires exact and unchanging coordinates, the averaged{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} locations of geographical poles are taken as fixed cartographic poles and become the points where the body's great circles of longitude intersect.