The North Pole has no solid land—only shifting sea ice floating atop the Arctic Ocean.

The North Pole sits in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, where water depth reaches approximately 4,261 meters (13,980 feet). Without any underlying landmass, the geographic North Pole is covered by a drifting pack of sea ice typically 2 to 3 meters thick—a striking contrast to the South Pole, which sits atop the Antarctic ice sheet at roughly 2,835 meters above sea level.The sea ice at the North Pole moves constantly due to the Transpolar Drift Stream and prevailing wind patterns. This motion means any marker placed at exactly 90 degrees North will drift away shortly after being set. Historic expeditions—including Robert Peary's 1909 journey and Ralph Plaisted's 1968 motorized trek—had to account for this constant drift to verify their positions accurately.Satellite data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) document a dramatic decline in Arctic sea ice since monitoring began in 1979. Research shows that ice thickness has decreased by more than 50 percent in some regions over the past 60 years. The ice composition has shifted too: once dominated by thick, multi-year ice, it is now increasingly made up of thinner seasonal ice that melts readily during summer months.