US Submarines Surface in Open Water at the North Pole in 1959 and 1962

In view of the recent global warming hysteria you may be interested in the US Navy photos at the website below which has a number of photos showing US submarines surfacing at the North Pole in open water, 50 years ago!

www.navsource.org/archives/08/08578.htm

A day after posting this, a friend sent me this link, a site that has intriguing in-depth info on the polar ice question - and more photos of submarines surfacing in water at the North Pole.

http://www.john-daly.com/polar/arctic.htm

Comments

[Mikofox]

Wow, telling my home-schooled kids about your post had them search our library and in under two minutes locate the same pictures in several books. One being the Crompton's Encyclopedia Vol. 22 Page 495b, and an old German book about explorers that I had bought as a boy, which has a full chapter on the Nautilus's North Pole expedition, hailing it as a masterpiece of 'blind' instrument navigation. Reading the journals of early explorers there is plenty of evidence of unpredictable ice conditions or open water during the short summer month in the Arctic.

[Graham P Davis]

When the USS Skate surfaced at the North Pole in March 1959, it had to break through a small, refrozen lead to do so. The surface temperature was -23F (-31C).

Like the USS Nautilus, it was unable to surface at the NP the previous August because of heavy ice cover. However, it did surface at other locations in the Arctic through leads and polynyas. These small areas of open water that occur in summer have been known about for over a century. However, that does not detract from the fact that the Arctic has warmed and that the area of ice has diminished and thickness is less than half what it was fifty years ago.