The answer’s actually pretty simple: Our Earth is round, and not effectively represented by a two-dimensional map. Google Maps uses a Mercator projection, flattening the Earth and stretching it horizontally and vertically, as do most 2D maps.
There’s a couple of reasons why the ice around the North Pole is not shown on Google Maps. … A commonly cited reason is that the Arctic ice cap is floating on open ocean; there’s no land underneath that reaches sea level. Antarctica, on the other hand, does conceal land above sea level.
The real reason that the north and south poles look different is that the south pole is covered by a giant land mass, while the north pole isn’t. Google Maps shows neither the north pole nor the south pole .
This begs the question “Why does the north and south pole look different on Google Maps?”
One common answer is, on Google Maps, anything north of 85° N, or south of about 83° S, isn’t visible at all. The real reason that the north and south poles look different is that the south pole is covered by a giant land mass, while the north pole isn’t. For a better view of things, open up Google Earth, which has a much more intuitive visualization of.
Why is the north pole missing from the map?
The North Pole is not missing from the map, the poles of the Earth are off the edge of the map itself. It changed about a 6 months ago. You should be able to see both of them now.
Another common inquiry is “Why is there no land at the North Pole on maps?”.
One source stated although most rectangular maps don’t show areas south of about 75°, enough of Antarctica extends far enough north to be shown. Maps are generally biased towards showing more of the northern hemisphere, as there is more land there. But, there is no land at the pole- just frozen sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.
Then, why can’t I see the ice cap at the North Pole?
Or is there actually no ice cap there? I think the question is one of semantics. Ice Cap implies ice sitting on something. There is no solid body of land at the north pole. The white stuff is sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean. The ice cap at the south pole is sitting on dry land.
What is the land like at the North Pole?
There is no solid body of land at the north pole. The white stuff is sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean. The ice cap at the south pole is sitting on dry land. I will surmise that Google Earth is making that distinction, 15yrs+ Preparing ice in an engineering laboratory. Short answer: Look at the harbour at CFS Alert in the second image below.
What is the difference between the North Pole and Antarctica?
Because Antarctica is a land and ice continent, it has physical form. The North Pole is a notional point on earth, it physically does not exist, it’s there on google maps, it’s the point were all lines of longitude ( which don’t physically exist either) meet, if shown, it may only be one pixel in size.