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Joe Blanton, director of our Research Correspondence staff, oversees the
answering of 50,000 queries and comments addressed to the National Geographic Society annually. Each week he posts answers
to three of the most interesting inquiries received online at Glad You asked. Unfortunately, individual e-mail
replies are impossible.
Santa Standard Time?
What time is it at the North Pole?
If youre standing precisely at the North Pole, you can take a step into
any of the 24 time zones, which converge right there at the Pole. Some contend
that North Pole time equals Greenwich (England) time. Others maintain that its
whatever time whoevers there wants it to be. So if youre leading an
expedition from, say, New York City, its U.S. eastern time, if thats what you
want. After all, when youre standing at the top of the world, youre King of
the Hill.
Personal sense of time doesnt really go away when you go to the Pole. For
instance, when a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker went there a few years ago, it met
up with a Russian ship. The two crews were on completely different schedules,
12 hours apart. Even though the ships were right next to each other, one crew
was sleeping when the other was awake.
Brochures for a lake in Michigan claim that NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine
rated it as one of the worlds six most beautiful lakes. Has NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC in fact rated lakes?
Youd be surprised how many times this type of question comes up. Once
while on vacation, my family and I pulled into a scenic overlook in the
mountains. An official sign there proclaimed that NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC had
deemed that particular view as one of the ten most beautiful in the United
States. It was indeed a spectacular vista, but whose criteria made it better
than any number of others? No, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC has not rated lakes or
views as to beauty or towns as to climate. Beauty is, as they say, in the eye
of the beholder.
Whats the difference between a gulf and a bay?
Well, the difference is fuzzy enough to make one wonder why we dont
just pick one word in English for these geographical features and toss the
other one out. But then there would doubtless be factions opposing the Bay
of Mexico or Gulf of Biscay. And besides, there is a bit of a difference.
Although bays and gulfs are both bodies of water partially surrounded by land,
a bay is generally smaller than a gulf. (But not always. The Persian Gulf,
for example, is much smaller than Canadas Hudson Bay.) And while gulfs are
parts of oceans or seas that extend into the land, bays can be parts of lakes
or other inland bodies of water. Many bays have calm waters and are free from
strong currents, making them good natural harbors.
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