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50 free The South Pole trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This South Pole trivia quiz covers the southernmost point on Earth, from the race of 1911–12 to the scientists who winter there today. The easy questions ask which continent it sits on, who reached it first, who arrived 34 days later and never made it home, what happens to the compass directions when you stand there and how long the winter night lasts. From there it moves through Shackleton's turn-back, Byrd's flight, the first landing in 1956, the station built for the International Geophysical Year and the treaty that keeps the continent demilitarised. The hard end is for people who know their Framheim from their One Ton Depot: why the marker is moved every New Year's Day, the time zone the station keeps and why, the depth of Amundsen's buried tent, the dogs slaughtered at the Butchers' Shop, the telegram waiting in Melbourne, the coldest and warmest temperatures ever recorded there, the doctor who biopsied her own tumour, the neutrino detector buried in a cubic kilometre of ice and the Lenin bust at the Pole of Inaccessibility. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries on the South Pole, the Amundsen–Scott station, Amundsen's expedition, the Terra Nova Expedition, the Nimrod Expedition, Roald Amundsen, Richard Byrd, the Antarctic Treaty, IceCube and the Pole of Inaccessibility before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Antarctica, Arctic exploration and Ernest Shackleton quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Geographic South Pole lies at which degree of latitude?
90°
Its longitude is undefined because every meridian meets there; it lies about 1,300 km from the nearest open sea at the Bay of Whales.
Q 02Who led the first party to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911?
Roald Amundsen
He named his camp Polheim and the surrounding plateau King Haakon VII Vidde.
Q 03How many days after the Norwegians did Scott's party reach the Pole?
34
Scott's diary recorded: 'Great God! This is an awful place'; all five men died on the return.
Q 04At the South Pole, which compass direction do all directions point?
North
All lines of longitude converge there, so directions are given relative to 'grid north' along the prime meridian.
Q 05During which months does the South Pole receive no sunlight at all?
May through August
In the summer the sun stays continuously above the horizon but never climbs higher than about 23.5 degrees.
Q 06Roughly how thick is the ice sheet at the South Pole?
About 2,700 metres
The land surface beneath is near sea level, though the ice puts the Pole 2,835 metres up.
Q 07Why must the marker at the Geographic South Pole be repositioned annually?
The ice sheet moves about 10 metres a year
A new stake is designed each year and set in a ceremony on New Year's Day.
Q 08On what day is the South Pole marker moved to its new position?
New Year's Day
The sign lists the dates Amundsen and Scott arrived, a quotation from each, and the elevation of 9,301 feet.
Q 09The Ceremonial South Pole, set aside for photographs, features a metallic sphere on a striped post surrounded by what?
Flags of the original Antarctic Treaty signatories
It stands some metres from the true pole so the photo spot never has to move.
Q 10Amundsen's tent, left at the Pole in 1911, is believed to lie how far beneath the surface today?
About 17 metres
Ice movement has carried it 1.8 to 2.5 km from the Pole; it is protected as Historic Site 80.
Q 11Which explorers' names does the US South Pole station, staffed since 1956, carry?
Amundsen and Scott
Navy Seabees built the original for the International Geophysical Year; the winter crew is typically around 50 people.
Q 12The South Pole station keeps which country's time zone, because its supply flights route through Christchurch?
New Zealand
No time zone is officially assigned to the Pole, so any time could be used.
Q 13The US resupply flights out of McMurdo, via Christchurch, are run under what code name?
Deep Freeze
Christchurch in New Zealand is the gateway, which is why the Pole runs on New Zealand time.
Q 21What was the name of Amundsen's base camp in the Bay of Whales?
Framheim
It meant 'Home of Fram', after Nansen's ship; Polheim was the name he gave his camp at the Pole itself.
Q 22Amundsen's party slaughtered dogs for food at the top of the Axel Heiberg Glacier at a spot they called what?
The Butchers' Shop
Of 52 dogs that started in October, 11 came back pulling two sledges.
Q 23Amundsen borrowed which famous polar ship, previously used by Fridtjof Nansen, for his South Pole expedition?
Fram
He had earlier taken the tiny Gjøa through the Northwest Passage; Fram had been built to drift frozen in Arctic ice.
Q 14Who was the first person to fly over the South Pole, on 29 November 1929?
Richard Byrd
Norwegian Bernt Balchen was his primary pilot on the flight.
Q 15After Scott in 1912, when did humans next set foot at the South Pole?
1956
Admiral George Dufek's party landed in a Skytrain aircraft on 31 October 1956, ahead of building the station.
Q 16Which Everest conqueror reached the South Pole overland on 4 January 1958 during the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition?
Edmund Hillary
Fuchs's party arrived a fortnight later and went on to complete the first crossing of the continent.
Q 17Vivian Fuchs's crossing party travelled in six vehicles, three of which were what?
Sno-Cats
Two Weasel tractors and an adapted Muskeg tractor made up the rest; Hillary famously drove Ferguson farm tractors from the other side.
Q 18Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition turned back on 9 January 1909 at 88°23'S, roughly how far short of the Pole?
112 miles
Its motor car had proved useless on the Barrier and the Manchurian ponies had died on the march.
Q 19Amundsen kept his Antarctic plans secret, telling his crew they were heading north. Where did he finally reveal the true destination?
Madeira
From there he sent Scott a telegram saying simply that he was 'proceeding south'.
Q 20Scott learned he was in a race with Amundsen from a telegram waiting for him in which city?
Melbourne
It contained only the bare information that the Norwegian was 'proceeding south'.
Q 24Scott, Wilson and Bowers died in their tent how far short of the supply depot that might have saved them?
11 miles
One Ton Depot had itself been laid more than 30 miles short of its intended position the previous year.
Q 25Which member of Scott's polar party walked out into a blizzard saying 'I am just going outside and may be some time'?
Lawrence Oates
'Titus' Oates was an army captain from the Inniskilling Dragoons who had fought in the Boer War.
Q 26Scott's transport plan for the Terra Nova Expedition combined dogs, ponies and what novel technology?
Motor sledges
The motors broke down early and the ponies were shot on the Barrier, leaving men to haul the sledges.
Q 27The first man to the Pole disappeared in June 1928 while doing what?
Flying to rescue the crew of the airship Italia
His plane vanished over the Barents Sea; Umberto Nobile, the man he was trying to save, survived.
Q 28The Antarctic Treaty, which reserves the continent for peaceful scientific use, was signed in 1959 by how many nations?
12
It came into force on 23 June 1961; the flags of those original signatories ring the Ceremonial Pole.
Q 29What was the lowest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole station, on 23 June 1982?
−82.8 °C
Vostok Station holds the planet's record at −89.2 °C; the Pole's mean annual temperature is −49.5 °C.
Q 30The warmest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole, −12.3 °C, fell on which day in 2011?
Christmas Day
Even in high summer the January average high is only about −26 °C.