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50 free The Arctic trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Arctic takes its name from the Greek word for bear, after the constellations that wheel over the North Pole, and the bears are still there: roughly 22,000 to 31,000 polar bears hunting ringed seals from the sea ice. Eight countries own land inside the Arctic Circle, two of them without a single metre of Arctic coastline, and nobody owns the pole itself, which sits above four kilometres of shifting ocean. This quiz covers the region end to end: the latitude lines and the midnight sun, the cities that sit on or above the Circle, the Arctic Council and the seabed claims, the Russian titanium flag, the explorers and their ships and airships, the submarines under the ice, the narwhals, terns, muskoxen and lemmings, Svalbard's treaty and its Seed Vault, and the permafrost and sea-ice numbers that make the Arctic the planet's early-warning system. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a geography quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'Arctic' comes from the Greek word for which animal?
Bear
Arktos refers to the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great and Little Bears that hang over the northern sky.
Q 02At roughly what latitude does the Arctic Circle sit?
66°34'N
It marks the southernmost latitude where the Sun never sets at the June solstice and never rises at the December one.
Q 03Ecologists define the Arctic as where the warmest month's average temperature stays below what?
10 °C
The northern tree line roughly follows that July isotherm, and the warming climate is pushing the line, and the Arctic itself, poleward.
Q 04What is the approximate coldest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic?
−68 °C
Average winter lows reach −40 °C. Most of the region gets under 50 cm of precipitation a year; wind-blown snow just makes it look like it is always snowing.
Q 05Which Russian city is the only one in the world located directly on the Arctic Circle?
Salekhard
Finland's Rovaniemi sits 6 km south of the line; Norilsk and Vorkuta lie well north of it.
Q 06What is the largest city in the world north of the Arctic Circle?
Murmansk
Its population has slid from 468,000 in 1989 to about 270,000. The Gulf Stream keeps its port ice-free and it runs the world's northernmost trolleybus system.
Q 07What is the largest US settlement north of the Arctic Circle?
Utqiagvik
Formerly Barrow, with about 5,000 people. Canada's largest is Inuvik and Denmark's is Sisimiut in Greenland.
Q 08The Arctic Circle is drifting toward the North Pole at roughly what speed?
14.5 m per year
Earth's axial tilt wobbles by about 2° over a 41,000-year cycle, so in this phase of the cycle both polar circles creep poleward.
Q 09Which two Arctic states have no direct access to the Arctic Ocean?
Finland and Sweden
The other six can claim a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone; nobody owns the pole itself.
Q 10The Arctic Council was established by a 1996 declaration signed in which city?
Ottawa
It grew out of the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and works by consensus, steering clear of boundary and resource disputes.
Q 11What was the first binding treaty concluded under the Arctic Council, in 2011?
A search and rescue agreement
In 2022 seven members refused to meet under Russia's chairmanship after the invasion of Ukraine.
Q 12The Russian flag planted on the seabed beneath the North Pole in 2007 was made of what?
Titanium alloy
The bathyscaphes MIR-1 and MIR-2 placed it during Arktika 2007, sparking talk of a race for Arctic hydrocarbons.
Q 13The 2008 Ilulissat Declaration on the Arctic Ocean was signed in a town in which territory?
Greenland
Five coastal states pledged orderly settlement of overlapping claims and blocked any new comprehensive legal regime for the ocean.
Q 21Polar bears are specialised hunters of which prey in particular?
Ringed seals
They go mainly for the energy-rich blubber, ambushing seals at breathing holes or the ice edge.
Q 22What is the estimated total world population of polar bears?
22,000–31,000
The IUCN lists the species as vulnerable. It is the largest living bear and land carnivore, with males weighing 300–800 kg.
Q 23Under its white or yellowish fur, what colour is a polar bear's skin?
Black
It also has a narrower skull, longer neck and sharper teeth than the brown bear, with which it can interbreed.
Q 14Denmark's and Russia's competing seabed claims both rest on which undersea ridge?
Lomonosov
Denmark's claim runs from Greenland over the pole to the edge of Russia's zone; Russia keeps its claim to its own side and adds the Mendeleyev Ridge.
Q 15Canada regards the Northwest Passage as what?
Its internal waters
The United States and most maritime nations call it an international strait with a right of transit passage.
Q 16The IMO's Polar Code for ships in Arctic waters applies to vessels over what size?
500 tonnes
The International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters took effect on 1 January 2017.
Q 17Which large cruise ship became the first to navigate the Northwest Passage, in 2016?
Crystal Serenity
Until 2009 pack ice blocked regular shipping through the passage for most of the year.
Q 18Arctic near-surface temperatures are rising how fast compared with the global average?
Two to three times faster
The effect is called Arctic amplification, which is why the region is treated as a leading indicator of global warming.
Q 19Which culture, ancestral to the Inuit, replaced the Dorset people after 1300 CE?
Thule
They descend from the Birnirk of Siberia. The Dorset vanished so completely that some have called it a prehistoric genocide.
Q 20In which year did the Soviet Union begin its crewed drifting ice stations in the Arctic?
1937
Between then and 1991, 88 crews lived on the drifting ice and were carried thousands of kilometres; buoys do most of that work now.
Q 24A male narwhal's spiralled tusk is actually which tooth?
A left canine
It can reach 3 metres and may serve as a weapon, a feeding tool, a mating display or a salinity sensor. Narwhals and belugas sometimes interbreed.
Q 25Narwhals are among the deepest-diving cetaceans, reaching depths of up to how much?
2,370 m
They eat polar and Arctic cod, Greenland halibut, shrimp and squid, and travel in groups of three to eight, gathering in their thousands in summer.
Q 26Arctic terns see two summers a year by migrating from the Arctic to where?
The Antarctic coast
Round trips average about 70,900 km for birds nesting in Iceland and Greenland, the longest migrations known in the animal kingdom.
Q 27A tagged Arctic tern from the Farne Islands covered how far in ten months?
96,000 km
The bird weighs about 100 grams. In breeding plumage it has a blood-red beak and feet and a black cap.
Q 28In the wild, most Arctic foxes do not live beyond what age?
Their first year
Exceptional individuals reach 11. They form monogamous pairs and raise pups in complex underground dens.
Q 29The muskox's Inuktitut name, umingmak, translates as what?
The bearded one
Woods Cree names for it mean 'ugly moose' and 'ugly bison'. Despite the name it is closer to sheep and goats than to oxen.
Q 30What is the name of the prized soft wool harvested from muskoxen?
Qiviut
Alaska has farms dedicated to harvesting it; lemmings line their nests with it.