This list of Arctic expeditions is a timeline of historic

Arctic exploration Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth. It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle. Historical records suggest that humankind have explored ...

and explorers of the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

15th century

* 1472:

Didrik Pining Didrik Pining ( 1430 – 1491) was a German privateer, nobleman and governor of Iceland and Vardøhus. In 1925, researcher Sofus Larson proposed that Pining may have landed in North America in the 1470s, almost twenty years before Columbus' vo ...

and

Hans Pothorst Hans Pothorst ( 1440 – 1490) was a privateer, likely from the German city Hildesheim. In 1925, researcher Sofus Larsen proposed that Pothhorst may have landed in North America, along with Didrik Pining, in the 1470s, almost twenty years before ...

mark the first of the

cartographic expeditions to Greenland This is a list of recognised pioneering expeditions to Greenland that contributed to the cartography of the territory. See also * Geography of Greenland * Arctic exploration * List of Arctic expeditions This list of Arctic expeditions is a t ...

* 1496: , venturing out of the White Sea, travels along the

Murman Coast The Murman Coast (russian: Мурманский берег, no, Murmankysten) is a coastal area in Murmansk Oblast in northwest Russia. It is located on the southern side of the Barents Sea, between the Norway–Russia border and Cape Svyatoy N ...

and the coast of northern Norway

16th century

* 1553: English expedition led by

Hugh Willoughby Sir Hugh Willoughby (fl. 1544; died 1554) was an English soldier and an early Arctic voyager. He served in the court of and fought in the Scottish campaign where he was knighted for his valour. In 1553, he was selected by a company of London ...

with

Richard Chancellor Richard Chancellor (died 10 November 1556) was an English explorer and navigator; the first to penetrate to the White Sea and establish relations with the Tsardom of Russia. Life Chancellor, a native of Bristol, was brought up in the household ...

as second in command searches for the

Northeast Passage The Northeast Passage (abbreviated as NEP) is the shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Russia. The western route through the islands of Canada is accordingly called the Northwest Passage (N ...

* 1557: English expedition led by

Stephen Borough Steven Borough (25 September 1525 – 12 July 1584) was an English navigator and an early Arctic explorer. He was master of the first English ship to reach the White Sea in 1553 and open trade with Russia on behalf of the Muscovy Company. He becam ...

reaches the

Kara Strait The Kara Strait or Kara Gates (russian: Карские Ворота, translit=Karskiye Vorota) is a wide channel of water between the southern end of Novaya Zemlya and the northern tip of Vaygach Island. This strait connects the Kara Sea and t ...

* 1576–1578: English expeditions led by

Martin Frobisher Sir Martin Frobisher (; c. 1535 – 22 November 1594) was an English seaman and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada ...

reach

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

* 1579: Danish-Norwegian expedition led by

James Alday James Alday (1516–1576?) was a 16th-century English navigator, explorer and privateer. He participated in raids against the Spanish with fellow privateers James Logan and William Cooke during the 1540s and is credited, along with Sebastian Ca ...

fails to reach Greenland due to ice * 1580: English expedition led by

Arthur Pet Arthur Pet was an English explorer. Together with Charles Jackman, he led an expedition for the Muscovy Company to discover the Northeast Passage in 1580. Pet was in charge of the barque ''George'', Jackman of the barque ''William''. They were g ...

and Charles Jackman reaches the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. ...

* 1581: Danish-Norwegian expedition led by

Magnus Heinason Magnus Heinason (Mogens Heinesøn) (1548 – 18 January 1589) was a Faroese naval hero, trader and privateer. Magnus Heinason served William the Silent and his son Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange for 10 years as a privateer, fighting t ...

fails to reach Greenland due to ice * 1585–1587: English expeditions led by John Davis explore the

Davis Strait Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer Jo ...

–

Baffin Bay Baffin Bay ( Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; kl, Avannaata Imaa; french: Baie de Baffin), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arct ...

region and reach

Upernavik Upernavik (Kalaallisut: "Springtime Place") is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,092 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. It c ...

* 1594: Dutch expedition led by

Willem Barentsz Willem Barentsz (; – 20 June 1597), anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch Republic, Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northern Sea Route, N ...

Cornelis Nay Cornelis Corneliszoon Nay was a Dutch navigator and explorer who attempted to discover the Northeast Passage from Europe to the Far East. Nay hailed from Enkhuizen in the Netherlands. In June 1594, he set out from the Dutch island of Texel with ...

and

Brandt Tetgales Brandt may refer to: Places United States * Brandt, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Brandt, South Dakota, a town * Brandt Township, Polk County, Minnesota Elsewhere * Mount Brandt, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica * Brandt Cove, South Georgia Is ...

reaches the Kara Sea via

Yugorsky Strait The Yugorsky Strait or Yugor Strait (russian: Югорский Шар, or Yugorsky Shar) is a narrow sound between the Kara Sea and the Pechora Sea. Its maximum width is 10 km and its minimum width only 3 km. Ostrov Storozhevoy, an is ...

* 1595: Dutch expedition led by

fails to make further progress towards a Northeast Passage than in the previous year * 1596–1597: Dutch expedition piloted by

discovers

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

and registered the first recorded

Farthest North Farthest North describes the most northerly latitude reached by explorers, before the first successful expedition to the North Pole rendered the expression obsolete. The Arctic polar regions are much more accessible than those of the Antarctic, as ...

17th century

* 1605–1607: Danish-Norwegian king,

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...

, sends three expeditions led by John Cunningham,

Godske Lindenov Godske Christoffersen Lindenov or Lindenow (d. 1612 Copenhagen) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. He was a commander on one of King Christian IV's expeditions to Greenland. Early life He was of the noble family Lindenov of Linders ...

and

Carsten Richardson Carsten Richardson was an early 17th-century Holsteinian-Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. He was the commander of King Christian IV's final expedition to Greenland. Carsten Richardson was in command of one of five ships in the 1606 exped ...

(all piloted by James Hall), to search for the lost

Eastern Settlement The Eastern Settlement ( non, Eystribygð ) was the first and by far the larger of the two main areas of Norse Greenland, settled by Norsemen from Iceland. At its peak, it contained approximately 4,000 inhabitants. The last written record from t ...

, one of the Norse colonies on Greenland * 1606: John Knight, who had captained the in 1605 with John Cunningham, dies commanding a joint

Muscovy Company The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

expedition in search of the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...

* 1607:

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. In 1607 and 160 ...

explores Spitsbergen * 1608:

gets as far as Novaya Zemlya in his attempt to find the Northeast Passage * 1609: another unsuccessful attempt by

at finding the Northeast Passage * 1610:

Jonas Poole Jonas Poole (bap. 1566 – 1612)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). was an early 17th-century English explorer and sealer, and was significant in the history of whaling. Voyages to Bear Island, 1604-1609 He served aboard vesse ...

thoroughly explores Spitsbergen's west coast, reporting that he saw a "great store of whales"; this report leads to the establishment of the English

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

trade * 1610: Russian Kondratiy Kurochkin explores the mouth of the

Yenisei River The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук ...

and the adjoining coast * 1610–1611:

reaches

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage * 1612: James Hall and

William Baffin William Baffin ( – 23 January 1622) was an English navigator, explorer and cartographer. He is primarily known for his attempt to find a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, during the course of which he was the first Euro ...

explore southwest Greenland * 1612–1613: Button expedition, commanded by

Thomas Button Sir Thomas Button (died April, 1634) was a Wales, Welsh officer of the Royal Navy, notable as an explorer who in 1612–1613 commanded an expedition that unsuccessfully attempted to locate explorer Henry Hudson and to navigate the Northwest Pa ...

, in search of the Northwest Passage * 1613: Several whaling expeditions, consisting of a total of at least thirty ships from England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands crowd Spitsbergen's west coast * 1614: Dutch and French expeditions discover

Jan Mayen Jan Mayen () is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger nort ...

* 1615:

Robert Fotherby Robert Fotherby (died 1646) was an early 17th-century English explorer and whaler. From 1613 to 1615 he worked for the Muscovy Company, and from 1615 until his death for the East India Company. Family ties There was a family of Fotherbys in Gri ...

, in the pinnace ''Richard'', is the first English expedition to reach Jan Mayen * 1615: English expedition captained by

Robert Bylot Robert Bylot () was an English List of explorers, explorer who made four voyages to the Arctic. He was uneducated and from a working-class background, but was able to rise to rank of Master mariner, master in the English Royal Navy. Voyages ...

and piloted by

reaches the

Foxe Basin Foxe Basin is a shallow oceanic basin north of Hudson Bay, in Nunavut, Canada, located between Baffin Island and the Melville Peninsula. For most of the year, it is blocked by sea ice (fast ice) and drift ice made up of multiple ice floes. Th ...

in search of the Northwest Passage * 1616: English expedition captained by

and piloted by

explores the

–

region * 1619–1620: Danish-Norwegian expedition led by

Jens Munk Jens Munk (3 June 1579 – June 1628) was a Danish-Norwegian navigator and explorer. He entered into the service of King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway and is most noted for his attempts to find the Northwest Passage. Early life Jens Munk ...

in ''Enhiörningen'' (Unicorn) and ''Lamprenen'' (Lamprey) to discover the Northwest Passage penetrated Davis Strait as far north as 69°, found

Frobisher Bay Frobisher Bay is an inlet of the Davis Strait in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located in the southeastern corner of Baffin Island. Its length is about and its width varies from about at its outlet into the Labrador Sea ...

, spent a winter in

* 1633–1634: I. Rebrov explores the mouth of the

Lena River The Lena (russian: Ле́на, ; evn, Елюенэ, ''Eljune''; sah, Өлүөнэ, ''Ölüöne''; bua, Зүлхэ, ''Zülkhe''; mn, Зүлгэ, ''Zülge'') is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean ...

* 1633–1635:

Ilya Perfilyev Ilya Perfilyev (Perfiryev) (russian: Илья Перфильев (Перфирьев)) (1583–1659), was a Russian explorer, polar seafarer and a founder of Verkhoyansk. In the summer of 1633 he headed a group, consisted of merchant-and-industrial ...

explores the Lena and

Yana River The Yana ( rus, Я́на, p=ˈjanə; sah, Дьааҥы, ''Caañı'') is a river in Sakha in Russia, located between the Lena to the west and the Indigirka to the east. Course It is long, and its drainage basin covers . Including its longest ...

s and intervening coast * 1638: I. Rebrov explores coast between the Lena and

Indigirka River The Indigirka ( rus, Индиги́рка, r=; sah, Индигиир, translit=Indigiir) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is . History The is ...

s * 1641: Dimitry Zyryan and

Mikhail Stadukhin Mikhail Vasilyevich Stadukhin (russian: Михаил Васильевич Стадухин) (died 1666) was a Russian explorer of far northeast Siberia, one of the first to reach the Kolyma, Anadyr, Penzhina and Gizhiga Rivers and the northern Se ...

explore the mouth of the Indigirka River and adjoining coast * 1646: I. Ignatyev explores the mouth of the

Kolyma River The Kolyma ( rus, Колыма, p=kəlɨˈma; sah, Халыма, translit=Khalyma) is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia. The Kolyma is frozen ...

and adjoining coast * 1648: Ya. Semyonov explores the mouth of

Kotuy River The Kotuy () is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is one of the two rivers that form the Khatanga; the other one being the Kheta. The Kotuy is long, and the area of its basin is . It freezes up in late September or early October and brea ...

and adjoining coast * 1648:

Semyon Dezhnev Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnyov ( rus, Семён Ива́нович Дежнёв, p=sʲɪˈmʲɵn ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ dʲɪˈʐnʲɵf; sometimes spelled Dezhnyov; c. 1605 – 1673) was a Russian explorer of Siberia and the first European to sail through t ...

and

Fedot Alekseyevich Popov Fedot Alekseyevich Popov (russian: Федот Алексеевич Попов, also Fedot Alekseyev, russian: Федот Алексеев; nickname Kholmogorian, russian: Холмогорец, for his place of birth ( Kholmogory), date of birth un ...

explore from the Kolyma River through the Bering Strait * 1649: Mikhail Stadukhin explores the coast from the Kolyma River to the Bering Strait * 1676: English expedition led by John Wood fails to find the Northeast Passage * 1686–1687: Ivan Tolstoukhov expedition explores the mouth of the Yenisey River and the coast of the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula (russian: Таймырский полуостров, Taymyrsky poluostrov) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administrati ...

18th century

* 1712:

Merkury Vagin Merkury Vagin (Russian: ''Меркурий Вагин'') (died 1712) was a Russian Arctic explorer. In 1712, together with Yakov Permyakov, Vagin explored the region of the eastern Laptev Sea coast. His exploration included Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Isl ...

and

Yakov Permyakov Yakov Permyakov (russian: Яков Пермяков; died 1712) was a Russian seafarer, explorer, merchant, and Cossack. In 1710, while sailing from the Lena River to the Kolyma River, Permyakov observed the silhouette of two unknown island group ...

explore the vicinity of the mouth of the Yana River and adjoining coasts, both were murdered by mutineering expedition members * 1725–1730:

Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...

leads the

First Kamchatka expedition The First Kamchatka Expedition was the first Russian expedition to explore the Asian Pacific coast. It was commissioned by Peter the Great in 1724 and was led by Vitus Bering. Afield from 1725 to 1731, it was Russia's first naval scientific expe ...

* 1728:

Claus Paarss Major Claus Enevold Paarss (18 February 1683 – 26 May 1762) was a Danish military officer and official. Retired from service,Marquardt, Ole"Change and Continuity in Denmark's Greenland Policy"in ''The Oldenburg Monarchy: An Underestimated Empi ...

attempts to cross Greenland's interior from the west in search of the old Norse Eastern Settlement * 1733–1743:

Second Kamchatka expedition The Great Northern Expedition (russian: Великая Северная экспедиция) or Second Kamchatka Expedition (russian: Вторая Камчатская экспедиция) was one of the largest exploration enterprises in hi ...

explores the north coast of Russia and discovers

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

* 1751: Lars Dalager attempts to find the lost Eastern Settlement by crossing Greenland's ice sheet from the west * 1751–1753:

Peder Olsen Walløe Peder Olsen Walløe (1716 – 27 April 1793) was a Dano-Norwegian Arctic explorer most noted for his historic exploration of the former Norse settlements on Greenland. Biography Peder Olsen Walloe was born on the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm. In ...

explores the east coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell in

umiak The umiak, umialak, umiaq, umiac, oomiac, oomiak, ongiuk, or anyak is a type of open skin boat, used by both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲir� ...

s * 1760–1763: S.F. Loshkin explores

Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; rus, Но́вая Земля́, p=ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲa, ) is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, ...

* 1765–1766:

Vasily Chichagov Vasili Yakovlevich Chichagov (russian: Василий Яковлевич Чичагов; 28 February 1726 – 4 April 1809) was an admiral in the Russian Navy and an explorer. He was the father of Pavel Chichagov, a Russian admiral during the ...

explores the

Kola Peninsula sjd, Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк , image_name= Kola peninsula.png , image_caption= Kola Peninsula as a part of Murmansk Oblast , image_size= 300px , image_alt= , map_image= Murmansk in Russia.svg , map_caption = Location of Murmansk Oblas ...

coast and Spitzbergen * 1768–1769: F.F. Rozmyslov explores Novaya Zemlya and the

Matochkin Strait Matochkin Strait or Matochkin Shar (russian: Ма́точкин Шар) is a strait, structurally a fjord, between the Severny and Yuzhny Islands of Novaya Zemlya. It connects the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. Geography The Matochkin Strait is ...

* 1770–1771:

Samuel Hearne Samuel Hearne (February 1745 – November 1792) was an English explorer, fur-trader, author, and naturalist. He was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, actually Coronation Gulf, via the C ...

traces the

Coppermine River The Coppermine River is a river in the North Slave and Kitikmeot regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. It is long. It rises in Lac de Gras, a small lake near Great Slave Lake, and flows generally north to Coronation Gulf, a ...

to the Arctic Ocean * 1773:

Ivan Lyakhov Ivan Lyakhov (russian: Иван Ляхов), died around 1800, was a Russian merchant who explored large sections of the New Siberian Islands in the 18th century. Expedition Lyakhov began his explorations in the spring of 1770 on dogsleds in ord ...

discovered

Kotelny Island Kotelny Island ( rus, Остров Котельный, r=Ostrov Kotelny; sah, Олгуйдаах Aрыы, translit=Olguydaax Arııta) is part of the Anzhu Islands subgroup of the New Siberian Islands located between the Laptev Sea and the East ...

* 1773: Captain Constantine Phipps in and Commander

Skeffington Lutwidge Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge (13 March 1737 – 15/16 August 1814) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He had a particular connection wi ...

in reach 80° 37' N, with a young midshipman,

Horatio Nelson Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought abo ...

among the crew, in the

1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole The 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole was a British Royal Navy expedition in which two ships under the commands of Constantine John Phipps and Skeffington Lutwidge sailed towards the North Pole in the summer of 1773 and became stuck i ...

* 1776–1780:

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

charts the northwestern coast of America and sails through the Bering Strait during his third voyage in search of the Northwest Passage * 1785–1794: Russian expedition led by

Joseph Billings Joseph Billings (17581806) was an English navigator, hydrographer and explorer who spent the most significant part of his life in Russian service. Life Early life Joseph Billings was likely born in Yarmouth, the son of a fisherman of the same nam ...

explores Eastern Siberia, the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

, and the west coast of Alaska * 1789: Alexander Mackenzie traces the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean

19th century

Early Period (1800–1818)

* 1800:

Yakov Sannikov Yakov Sannikov () (January 29, 1780, Ust-Yansk – 1810s, Sakha Republic) was a Russian merchant and explorer of the New Siberian Islands. In 1800, Sannikov discovered and charted Stolbovoy Island, and in 1805 Faddeyevsky Island. In 1809–1810, ...

charts

Stolbovoy Island Stolbovoy Island (russian: Столбовой остров) is a long and narrow island off the southwest side of the New Siberian archipelago in the eastern part of the Laptev Sea. It is located 184 km away from the Siberian coast and 100&n ...

* 1809–1811: Yakov Sannikov and

Matvei Gedenschtrom Matvei Matveyevich Gedenschtrom ( sv, Mathias Hedenström; russian: link=no, Матвей Матвеевич Геденштром; 1780 – ) was a Russian explorer of Northern Siberia, writer, and public servant. Matvei Gedenschtrom was born in ...

explore the

New Siberian Islands The New Siberian Islands ( rus, Новосиби́рские Oстрова, r=Novosibirskiye Ostrova; sah, Саҥа Сибиир Aрыылара, translit=Saña Sibiir Arıılara) are an archipelago in the Extreme North of Russia, to the north o ...

* 1815–1818:

Otto von Kotzebue Otto von Kotzebue (russian: О́тто Евста́фьевич Коцебу́, tr. ; – ) was a Russian officer and navigator in the Imperial Russian Navy. He was born in Reval. He was known for his explorations of Oceania. Early life ...

explores the Bering Strait during the

Ross Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sou ...
,
Parry PARRY was an early example of a chatbot, implemented in 1972 by psychiatrist Kenneth Colby. History PARRY was written in 1972 by psychiatrist Kenneth Colby, then at Stanford University. While ELIZA was a tongue-in-cheek simulation of a Rogeria ...
and
Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
(1818–1846)

* 1818:

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

expedition led by captain

David Buchan David Buchan (1780 – after 8 December 1838) was a Scottish naval officer and Arctic explorer. Family In 1802 or 1803, he married Maria Adye. They had at least three children. Exploration In 1806, Buchan was appointed as a lieutenant i ...

sails north from Spitsbergen * 1818: Royal Navy expedition led by John Ross with his nephew

James Clark Ross Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic, participating in two expeditions led by his uncle John Ross, and four led by William Edwa ...

, sails north along the west coast of Greenland to

Pituffik Pituffik is a former settlement in northern Greenland, located at the eastern end of Bylot Sound by a tombolo known as ''Uummannaq'', near the current site of the American Thule Air Base. The former inhabitants were relocated to the present-day to ...

in search of the

and encounters the

Inughuit The Inughuit (also spelled Inuhuit), or the Smith Sound Inuit, historically Arctic Highlanders, are Greenlandic Inuit. Formerly known as "Polar Eskimos", they are the northernmost group of Inuit and the northernmost people in North America, livin ...

(

Greenlandic Inuit Greenlanders ( kl, Kalaallit / Tunumiit / Inughuit; da, Grønlændere) are people identified with Greenland or the indigenous people, the Greenlandic Inuit (''Grønlansk Inuit''; Kalaallit, Inughuit, and Tunumiit). This connection may be res ...

) of Cape York * 1819: Royal Navy expedition aboard and led by

William Edward Parry Sir William Edward Parry (19 December 1790 – 8 July 1855) was an Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for his 1819–1820 expedition through the Parry Channel, probably the most successful in the long quest for the Northwest Pass ...

in search of the Northwest Passage * 1819–1822: The

Coppermine expedition The Coppermine expedition of 1819–1822 was a British overland undertaking to survey and chart the area from Hudson Bay to the north coast of Canada, eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River. The expedition was organised by the Royal Nav ...

in northern Canada, led by

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through ...

, includes

George Back Admiral Sir George Back (6 November 1796 – 23 June 1878) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer of the Canadian Arctic, naturalist and artist. He was born in Stockport. Career As a boy, he went to sea as a volunteer in the frigat ...

and John Richardson * 1820–1824:

Ferdinand von Wrangel Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel (russian: Барон Фердина́нд Петро́вич Вра́нгель, tr. ; – ) was a Baltic German explorer and seaman in the Imperial Russian Navy, Honorable Member of the Saint ...

and

Fyodor Matyushkin Fyodor Fyodorovich Matyushkin (russian: Матюшкин, Федор Федорович; - ) was a Russian navigator, Admiral (1867), and a close friend of Aleksandr Pushkin, who studied with him at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. ''Сло� ...

explore the

East Siberian Sea The East Siberian Sea ( rus, Восто́чно-Сиби́рское мо́ре, r=Vostochno-Sibirskoye more) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Si ...

and the

Chukchi Sea Chukchi Sea ( rus, Чуко́тское мо́ре, r=Chukotskoye more, p=tɕʊˈkotskəjə ˈmorʲɪ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west b ...

areas * 1821–1824:

Fyodor Litke Fyodor, Fedor (russian: Фёдор) or Feodor is the Russian form of the name "Theodore" meaning “God’s Gift”. Fedora () is the feminine form. Fyodor and Fedor are two English transliterations of the same Russian name. It may refer to: Giv ...

explores the eastern

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

and the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, including Matochkin Strait * 1821–1823:

Pyotr Anjou Pyotr Fyodorovich Anjou (; 15 February 1796 – 12 October 1869) was an Arctic explorer and an admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy.

continues exploration of New Siberian Islands * 1822:

William Scoresby William Scoresby (5 October 178921 March 1857) was an English whaler, Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. Early years Scoresby was born in the village of Cropton near Pickering south-west of Whitby in Yorkshire. His father, William ...

lands in east Greenland near the mouth of the fjord system that would later be named for him –

Scoresby Sound Scoresby Sound (Danish: ''Scoresby Sund'', Greenlandic: ''Kangertittivaq'') is a large fjord system of the Greenland Sea on the eastern coast of Greenland. It has a tree-like structure, with a main body approximately Douglas Clavering Captain Douglas Charles Clavering RN FRS (8 September 1794 – mid-1827) was an officer of the British Royal Navy and Arctic explorer. Biography Early life and career Clavering was born at Holyrood House, the eldest son of Brigadier-General H ...

and

Edward Sabine Sir Edward Sabine ( ; 14 October 1788 – 26 June 1883) was an Irish astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist, explorer, soldier and the 30th president of the Royal Society. He led the effort to establish a system of magnetic observatories in ...

explore East Greenland northwards to

Clavering Island Clavering Island ( da, Clavering Ø) is a large island in eastern Greenland off Gael Hamke Bay, to the south of Wollaston Foreland. The Eskimonaes ''(Eskimonæs)'' radio and weather station was on this island. It was staffed by Danish scientists ...

, where they get in contact with the now extinct Inuit of Northeast Greenland * 1825–1827: The

Mackenzie River expedition The Mackenzie River expedition of 1825–1827 was the second of three Arctic expeditions led by explorer John Franklin and organized by the Royal Navy. Its goal was the exploration of the North American coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie an ...

descends the Mackenzie River and maps much of the Arctic coast * 1826:

Frederick William Beechey Frederick William Beechey (17 February 1796 – 29 November 1856) was an English naval officer, artist, explorer, hydrographer and writer. Life and career He was the son of two painters, Sir William Beechey, RA and his second wife, Anne ...

aboard explores the Alaskan coast from

Point Barrow Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, northeast of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow). It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at , south of the North Pole. (The northe ...

to the Bering Strait * 1827: First Norwegian expedition to the Arctic, led by

Baltazar Mathias Keilhau Balthazar Mathias Keilhau (2 November 1797 – 1 January 1858) was a Norwegian geologist and mountain pioneer. He is regarded as the founder of the discipline of geology in Norway, and has also been credited for the discovery of the Jotunheim ...

* 1827: Royal Navy expedition to Spitsbergen led by William Edward Parry reaches 82°45’N * 1828–1830: Danish expedition led by

Wilhelm August Graah Wilhelm August Graah (1793–1863) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. Graah had mapped areas of West Greenland when he, in 1828–30, was sent by King Frederick VI of Denmark on an expedition to the unmapped eastern coast with th ...

tries to locate the Eastern Settlement in southeast Greenland, but does not reach

Ammassalik Island Ammassalik Island ( da, Ammassalik Ø) is an island in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland, with an area of .

. * 1829–1833: Royal Navy expedition led by John Ross to search for the

explores

James Ross Strait James Ross Strait, an arm of the Arctic Ocean, is a waterway, channel between King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula in the Provinces and Territories of Canada, Canadian territory of Nunavut. long, and to wide, it connects M'Clintock Ch ...

and King William Land, locates the

North Magnetic Pole The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the Earth's magnetic field, planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic comp ...

* 1832–1835: Pyotr Pakhtusov explores the southern half of the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya * 1833–1835: Royal Navy expedition led by

from

Fort Reliance Fort Reliance is an abandoned trading post in the Yukon Territory of Canada. It stands on the east bank of the Yukon River, downstream of the town of Dawson City. The fort was established in 1874 by François Mercier, Jack McQuesten, and Franci ...

to the mouth of the Back River at

Chantrey Inlet Chantrey Inlet (''Tariunnuaq'') is a bay on the Arctic coast of Canada. It marks the southeast "corner" where the generally east–west coast turns sharply north. To the west is the Adelaide Peninsula and to the east is mainland. King William Is ...

* 1836:

attempts to ascertain if

Boothia Peninsula Boothia Peninsula (; formerly ''Boothia Felix'', Inuktitut ''Kingngailap Nunanga'') is a large peninsula in Nunavut's northern Canadian Arctic, south of Somerset Island. The northern part, Murchison Promontory, is the northernmost point o ...

is an island or a peninsula but his ship, , is trapped by ice near

Southampton Island Southampton Island (Inuktitut: ''Shugliaq'') is a large island at the entrance to Hudson Bay at Foxe Basin. One of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago, Southampton Island is part of the Kivalliq Region in Nunavut, Canada. The area of the ...

* 1837:

Karl Ernst von Baer Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer Edler von Huthorn ( – ) was a Baltic German scientist and explorer. Baer was a naturalist, biologist, geologist, meteorologist, geographer, and is considered a, or the, founding father of embryology. He was ...

leads a natural history expedition to Novaya Zemlya * 1838–1839:

Avgust Tsivolko Avgust Karlovich Tsivolko, also spelled as Tsivolka ( pl, August Cywolka, russian: link=no, Август Карлович Циволько) (1810 – March 28 ( O.S. March 16), 1839) was a Russian navigator and Arctic explorer. In 1834–1835, ...

leads an expedition to Novaya Zemlya, primarily for surveying * 1838–1840:

La Recherche expedition The La Recherche Expedition of 1838 to 1840 was a French Admiralty expedition whose destination was the North Atlantic and Scandinavian islands, including the Faroe Islands, Spitsbergen and Iceland. The expedition in the Scandinavian countries fro ...

, under the command of

Joseph Paul Gaimard Joseph Paul Gaimard (31 January 1793 – 10 December 1858) was a French naval surgeon and naturalist. Biography Gaimard was born at Saint-Zacharie on January 31, 1793. He studied medicine at the naval medical school in Toulon, subsequent ...

, a scientific venture to explore the islands in the North Atlantic * 1845: Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition is sent to map the remaining Northwest Passage

Search for
Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
(1846–1857)

* 1848: John Richardson and John Rae lead the Rae–Richardson Arctic expedition and search overland for Franklin's lost expedition * 1849:

Henry Kellett Vice Admiral Sir Henry Kellett, (2 November 1806 – 1 March 1875) was a British naval officer and explorer. Career Born at Clonacody in Tipperary County, Ireland, on 2 November 1806, Kellett joined the Royal Navy in 1822. He spent three yea ...

discovers Herald Island searching for Franklin's lost expedition * 1850–1854:

McClure Arctic expedition The McClure Arctic expedition of 1850, among numerous British search efforts to determine the fate of the Franklin's lost expedition, is distinguished as the voyage during which the Irish explorer Robert McClure became the first person to confirm ...

led by

Robert McClure Vice-Admiral Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (28 January 1807 – 17 October 1873) was an Irish explorer of Scots descent who explored the Arctic. In 1854 he traversed the Northwest Passage by boat and sledge, and was the first to ci ...

, a British search for the members of Franklin's lost expedition * 1850–1851:

First Grinnell expedition The First Grinnell expedition of 1850 was the first American effort, financed by Henry Grinnell, to determine the fate of the lost Franklin's lost expedition, Franklin Northwest Passage expedition. Led by Lieutenant Edwin De Haven, the team ex ...

led by

Edwin De Haven Edwin Jesse DeHaven (May 7, 1816May 1, 1865) was a United States Navy officer and explorer of the first half of the 19th century who was best known for his command of the First Grinnell expedition in 1850, which was directed to ascertain what had ...

, the first American search for the members of Franklin's lost expedition, finds the graves of crew members

John Torrington John Shaw Torrington (1825—1 January 1846) was a Royal Navy stoker. He was part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition to chart unexplored areas of what is now Nunavut, Canada, find the Northwest Passage, and make scientific observations. He was the ...

William Braine William Braine (1814 – 3 April 1846) was a British explorer. He served as a marine in the Royal Marines. From 1845 he was part of an expedition to find the Northwest Passage, but he died early in the trip and was buried on Beechey Island. His p ...

and

John Hartnell John Hartnell ( – 4 January 1846) was an English seaman who took part in Sir John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition and was one of its first casualties, dying of suspected zinc deficiency and malnourishment during the expedition's f ...

on Beechey Island * 1851: William Kennedy leads a search expedition for Franklin in the ''Prince Albert'', sponsored by Lady Franklin * 1852:

Edward Augustus Inglefield Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield (27 March 1820 – 4 September 1894) was a Royal Navy officer who led one of the searches for the missing Arctic explorer John Franklin during the 1850s. In doing so, his expedition charted previously unexpl ...

sets out to search for Franklin's ill-fated expedition in the , also sponsored by Jane Franklin * 1853–1855: Second Grinnell expedition led by

Elisha Kane Elisha Kent Kane (February 3, 1820 – February 16, 1857) was a United States Navy medical officer and Arctic explorer. He served as assistant surgeon during Caleb Cushing's journey to China to negotiate the Treaty of Wangxia and in the Af ...

looks for Franklin searching

Grinnell Land Grinnell Land is the central section of Ellesmere Island in the northernmost part of Nunavut territory in Canada. It was named for Henry Grinnell, a shipping magnate from New York, who in the 1850s helped finance two expeditions to search for F ...

* 1857–1859: McClintock Arctic expedition led by

Francis Leopold McClintock Sir Francis Leopold McClintock (8 July 1819 – 17 November 1907) was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy, known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. He confirmed explorer John Rae's controversial report gather ...

is the fifth expedition sponsored by Lady Franklin and finds artefacts, a crew members skeleton and the final written communications from the last survivors of the Franklin expedition

Nordenskiöld Period (1857–1879)

* 1858: Swedish expedition to Spitsbergen led by

Otto Martin Torell Prof Otto Martin Torell HFRSE (5 June 1828 – 11 September 1900) was a Swedish naturalist and geologist. Life He was born in Varberg, Sweden on 5 June 1828 the son of Johan Petter Torell and his wife, Susanna Charlotta Varenius. He was educa ...

*1860:

Paul A. Chadbourne Paul Ansel Chadbourne (October 21, 1823 – February 23, 1883) was an American educator and naturalist who served as President of University of Wisconsin from 1867 to 1870, and President of Williams College from 1872 until his resignation in 188 ...

, a

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

professor, conducts the Williams College Lyceum of Natural History expedition to Greenland. * 1860–1861:

American Arctic Expedition Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, ...

led by

Isaac Israel Hayes Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, ...

who claims to see the

Open Polar Sea The Open Polar Sea was a hypothesized ice-free ocean surrounding the North Pole. This unproved and eventually-disproved theory was once so widely believed that many exploring expeditions used it as justification for attempts to reach the North P ...

* 1860–1862: First expedition led by American

Charles Francis Hall Charles Francis Hall ( – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while leading t ...

searching for Franklin * 1861: Swedish expedition to Svalbard led by

explores

Hinlopen Strait The Hinlopen Strait ( no, Hinlopenstretet) is the strait between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet in Svalbard, Norway. It is long and wide. The strait is difficult to pass because of pack ice. It is believed to have been named after Thijmen J ...

and the north coast of

Nordaustlandet Nordaustlandet (sometimes translated as North East Land) is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopen Strait. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under la ...

* 1861–1862: Otto Paul von Krusenstern's expedition through the Kara Sea on the ''Yermak'' * 1864: Swedish expedition to Svalbard led by

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (18 November 183212 August 1901) was a Finland-Swedish aristocrat, geologist, mineralogist and Arctic explorer. He was a member of the Fenno-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists and held the title of a friher ...

* 1864–1869: Charles Francis Hall leads his second expedition to determine the fate of Franklin, to

King William Island King William Island (french: Île du Roi-Guillaume; previously: King William Land; iu, Qikiqtaq, script=Latn) is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the ...

* 1867:

Edward Whymper Edward Whymper FRSE (27 April 184016 September 1911) was an English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Four members of his climbing party were killed during the descent. W ...

and Robert Brown attempt to explore the inland ice of Greenland * 1868: First German North Polar Expedition led by

Carl Koldewey Carl Christian Koldewey (26 October 1837 – 17 May 1908) was a German Arctic explorer. He led both German North Polar Expeditions. Life and career Koldewey was the son of merchant Johann Christian Koldewey and his wife Wilhelmine Meyer. Koldewey ...

along the east coast of Greenland * 1868: Swedish expedition led by

attempts farthest north from Svalbard * 1869–1870: Second German North Polar Expedition ( and ''Hansa'') led by Carl Koldewey reaches

Sabine Island Sabine Island ( ; da, Sabine Ø) is an island to the northeast of Wollaston Foreland, previously known as ''Inner Pendulum Island''. It is in the Northeast Greenland National Park area. Geography Sabine Island is long from Kap Neumayer in the ...

* 1870

leads a short journey on the inland ice of Western Greenland * 1871:

Benjamin Leigh Smith Benjamin Leigh Smith (12 March 1828 – 4 January 1913) was an English Arctic explorer and yachtsman. He is the grandson of the Radical abolitionist William Smith. Early life He was born in Whatlington, Sussex, the extramarital child ...

's first expedition explores the northeastern boundary of Svalbard * 1871–1873: ''Polaris'' expedition, known for the death of its commander,

* 1872:

returns to Svalbard in his second expedition * 1872–1873: Swedish expedition to Svalbard led by

winters at Mosselbukta * 1872–1874:

Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition The Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition was an Arctic expedition to find the North-East Passage that ran from 1872 to 1874 under the leadership of Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. The expedition discovered and partially explored Franz Josef Lan ...

led by Captain

Karl Weyprecht Karl Weyprecht, also spelt Carl Weyprecht, (8 September 1838 – 2 March 1881) was an Austro-Hungarian explorer. He was an officer (''k.u.k. Linienschiffsleutnant'') in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. He is most famous as an Arctic explorer, and a ...

discovers

Franz Josef Land , native_name = , image_name = Map of Franz Josef Land-en.svg , image_caption = Map of Franz Josef Land , image_size = , map_image = Franz Josef Land location-en.svg , map_caption = Location of Franz Josef ...

* 1873:

comes to Nordenskiöld's aid in Spitsbergen * 1875:

is the first to reach the

Yenisey The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук ...

by sea * 1875–1876:

British Arctic Expedition The British Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876, led by Sir George Strong Nares, was sent by the British Admiralty to attempt to reach the North Pole via Smith Sound. Although the expedition failed to reach the North Pole, the coasts of Greenland ...

led by Captain

George Nares Vice-Admiral Sir George Strong Nares (24 April 1831 – 15 January 1915) was a Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. He commanded the ''Challenger'' Expedition, and the British Arctic Expedition. He was highly thought of as a leader an ...

* 1876:

repeats his voyage to the Yenisey * 1876–1878: Norwegian Northern Seas expedition in ''Vøringen'' explored the

Northern Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

up to 80°N * 1877–1878:

Henry W. Howgate Henry Williamson Howgate (March 24, 1835 – June 1, 1901) was an American Army Signal Corps officer and Arctic explorer who embezzled over $133,000 from the U.S. Government. He escaped custody while on trial and evaded the Secret Service an ...

leads the Howgate Preliminary Polar Expedition to promote scientific experiments, and whaling as a source of revenue * 1878: J. A. D. Jensen explores the inland ice sheet from west Greenland * 1878–1881: different voyages with Dutch polar schooner ''Willem Barents'' in the area around Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, organised by the

Royal Dutch Geographical Society The Royal Dutch Geographical Society (Dutch:''Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap''; KNAG) is an organization of geographers and those interested in geography in The Netherlands. It has about 4000 members and sponsors lectures on ge ...

* 1878–1879: Swedish ''Vega'' expedition led by

completes the Northeast Passage

Race for the Pole (1879–1900)

* 1879–1882: ''Jeannette'' expedition commanded by

George W. De Long George Washington De Long (22 August 1844 – ) was a United States Navy officer and explorer who led the ill-fated ''Jeannette'' expedition of 1879–1881, in search of the Open Polar Sea. Career ''Jeannette'' expedition In 1879, ...

attempts to reach the North Pole by sea from the Bering Strait * 1880: Henry W. Howgate leads the Howgate Arctic expedition for scientific and geographical exploration of Greenland * 1880:

's fourth expedition explores the southwestern area of Franz Josef Land * 1881–1882:

's final expedition is shipwrecked in Franz Josef Land * 1881–1884:

Lady Franklin Bay Expedition * The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881–1884 to Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic was led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, and was promoted by the United States Army Signal Corps. Its purpose was to establish a mete ...

US Army Signal Corps ) , colors = Orange and white , colors_label = Corps colors , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = ...

expedition led by

Adolphus Greely Adolphus Washington Greely (March 27, 1844 – October 20, 1935) was a United States Army officer and polar explorer. He attained the rank of Major general (United States), major general and was a recipient of the Medal of Honor. A native o ...

* 1882–1883: As part of the First

International Polar Year The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred i ...

the Danish Dijmphna expedition travels to the territory between Russia and the North Pole * 1883–1885: Umiak expedition, led by

Gustav Frederik Holm Gustav Frederik Holm (6 August 1849 – 13 March 1940) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer born in Copenhagen. Career He was made commander in the navy in 1899, was chief of the hydrographic bureau from 1899 to 1909, and became dire ...

and

Thomas Vilhelm Garde Thomas Vilhelm Garde (22 October 1859 – 24 June 1926) was a Danish naval officer, distinguished for his explorations in Greenland. Garde became a sub-lieutenant of the Danish Navy in 1880, rising to the rank of First lieutenant in 1881, capt ...

along the southeastern coast of Greenland in the shallow waters between the coast and the sea ice * 1883: Failed attempt by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld to cross Greenland from the west * 1886: Failed attempt by

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in Apri ...

to cross Greenland * 1888–1889: First successful crossing of the Greenland inland ice by the Norwegian expedition led by

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team t ...

(from east to west) * 1891–1892: The East Greenland expedition on the ''Hekla'' led by

Carl Ryder 200px, Schooner '' Fylla'' in Copenhagen harbour Carl Hartvig Ryder (12 September 1858 – 3 May 1923) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. Biography Carl Ryder was born in Copenhagen. He was the son of Frederik Valentiner Ryder (1821 ...

fails to get through the sea ice of east Greenland, but explores the

Scoresby Sound Scoresby Sound (Danish: ''Scoresby Sund'', Greenlandic: ''Kangertittivaq'') is a large fjord system of the Greenland Sea on the eastern coast of Greenland. It has a tree-like structure, with a main body approximately Peary expedition to Greenland led by Peary to discover if Greenland is an island or a peninsula * 1892: Björling–Kallstenius Expedition led by

Alfred Björling Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlu ...

was eventually wrecked on the

Carey Islands The Carey Islands ( da, Carey Øer; kl, Kitsissut) are an island group off Baffin Bay, in Avannaata municipality, northwest Greenland. Located relatively far offshore the Carey Islands are the westernmost point of Greenland as a territory. T ...

* 1893–1895: Third US Greenland expedition led by Peary * 1893–1896: Nansen's ''Fram'' expedition by Fridtjof Nansen and

Hjalmar Johansen Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen (15 May 1867 – 3 January 1913) was a Norwegian polar explorer. He participated on the first and third ''Fram'' expeditions. He shipped out with the Fridtjof Nansen expedition in 1893–1896, and accompanied Nansen to ...

on the and over ice towards the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

* 1894 Failed attempt by

Walter Wellman Walter E. Wellman (November 3, 1858 – January 31, 1934) was an American journalist, explorer, and aëronaut. Biographical background Walter Wellman was born in Mentor, Ohio, in 1858. He was the sixth son of Alonzo Wellman and the fourth by ...

to reach the North Pole from Svalbard * 1894–1897: Jackson–Harmsworth expedition, led by

Frederick George Jackson Frederick George Jackson (6 March 1860 – 13 March 1938) was an English Arctic explorer remembered for his expedition to Franz Josef Land, when he located the missing Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen. Biography Early life Jackson w ...

, explores Franz Josef Land hoping in vain to find more land polewards * 1895-1896:

Ingolf expedition HDMS ''Ingolf'' was a Danish schooner-rigged steam gunboat build in iron and launched in 1876. ''Ingolf'' marks a transition between the traditional gunships with muzzle-loading cannons placed along the sides of the ship and modern breechloading ...

, hydrographical and biological studies in the waters around

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

and

* 1897:

Salomon August Andrée Salomon August Andrée (18 October 1854, in Gränna, Småland – October 1897, in Kvitøya, Arctic Norway), during his lifetime most often known as S. A. Andrée, was a Swedish engineer, physicist, aeronaut and polar explorer who died while ...

leads a failed three man Arctic balloon expedition in an attempt to reach the Pole, Andrée along with

Knut Frænkel Knut Hjalmar Ferdinand Frænkel (14 February 1870 – c. 10 October 1897) was a Swedish engineer and arctic explorer who perished in the Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 of S. A. Andrée in 1897. Biography Frænkel was born in Karlstad, Swede ...

and

Nils Strindberg Nils Strindberg (4 September 1872 – October 1897) was a Swedish photographer and scientist. He was one of the three members of S. A. Andrée's ill-fated Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. Biography Nils Strindberg was born in Stockholm, Sw ...

die * 1898–1899: Failed attempt by

to reach the North Pole from Franz Josef Land * 1898–1902: Second ''Fram'' voyage by

Otto Sverdrup Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup (31 October 1854, in Bindal, Helgeland – 26 November 1930) was a Norwegian sailor and Arctic explorer. Early and personal life He was born in Bindal as a son of farmer Ulrik Frederik Suhm Sverdrup (1833–1914) ...

explores the North American Arctic around

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. ...

* 1898-1902: Peary's Sixth Expedition and first attempt at the North Pole * 1898–1900: The Carlsbergfund expedition to East Greenland led by

Georg Carl Amdrup Vice Admiral Sir Georg Carl Amdrup (Copenhagen, Denmark, November 19, 1866 – Copenhagen, January 15, 1947), RN was a Danish naval officer, Vice Admiral and Greenland researcher. Career In 1884, Amdrup, of the Royal Danish Navy, was sent to ...

explores the

Blosseville Coast The Blosseville Coast ( da, Blosseville Kyst) is a long stretch of coast in King Christian IX Land, eastern Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the Sermersooq Municipality. The Blosseville Coast is steep and difficult to access by ship owing ...

* 1899:

Alfred Gabriel Nathorst Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (7 November 1850 – 20 January 1921) was a Swedish Arctic explorer, geologist, and palaeobotanist. Life He was born in Väderbrunn in Sweden. Nathorst's interest in geology was awoken by Charles Lyell’s ‘’Prin ...

explores the fjords of northeast Greenland, in particular the

King Oscar Fjord King Oscar Fjord ( da, Kong Oscar Fjord) is a fjord in East Greenland, marking the northern border of the Scoresby Land Peninsula. It was named by A.G. Nathorst on his 1899 expedition as ''Konung Oscars Fjord'' for Oscar II, King of Sweden from 1 ...

system * 1898–1902: The

Swedish–Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition The Swedish–Russian Arc-of-Meridian expedition was a scientific expedition to Svalbard that took place from 1899 to 1902. The main purpose of the mission was to measure a meridian arc, in order to determine the earth flattening at the poles. Th ...

measures a

meridian arc In geodesy and navigation, a meridian arc is the curve between two points on the Earth's surface having the same longitude. The term may refer either to a segment of the meridian, or to its length. The purpose of measuring meridian arcs is to de ...

in Svalbard throughout five summer seasons and one winter season * 1899–1900: Italian North Pole expedition led by

Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, (29 January 1873 – 18 March 1933) was an Italian mountaineer and explorer, briefly Infante of Spain as son of Amadeo I of Spain, member of the royal House of Savoy and cousin of the Italian King V ...

on the renamed captained by

Umberto Cagni Umberto Cagni (24 February 1863 in Asti – 22 April 1932 in Genoa) was a polar explorer and an admiral in the Royal Italian Navy. He is best known for his leadership in a probe, by dogsled, northward over the surface of the Arctic Ocean in 1900 ...

20th century

Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen began ...
and the Heroic Age (1900–1925)

* 1898, 1899, 1906, 1907:

Albert I, Prince of Monaco Albert I (Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi; 13 November 1848 – 26 June 1922) was Prince of Monaco from 10 September 1889 until his death. He devoted much of his life to oceanography, exploration and science. Alongside his expeditions, Albert I ...

leads four Arctic expeditions with ''Princesse Alice'' * 1900–1903:

Russian polar expedition of 1900–1902 The Russian polar expedition of 1900–1902 was commissioned by the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences to study the Arctic Ocean north of New Siberian Islands and search for the legendary Sannikov Land. It was led by the Baltic German geologist ...

on-board is led by

Eduard Toll Eduard Gustav Freiherr von Toll (russian: Эдуа́рд Васи́льевич Толль, translit=Eduárd Vasíl'evič Toll'; 1902), better known in Russia as Eduard Vasilyevich Toll and often referred to as Baron von Toll, was a Russian ge ...

* 1901–1902:

Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Expedition The 1901-1902 Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Expedition was a failed attempt to reach the North Pole from Franz Josef Land. The expedition was led by meteorologist and financed by William Ziegler who had made a fortune with baking powder. Preparations Z ...

financed by US industrialist

William Ziegler William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, led by Evelyn Baldwin * 1902–1904: The Literary expedition led by

Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (15 January 1872 – 25 November 1907) was a Danish author, ethnologist, and explorer, from Ringkøbing. He was most notably an explorer of Greenland. Literary expedition With Count Harald Moltke and Knud Rasmussen Mylius-E ...

together with

Knud Rasmussen Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies ...

explores the northwest Greenland coast between

Uummannaq Uummannaq is a town in the Avannaata municipality, in central-western Greenland. With 1,407 inhabitants in 2020, it is the eighth-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal. Founded in 1763 as Omenak, ...

and

Thule Thule ( grc-gre, Θούλη, Thoúlē; la, Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin literature, Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shet ...

* 1903–1906: Roald Amundsen's ''Gjøa'' expedition – first

traversal * 1903–1905:

Ziegler Polar Expedition The Ziegler polar expedition of 1903–1905, also known as the Fiala expedition, was a failed attempt to reach the North Pole. The expedition party remained stranded north of the Arctic Circle for two years before being rescued, yet all but one o ...

overland, led by

Anthony Fiala Anthony Fiala (September 19, 1869 – April 8, 1950) was an American explorer, born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Jersey City, New Jersey, and educated at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, New York City. In early life he was engaged ...

* 1905–1906: North Pole expedition led by

, from

* 1906–1908: The

Danmark Expedition The Denmark expedition ( da, Danmark-ekspeditionen), also known as the Denmark Expedition to Greenland's Northeast Coast, and as the Danmark Expedition after the ship, was an expedition to the northeast of Greenland in 1906–1908. Despite being ...

led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, mapped the last unknown areas of Northeast Greenland, but ended fatally for the main exploring team * 1906, 1907, 1909: The airship and

* 1906–1908: Anglo-American Polar expedition (

Ejnar Mikkelsen Ejnar Mikkelsen (December 23, 1880 – May 1, 1971) was a Danish polar explorer and author. He is most known for his expeditions to Greenland. Biography Mikkelsen was born in Vester Brønderslev, Jutland. He served in the Georg Carl Amdrup ex ...

–

Ernest de Koven Leffingwell Ernest de Koven Leffingwell (January 13, 1875January 27, 1971) was an arctic explorer, geologist and Spanish–American War veteran. During the period from 1906 to 1914, Leffingwell spent nine summers and six winters on the Arctic coast of Alaska ...

expedition) * 1907:

Johan Peter Koch Johan Peter Koch (15 January 1870 – 13 January 1928) was a Danish captain and explorer of the Arctic dependencies of Denmark, born at Vestenskov. He was the uncle of the geologist Lauge Koch Career J.P. Koch participated in Amdrup's expeditio ...

and

Aage Bertelsen Aage Bertelsen (28 September 1873 – 9 September 1945) was a Danish painter. He was a member of the Denmark Expedition to North-East Greenland. He has also worked for Kähler Keramik in Næstved. Biography Early life and career Aage Bertels ...

report seeing

Fata Morgana Land Fata Morgana Land ( da, Fata Morgana Landet) is a phantom island first sighted in the Arctic, off the north-eastern coast of Greenland in 1907 by J.P. Koch and Aage Bertelsen. It has been reported between Greenland and Svalbard, at the northern ...

, a

phantom island A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigati ...

off the coast of northeast Greenland * 1907–1909: US North Pole expedition led by

Frederick Cook Frederick Albert Cook (June 10, 1865 – August 5, 1940) was an American explorer, physician, and ethnographer who claimed to have reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. That was nearly a year before Robert Peary, who similarly claime ...

claims to be the first to reach the pole * 1908–1909: expedition led by

also claims reaching the North Pole first * 1909–1912: The Alabama expedition to northeast Greenland led by

in an operation to recover bodies and logs of the ill-fated Danmark expedition * 1910–1915: Russian

Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition (GESLO) (1910–1915) was a scientific expedition organized by Russia for the purpose of the development of the Northern Sea Route. This expedition accomplished its goal of exploring the uncharted areas ...

in and * 1912: First Thule expedition – Knud Rasmussen and

Peter Freuchen Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen (20 February 1886 – 2 September 1957) was a Danish explorer, author, journalist and anthropologist. He is notable for his role in Arctic exploration, namely the Thule Expeditions. Personal life Freuchen was b ...

explores North Greenland and establishes that

Peary Land Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the north ...

is not an island * 1912: Swiss expedition led by

Alfred de Quervain Alfred de Quervain (15 June 1879 – 13 January 1927) was a Swiss Arctic explorer and geophysicist. Biography De Quervain was born in Uebeschi in the Swiss district of Thun. After completing his schooling in Bern, he studied geophysics and ...

crosses Greenland by dog-sled * 1912–1913: Johan Peter Koch and

Alfred Wegener Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and a ...

cross the inland ice in north Greenland * 1912–1914: Brusilov Expedition, ill-fated expedition led by Captain

Georgy Brusilov Georgy Lvovich Brusilov (russian: Гео́ргий Льво́вич Бруси́лов; May 19, 1884 – disappeared in 1914) was a Russian naval officer of the Imperial Russian Navy and an Arctic explorer. His father, Lev Brusilov, was also a na ...

* 1912–1914: Russian expedition aboard ''Foka'', led by

Georgy Sedov Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov (russian: Гео́ргий Я́ковлевич Седо́в; – ) was a Russian Arctic explorer. Born in the village of Krivaya Kosa of Taganrog district (now Novoazovskyi Raion, Donetsk Oblast) in a fisherman's fami ...

* 1913:

Crocker Land Expedition The Crocker Land Expedition took place in 1913. Its purpose was to investigate the existence of Crocker Land, a huge island supposedly sighted by the explorer Robert Peary from the top of Cape Colgate in 1906. It is now believed that Peary fraud ...

to search for Crocker Island, a hoax reported by Robert Peary * 1913–1918:

Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

led by

Vilhjalmur Stefansson Vilhjalmur Stefansson (November 3, 1879 – August 26, 1962) was an Arctic explorer and ethnologist. He was born in Manitoba, Canada. Early life Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Arnes, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had ...

, initially in which was lost in 1913 and explored land that was unknown to the Inuit * 1916–1918: Second Thule expedition – Knud Rasmussen and

Lauge Koch Lauge Koch (5 July 1892 – 5 June 1964) was a Danish geologist and Arctic explorer. Biography Lauge Koch was born in 1892 to Karl and Elisabeth Koch. His development as a scientist was greatly influenced by his father's second cousin Johan Pet ...

explore North Greenland * 1918–1925:

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...

traversed the

with * 1919: Third Thule expedition – Knud Rasmussen explores north Greenland and lays out depots for

's polar drift in ''Maud'' * 1919–1920: Fourth Thule expedition – Knud Rasmussen explores east Greenland * 1921–1923: Bicentenary Jubilee expedition led by Lauge Koch explores north Greenland * 1921–1923:

Wrangel Island Wrangel Island ( rus, О́стров Вра́нгеля, r=Ostrov Vrangelya, p=ˈostrəf ˈvrangʲɪlʲə; ckt, Умӄиԓир, translit=Umqiḷir) is an island of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is the 91st largest island in the w ...

Expedition – a land claim and colonisation attempt conceived, but not led by

– all members died apart from

Iñupiat The Iñupiat (or Inupiat, Iñupiaq or Inupiaq;) are a group of Alaska Natives, whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current ...

seamstress and cook

Ada Blackjack Ada Blackjack (''née'' Delutuk; May 10, 1898 – May 29, 1983) was an Iñupiat woman who lived for two years as a castaway on the uninhabited Wrangel Island, north of Siberia. Background Ada Blackjack Johnson was born in the remote settlemen ...

* 1921–1924: Fifth Thule expedition led by Knud Rasmussen crossed the

on dog sledges from Thule across

Arctic Canada Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and ...

Nome, Alaska Nome (; ik, Sitŋasuaq, ) is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska, United States. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. It had a population of 3,699 recorded ...

demonstrates how

Inuit culture The Inuit are an indigenous people of the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America (parts of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland). The ancestors of the present-day Inuit are culturally related to Iñupiat (northern Alaska), and Yupik (Siberia and ...

could spread rapidly * 1924: Oxford University Arctic Expedition led by

George Binney Sir (Frederick) George Binney ( DSO) (23 September 1900, Epsom, Surrey–1972 JerseyObituary: S ...

, used a

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

to assist in the first traverse of

Byrd Byrd commonly refers to: * William Byrd (c. 1540 – 1623), an English composer of the Renaissance * Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957), an American naval officer and explorer Byrd or Byrds may also refer to: Other people * Byrd (surname), includin ...
and the Aircraft Age (1925–1958)

* 1925:

Flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

expedition led by Roald Amundsen and

Lincoln Ellsworth Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva F ...

* 1926: Aircraft flight by

Richard E. Byrd Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer and explorer. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, p ...

and

Floyd Bennett Floyd Bennett (October 25, 1890 – April 25, 1928) was a United States Naval Aviator, along with then USN Commander Richard E. Byrd, to have made the first flight to the North Pole in May 1926. However, their claim to have reached the pole is di ...

* 1926: The airship (Roald Amundsen,

Umberto Nobile Umberto Nobile (; 21 January 1885 – 30 July 1978) was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships in the years between the two World Wars. He is primarily remembe ...

and Lincoln Ellsworth) * 1928:

Carl Ben Eielson Carl Benjamin "Ben" Eielson (July 20, 1897 – November 9, 1929) was an American aviator, bush pilot and explorer. Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska is named in his honor. In 1997 Carl Ben Eielson was inducted into the North Dakota Aviation Ha ...

–

Hubert Wilkins Sir George Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar (31 October 188830 November 1958), commonly referred to as Captain Wilkins, was an Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer. He was awarded the Military Cross afte ...

Arctic Ocean crossing * 1928: The airship (Umberto Nobile); airship crashed, but Nobile was rescued * 1928:

disappears in the Arctic aboard a

Latham 47 __NOTOC__ The Latham 47, or Latham R3B4 in Naval service was a French twin-engine flying boat designed and built by Société Latham & Cie for the French Navy. The aircraft achieved notoriety in 1928 when aircraft number 47.02 disappeared with t ...

while searching for Nobile * 1928:

Marion Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) *Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" *Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Mari ...

expedition to

and

* 1930–1931:

's German Expedition to Greenland that led to his death on the Greenland ice sheet, halfway between

Eismitte Eismitte, in English also called Mid-Ice, was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931, and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener. The name "Eismitte" m ...

and West Camp * 1930:

Bratvaag Expedition The ''Bratvaag'' Expedition was a Norwegian expedition in 1930 led by Dr. Gunnar Horn, whose official tasks were hunting seals and to study glaciers and seas in the Svalbard Arctic region. The name of the expedition was taken from its ship, M/S ...

, led by

Gunnar Horn Gunnar Hansen Horn (25 June 1894 – 15 July 1946) was a Norwegian petroleum geologist and Arctic explorer. He is most renowned as the leader of the Bratvaag Expedition that found the long-lost remains of S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition o ...

, found long lost remains of

's expedition * 1930–1931:

British Arctic Air Route Expedition The British Arctic Air Route Expedition (BAARE) was a privately funded expedition to the east coast and interior of the island of Greenland from 1930 to 1931. Led by Gino Watkins, it aimed to improve maps and charts of poorly surveyed sections of ...

was an expedition, led by

Gino Watkins Henry George "Gino" Watkins FRGS (29 January 1907 – c. 20 August 1932) was a British Arctic explorer and nephew of Bolton Eyres-Monsell, 1st Viscount Monsell. Biography Born in London, he was educated at Lancing College and acquired a lo ...

, that aimed to draw improved maps and charts of poorly surveyed sections of Greenland's coastline * 1931: Successful research trip by airship ''Graf Zeppelin'' led by

Hugo Eckener Hugo Eckener (10 August 1868 – 14 August 1954) SchwensenThomas Adam. p. 289 ostsee.de was the manager of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin during the inter-war years, and also the commander of the famous '' Graf Zeppelin'' for most of its record-sett ...

* 1931: Sir

with submarine (failed south of the pole) * 1931: Sixth Thule expedition led by Knud Rasmussen explores northeast Greenland * 1931:

Arne Høygaard Arne Høygaard (15 January 1906 – 16 December 1981) was a Norwegian physician and Arctic explorer. Biography Høygaard was born in Lillesand. After completing school in 1924, he went to sea for one year. In 1925, he commenced his medical st ...

and

Martin Mehren Martin Mehren (8 August 1905 – 2 October 2002) was a Norwegian businessperson and sportsperson. He was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of merchant Herman Mehren (1875-1941) and Agnethe Ingberg (1882-1937), and was an un ...

cross Greenland by dog-sled * 1931–1934: The

three-year expedition to East Greenland The Three-year Expedition ( da, Treårsekspeditionen) was an exploratory expedition to East Greenland that lasted from 1931 to 1934 financed by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish state. The expedition included aerial surveys. Many geographi ...

led by Lauge Koch explores northeast Greenland * 1932: Icebreaker makes the successful crossing of the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (russian: Се́верный морско́й путь, ''Severnyy morskoy put'', shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of Nov ...

in a single navigation without wintering * 1932–1933: East Greenland expedition, also known as the Pan Am expedition, a four-man expedition to continue the work of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition * 1933: Russian steamship managed to get through most of the Northern Route before it was caught in the ice in September * 1934: British Trans-Greenland Expedition led by Martin Lindsay * 1935:

Ushakov Island Ushakov Island (russian: Остров Ушакова, ''Ostrov Ushakova'') is an isolated island located in the Arctic Ocean, Russian Federation. The average yearly precipitation ranges from at a height of and between and around the highest po ...

, the last piece of undiscovered territory in the Soviet Arctic, was found by

Georgy Ushakov Georgy Alexeyevich Ushakov (russian: Георгий Алексеевич Ушаков) (17 (30) January 1901 – 3 December 1963) was a Soviet explorer of the Arctic. Ushakov broke new ground when he surveyed and explored Severnaya Zemlya, togeth ...

aboard the * 1935: French expedition led by

Paul-Émile Victor Paul-Émile Victor (born Paul Eugène Victor; 28 June 1907 – 7 March 1995) was a French ethnologist and explorer. Victor was born in Geneva, Switzerland to French Jewish parents of Bohemian and Polish descent. He graduated from École Central ...

crosses Greenland by dog-sled * 1937: Soviet aircraft

Tupolev ANT-25 The Tupolev ANT-25 was a Soviet long-range experimental aircraft which was also tried as a bomber. First constructed in 1933, it was used by the Soviet Union for a number of record-breaking flights. Development The ANT-25 was designed as the ...

made several transpolar flights * 1937: Soviet and Russian manned

drifting ice station A drifting ice station is a temporary or semi-permanent facility built on an ice floe. During the Cold War the Soviet Union and the United States maintained a number of stations in the Arctic Ocean on floes such as Fletcher's Ice Island for rese ...

s are, as of 2017, 41 scientific

drift station A drifting ice station is a temporary or semi-permanent facility built on an ice floe. During the Cold War the Soviet Union and the United States maintained a number of stations in the Arctic Ocean on floes such as Fletcher's Ice Island for resea ...

s operating or were operating on

drift ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "fasten ...

* 1937–1938:

MacGregor Arctic Expedition The MacGregor Arctic Expedition was a privately funded expedition which set out to reoccupy Fort Conger, Ellesmere Island, Canada, a site within flying distance of the North Pole. The expedition, which took place from July 1, 1937, to October 3, 19 ...

was led by Clifford J. MacGregor and overwintered at

Etah, Greenland Etah is an abandoned settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. It was a starting point of discovery expeditions to the North Pole and the landing site of the last migration of the Inuit from the Canadian Arctic. Geography ...

* 1938–1939:

Mørkefjord expedition Mørkefjord, meaning in Danish "The dark fjord," is a fjord in King Frederick VIII Land, northeastern Greenland. History Mørkefjord was named by the 1906-1908 Denmark expedition, which established a second weather station at Mørkefjord, in order ...

was an exploratory expedition to northeast Greenland led by

Eigil Knuth Count Eigil Knuth (8 August 1903 – 12 March 1996) was a Danish explorer, archaeologist, sculptor and writer. He is referred to as the Nestor ("elder statesman") of Danish polar explorers. His archaeological investigations were made in Pea ...

* 1946:

Operation Nanook Operation Nanook (OP NANOOK; french: Opération Nanook) is an annual sovereignty operation and manoeuvre warfare exercise conducted by the Canadian Armed Forces in the Arctic. Sovereignty patrols in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and northern C ...

was a US cartographic mission to Thule and to erect a radio and weather station * 1948: Russian scientific expedition led by Aleksandr Kuznetsov lands an aircraft at Pole * 1952–1954: British North Greenland expedition was a British scientific mission, led by Commander James Simpson

Era of Satellites, Submarines and Icebreakers (1958–onward)

* 1958:

USS Nautilus (SSN-571) USS ''Nautilus'' (SSN-571) was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958. Her initial commanding officer was Eugene "Dennis" Wilkinson, a ...

crosses the Arctic Ocean from the Pacific to the Atlantic beneath the polar sea ice, reaching the North Pole on 3 August 1958 * 1959:

Discoverer 1 Discoverer 1 was the first of a series of satellites which were part of the CORONA reconnaissance satellite program. It was launched on a Thor-Agena A rocket on 28 February 1959 at 21:49:16 GMT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It ...

, a prototype with no camera, is the first satellite in

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

* 1959:

USS Skate (SSN-578) USS ''Skate'' (SSN-578), the third submarine of the United States Navy named for the skate, a type of ray, was the lead ship of the of nuclear submarines. She was the third nuclear submarine commissioned, the first to make a completely submer ...

becomes first submarine to surface at the North Pole on 17 March 1959 * 1960:

TIROS-1 TIROS-1 (or TIROS-A) was the first full-scale weather satellite (the Vanguard 2 satellite was the first experimental/prototype weather satellite), the first of a series of Television Infrared Observation Satellites placed in low Earth orbit. Pr ...

, is the first

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asynchronously), or ge ...

in polar orbit; eventually returned 22,952 cloud cover photos * 1968:

Ralph Plaisted Ralph Summers Plaisted (September 30, 1927 – September 8, 2008) was an American explorer who, with his three companions, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, are regarded by most polar authorities to be the first to succeed in a s ...

and three others reach the North Pole by

snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

and are the first confirmed overland conquest of the Pole * 1968–1969:

Wally Herbert Sir Walter William Herbert (24 October 1934 – 12 June 2007) was a British polar explorer, writer and artist. In 1969 he became the first man fully recognized for walking to the North Pole, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's disputed exp ...

, British explorer, reaches Pole on foot and traverses the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

* 1971: Former football player Tony Dauksza becomes the first person to traverse the Northwest Passage in a canoe * 1977: , nuclear-powered icebreaker, reaches the North Pole * 1979–1982:

Kenichi Horie is a Japanese solo yachtsman. In 1962 he became the first person to sail solo and non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. He has made other significant solo voyages, usually involving boats exhibiting some sort of environmentally friendly theme, includ ...

in ''Mermaid'', was the first person to sail the Northwest Passage solo * 1982: As part of the

Transglobe Expedition The Transglobe Expedition (1979–1982) was the first expedition to make a longitudinal (north–south) circumnavigation of the Earth using only surface transport. British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes led a team, including Oliver Shepard and Char ...

Sir

Ranulph Fiennes Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet (born 7 March 1944), commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes () and sometimes as Ran Fiennes, is a British explorer, writer and poet, who holds several endurance records. Fiennes served in the ...

and

Charles R. Burton Charles Robert Burton (13 December 1942 – 15 July 2002) known as Charlie Burton was an English explorer, best known for his part in the Transglobe Expedition, the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe from pole to pole. Serving as cook, ...

cross the Arctic Ocean in a single season * 1986:

Will Steger Will Steger (born August 27, 1944 in Richfield, Minnesota) is a prominent spokesperson for the understanding and preservation of the Arctic and has led some of the most significant feats in the field of dogsled expeditions; such as the first confi ...

and party reach the north pole by

dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and the e ...

without resupply * 1986–1989:

David Scott Cowper David Scott Cowper is a British yachtsman, and was the first man to sail solo round the world in both directions and was also the first to successfully sail around the world via the Northwest Passage single-handed. Biography Born in 1942, Dav ...

became the first person to have completed the Northwest Passage single-handed as part of a circumnavigation of the world * 1988: Will Steger completes first south–north traverse of Greenland * 1988: Soviet–Canadian 1988 Polar Bridge Expedition a group of thirteen Russian and Canadian skiers set out from Siberia skiing to Canada over the North Pole aided by satellites. * 1991-1992:

Lonnie Dupre Lonnie Dupre (born 17 April 1961) is an American Arctic explorer whose achievements include the first Pacific to Atlantic winter traversal of the Northwest Passage by dog sled in 1991 and the first and only human-powered circumnavigation of Green ...

completes first west to east winter crossing of arctic Canada traveling by dog team from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska via the northwest passage before turning south ending in Churchill, Manitoba. The 3000-mile journey started in October and ended in April. * 1992: Crossing of the Greenland inland ice from east to west by a Japanese expedition led by Kenji Yoshikawa * 1993–1994: Pam Flowers dog sledded alone from

Barrow, Alaska Utqiagvik ( ik, Utqiaġvik; , , formerly known as Barrow ()) is the borough seat and largest city of the North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located north of the Arctic Circle, it is one of the northernmost cities and towns in the ...

, to Repulse Bay (Naujaat), Canada * 1994: Shane Lundgren led expedition that began in Moscow and proceeded north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

across Siberia to

Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a port town and the administrative center of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Sea of Okhotsk in Nagayev Bay (within Taui Bay) and serving as a gateway to the Kolyma region. History Maga ...

* 1995: Marek Kamiński unsupported walked to the North Pole on 23 May 1995 (27 December 1995, he reached the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

alone)

21st century

Fiann_Paul_and_Alex_Gregory_aboard_Polar_Row

* 2000: Ukrainian parachute expedition to the North Pole * 2001:

with teammate John Holescher complete the first circumnavigation of Greenland, a 6,500 mile, all non-motorized journey by kayak and dog team. * 2002: Jean Lemire and the crew of the successfully navigate the

on a three-mast

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, sailing from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in five months while filming '' La grande traversée'' and four other documentaries about the effects of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

on the Canadian

Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). Situated in the northern extremity of No ...

(at the time, only the seventh sailboat in history to make the legendary Northwest Passage from east to west) * 2003:

Pen Hadow Rupert Nigel Pendrill Hadow known as Pen Hadow (British, born 26 February 1962), is an Arctic region explorer, advocate, adventurer and guide. He is the only person to have trekked solo, and without resupply by third parties, from Canada to the ...

makes solo trek from Canada to North Pole without resupply * 2004: Together to the Pole – a Polish four-man expedition led by Marek Kamiński, with

Jan Mela Jan "Jasiek" Mela (born December 30, 1988, in Gdańsk) is a Polish explorer who, as a teenage double amputee, was the youngest person to reach the North Pole in 2004, and eight months later the South Pole. He created thFoundation "Poza horyzonty" ...

(a teenage double

amputee Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indiv ...

, who in the same year reached also the

) * 2004: Five members of the Ice Warrior Squad reach the

Geomagnetic North Pole The geomagnetic poles are antipodal points where the axis of a best-fitting dipole intersects the surface of Earth. This ''theoretical'' dipole is equivalent to a powerful bar magnet at the center of Earth, and comes closer than any other poin ...

, including the first two women in history to do so. * 2006: Start of the French ''Tara'' expedition * 2006: The first successful summer-type expedition to the North Pole.

and teammate Eric Larsen departed Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island and arrived at the North Pole on July 2, after 62 days on the ice. * 2007:

Arktika 2007 Arktika 2007 (russian: Российская полярная экспедиция "Арктика-2007") was a 2007 expedition in which Russia performed the first ever crewed descent to the ocean bottom at the North Pole, as part of research rela ...

, Russian submersible descends to the ocean floor below the North Pole from the * 2007: Top Gear: Polar Special, BBC's Top Gear team are the first to reach the

magnetic North Pole The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed t ...

in a car * 2007: The

Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) uses Mars analog sites on Svalbard for testing of science questions and payload instruments onboard Mars missions. AMASE has arranged annual expeditions on Svalbard since 2003 and is run by Vestfonna ...

uses Mars analog sites on Svalbard for testing of science questions and payload instruments onboard Mars missions * 2008:

Alex Hibbert Alexander Piers William Hibbert (born 19 April 1986) is a British polar expedition leader, public speaker, author and photographer. He lives in London. Family and education Hibbert was born in Southsea, England, the second son of Commodore Ric ...

and George Bullard complete the Tiso Trans Greenland expedition. The longest fully unsupported land Arctic journey in history at * 2009: David Scott Cowper becomes the only person to have sailed the Northwest Passage solo in a single season * 2009: First guided expedition from Ellesmere Island, Canada to the North Pole.

and team members Stuart Smith and Max Chaya departed Cape Discovery on March 4th. The temperature was -55F. They arrived at the Pole on April 25th after 53 days on the ice. * 2011:

MLAE-2011 MLAE-2011 was a two vehicle expedition with a crew of seven following a route from Dudinka (Russia) via the North Pole to Resolute Bay (Canada). The expedition was organized by the Russian Center For Arctic Exploration and carried out under the p ...

led by Vasily Igorevich Yelagin travelled from

Dudinka Dudinka (russian: Дуди́нка; Nenets: Тут'ын, ''Tutꜧyn'') is a town on the Yenisei River and the administrative center of Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It used to be the administrative center of Tay ...

, Russia – North Pole –

Resolute, Nunavut Resolute or Resolute Bay ( iu, ᖃᐅᓱᐃᑦᑐᖅ, translit=Qausuittuq, lit=place with no dawn, italic=no) is an Inuit hamlet on Cornwallis Island in Nunavut, Canada. It is situated at the northern end of Resolute Bay and the Northwest Pa ...

, Canada * 2011:

Edna Elias Edna Agnes Ekhivalak Elias (born c. 1955) is a Canadian politician from Kugluktuk, Nunavut. On 12 May 2010 she was appointed as the fourth commissioner of Nunavut by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Her term ended on 11 May 2015. Elias, who was in ...

, at the time

Commissioner of Nunavut The commissioner of Nunavut ( iu, ᑲᒥᓯᓇ ᓄᓇᕗᒧᑦ; Inuinnaqtun: ''Kamisinauyuq Nunavunmut''; french: Commissaire du Nunavut) is the Government of Canada's representative in the territory of Nunavut. The current commissioner since Janu ...

and five other women, including the mayor of

Cambridge Bay Cambridge Bay (Inuinnaqtun: ''Iqaluktuuttiaq'' Inuktitut: ᐃᖃᓗᒃᑑᑦᑎᐊᖅ; 2021 population 1,760; population centre 1,403) is a hamlet located on Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is the largest settl ...

walked from

Umingmaktok Umingmaktok (Inuinnaqtun: ''Umingmaktuuq'', "he or she caught a muskox") is a now abandoned settlement located in Bathurst Inlet in the Kitikmeot of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The community was previously known as Bay Chimo and the Inui ...

(Bay Chimo) to Cambridge Bay * 2011:

Old Pulteney Row To The Pole Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

, a publicity stunt sponsored by Old Pulteney whisky, organised by

Jock Wishart Jock Wishart is a maritime and polar adventurer, sportsman and explorer. Until his successful 2011 Old Pulteney Row to the Pole, he was best known for his circumnavigation of the globe in a powered vessel, setting a new world record in the Cable ...

who also operated the

Polar Race The Polar Race was a biennial race from Resolute on Resolute Bay, Nunavut in northern Canada to the North Magnetic Pole. Teams of two, three or four walk/ski pulling their food and equipment on sleds. Although not unsupported, there were strict ...

* 2013: ''Babouchka'', a combination

ice boat An iceboat (occasionally spelled ice boat or traditionally called an ice yacht) is a recreational or competition sailing craft supported on metal runners for traveling over ice. One of the runners is steerable. Originally, such craft were boats ...

and sailing catamaran set out for the Pole. It was halted by ice. The two-man crew was rescued by a Russian icebreaker. * 2015: Interdisciplinary Arctic Expedition "Kartesh" – complex arctic expedition, organized by the Polar Expedition Gallery project (later rebranded as Polar Expedition "Kartesh") in collaboration with the LMSU Marine Research Center. Research tasks: assessing the Arctic coastline vulnerability towards human impact; marine and coastal ecosystem and Arctic seas landform condition monitoring; West Arctic biodiversity research; oil oxidizing microorganism activity research; testing new methods of water areas remote sensing. * 2017: Arctic Mission of two 15m sailboats led by

made it to 80° 10' N, sailing from and returning to Nome, Alaska. * 2017: Polar Row, led by

Fiann Paul Fiann Paul (born 15 August 1980) is an Icelandic explorer, athlete, artist, speaker and Analytical psychology, Jungian psychoanalyst. He is the world's most record-breaking Exploration, explorer, and holds the world's highest number of performanc ...

, is the world's most record-breaking expedition (14

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

). The team covered 1440 miles measured in a straight line in the

open waters in a row boat and pioneered

ocean rowing Ocean rowing is the sport of rowing across oceans. Some ocean rowing boats can hold as many as fourteen rowers; however, the most common ocean rowboats are designed for singles, doubles, and fours. The history of ocean rowing is divided into two ...

routes from

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

to Longyearbyen, from

Longyearbyen Longyearbyen (, locally �lɔ̀ŋjɑrˌbyːən "The Longyear Town") is the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway. It stretches along the foot of the left bank ...

to Arctic Ice Pack (79º55'500 N) and from the

Arctic ice pack The Arctic ice pack is the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum around mid-September, then increases during fall a ...

. * 2018: All-woman EuroArabian expedition, led by

Felicity Aston Felicity Ann Dawn Aston (born 7 October 1977) is a British explorer, author and former climate scientist. Early life and career Originally from Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, Aston went to Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls and was educated at U ...

, included

Asma Al Thani Sheikha Asma Al Thani () is a Qatari mountaineer who is the first Qatari woman to summit Mount Everest, Mount Lhotse, and Manaslu, K2 as well as the first Qatari female to climb Ama Dablam. She is also the first Qatari person to ski to the Nor ...

the first Qatari woman to reach the North Pole on 21 April 2018. * 2019:

MOSAiC Expedition The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC, ) expedition was a one-year-long expedition into the Central Arctic (September 2019 - October 2020). For the first time a modern research icebreaker was able to ope ...

under the direction of the

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (German: ''Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung'') is located in Bremerhaven, Germany, and a member of the Helmholtz Association o ...

with 300 scientists from 20 nations on board the German ice-breaker ''Polarstern'' to collect data about the ocean, the ice, the atmosphere and life in the Arctic in order to understand climate change

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arctic expeditions

Expeditions Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Lists of expeditions

15th century

16th century

17th century

18th century

19th century

Early Period (1800–1818)

Search for Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ... (1846–1857)

Nordenskiöld Period (1857–1879)

Race for the Pole (1879–1900)

20th century

Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen began ... and the Heroic Age (1900–1925)

Byrd Byrd commonly refers to: * William Byrd (c. 1540 – 1623), an English composer of the Renaissance * Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957), an American naval officer and explorer Byrd or Byrds may also refer to: Other people * Byrd (surname), includin ... and the Aircraft Age (1925–1958)

Era of Satellites, Submarines and Icebreakers (1958–onward)

21st century

See also

Footnotes

Search for
Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
(1846–1857)

Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen began ...
and the Heroic Age (1900–1925)

Byrd Byrd commonly refers to: * William Byrd (c. 1540 – 1623), an English composer of the Renaissance * Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957), an American naval officer and explorer Byrd or Byrds may also refer to: Other people * Byrd (surname), includin ...
and the Aircraft Age (1925–1958)