Kathy Bird, age 10, of Marcus, Ia., for her question:

Does the North Pole have any land?

On April 7, 1909, Robert Peary became the first explorer to reach the North Pole, and he stood there under the Arctic skies. However, he did not stand on solid ground. The nearest solid ground was the floor of the Arctic Ocean, which was about two miles beneath his feet. Peary stood on a thick crust of floating ice. The South Pole is on land, and the land of Antarctica is covered by an ice Sheet more than a mile thick. The North Pole is almost in the center of the chilly Arctic Ocean and far from any islands or continents. There is no dry land near the North Pole.