QUESTION:   
What is the difference between the geographic South pole, the 
geomagnetic South Pole, and the magnetic South pole? 

        From Alex, Meghan, and Mrs. Young's Class
             Lake Forest, California
         

ANSWER from Deane Rink, PTK Field Producer, Palmer Station
            Antarctica,  Tue, 11 Feb 1997 19:08:07 -0500

Dear Alex and Meghan and Mrs. Young's students, 

You've asked a deceptively tough question, but here's the best answer 
I can give.  The geographic South Pole is, by definition, the 
southern axis of the earth's rotation, directly opposite the 
geographic North Pole.  It is known as 90 degrees South, the highest 
latitude that there can be.  The ice overlying this pole moves 
approximately ten meters, or thirty feet, each year, necessitating a 
re-calculation of its position by the U. S. Geological Survey every 
summer season.

The magnetic South Pole is that point where a magnetized compass will 
point if deployed in the Southern Hemisphere.  This pole moves, or 
wanders, and now sits off the coast of Adelie Land; it has moved over 
500 miles since its first discovery in 1909 by the Australian Douglas 
Mawson and his party.  

The geomagnetic South Pole is the theoretical pole of the earth's 
magnetic field.  If you could look at earth from a far enough 
distance, and envision the magnetic field caused by its molten iron 
core, that magnetic field would resemble the pattern that iron 
filings will make around a magnet.  The two dipoles in that pattern 
would be the geomagnetic North and South Poles of that magnet; 
similarly for the planet.

The intricacies of the earth's magnetic field are still poorly 
understood.  Why the earth's magnetic and geomagnetic poles are not 
one in the same is a question about which Ph.D.s in geomagnetism 
don't agree, so I won't make a fool of myself here and try to answer 
it in some glib manner.

By the way, there is a fourth pole, the Pole of Relative 
Inaccessibility, defined as the point most remote from all coasts of 
Antarctica.  This point stands at 82 degrees, 6' South, 54 degrees, 
58' East, on the East Antarctic polar plateau.

Deane Rink
LfA-2 Field Producer