What Time Zones Are Used at the Earth's Poles?

Kathleen Villaluz

Jetlags are often the most despised consequence of traveling as it keeps your eyes peeled when the world around is already in deep slumber and dazzles you with drowsiness when you're meant to be actively awake. But what if time doesn't exist? How would your body clock adjust if you arrive at a destination where time is an illogical dimension? Well, such a place exist right at the two poles of our planet Earth where no official time zones exist.

This video tackles the reason why and how the Earth got its various time zones. Long before the world was divided into specific times like CET (Central European Time), GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), and many other time abbreviations, it was the sun's position that dictated a location's time. And because people didn't travel far from home back then, the bountiful expression of time, in thousands, didn't really matter. However, once our civilization began to explore our planet and traveled far and more frequently, the need for a universal or standardized format of time was highly called for. Hence, the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) that we all know today has become the standard format of time-telling.

So, what format of time does the North and Sout Poles follow? Nothing, there are no official time zones at the Earth's poles, which probably doesn't come as a surprise as those locations aren't included in the time division of the globe. However, if you happen to find yourself lost on one of the poles, you can adjust your watch to match the last known point of civilization. For example, America's research center, McMurdo Station, on Antarctica follows the time zone of Christchurch, New Zealand as it is the last city travelers pass through when heading or leaving the station. Other stations based on one of the two poles use their home country's time zone. There you have it, a place where you can play around with time and not worry about the repercussions.