But a report last year that an expedition had found open water at the North Pole was dismissed as largely meaningless by critics who said it happened every year.

BBC: Ice surprise for sailor

The pole pierces the water film, the muscle balls in the boatman's arm, the veins swell .

NPR: Ronan Bennett: From Prisoner to Writer

There was a composting toilet in the adjoining bathroom and a showerhead roped to a pole hot water available on request.

WSJ: Finding Stillness in a Roving Moroccan Retreat

This dip in the neutron count showed vast amounts of hydrogen in specific places at the planet's pole, consistent with deposits of water.

BBC: Mercury's water ice at north pole finally proven

Bloom, 25, worked with a heavy metal pole to break ice blocks into the frozen water.

WSJ: NY inmates help build ice palace in Adirondacks

Further differentiating itself from our world's whirlwinds, this alien cyclone is locked to its planet's north pole and is fueled by small amounts of water vapor instead of an actual ocean.

ENGADGET

It has also been tried (albeit that the water in question was frozen) by putting detectors down a hole at the South Pole.

ECONOMIST: Neutrino astronomy

After a month of fly-bys over the south pole, Lunar Prospector should be able to confirm the presence or absence of water once and for all.

ECONOMIST: Divining water

Scientists may not be able to explain the "boiler" at the south pole but they are already talking up the possibility that conditions there could allow for liquid water below the surface - with all the implications that might have.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Saturn moon delights and baffles