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McMurdo Station from Observation Hill.

McMurdo Station is the largest community in Antarctica and a science research center operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. Located at 77°50′S 166°40′E, McMurdo sits on the southern tip of Ross Island in Antarctica, on the shore of McMurdo Sound, 2,200 miles (3,500 km) due south of New Zealand. The station is America's largest, and serves both as their Antarctic research facility, and the logistics base for half the continent. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

The station owes its designation to nearby McMurdo Sound, named for Lieutenant Archibald McMurdo of HMS Terror, which first charted the area in 1841 under the command of British explorer James Clark Ross. British explorer Robert Falcon Scott first established a base close to this spot in 1902 and built Discovery Hut, still standing adjacent to the harbour at Hut Point. The volcanic rock of the site is the southern-most bare ground accessible by ship in the Antarctic ("Facts About the United States Antarctic Program"). The United States officially opened its first station at McMurdo on February 16, 1956. Founders initially called the station Naval Air Facility McMurdo.

McMurdo became the center of scientific and logistical operations during the International Geophysical Year, an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. The Antarctic Treaty, now signed by over 45 nations, regulates international relations with respect to Antarctica and governs the conduct of daily life at McMurdo for USAP participants. The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, and officially entered into force on June 23, 1961.

McMurdo broke into the nuclear age on March 3, 1962, when operators activated a nuclear power plant at the station. The plant, like nearby Scott's Discovery Hut, was prefabricated in modules. Engineers designed the components to weigh no more than 30,000 pounds each and to measure no more than 8' 8" x 8' 8" x 30'. The size restriction allowed, if necessary, shipment by the Hercules LC-130 aircraft via an ice runway at the adjacent Williams Field. A single core no larger than an oil drum served as the heart of the nuclear reactor. Reportedly, the reactor replaced the need for 1,500 gallons of oil daily. (On the Ice, by Peter Clarke). Engineers applied the reactor's power, for instance, in producing steam for the salt water distillation plant. The U.S. Army Nuclear Power Program decommissioned the plant in 1972.

A scene at McMurdo Station.

Today, McMurdo Station is Antarctica's largest community and a functional, modern day science station, which includes a harbour, 3 airfields (2 seasonal), a heliport and over 100 buildings, including the Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center and a bowling alley with an antique Brunswick manual pinset machine. There is even a 9-hole disc golf course on site. The primary focus of the work done at McMurdo Station is science, but most of the residents (approximately 1,000 in the summer and fewer than 200 in the winter) are not scientists, but station personnel who are there to provide support for operations, logistics, information technology, construction, and maintenance.

Scientists and station personnel at McMurdo are participants in the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), which co-ordinates research and operational support in the region. Reports on the life and culture of McMurdo Station from the point of view of residents are rare. The current source for news and information concerning residents is the website Big Dead Place, which offers comedic reports and political commentary on Antarctica with a satirical edge similar to the American TV show the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

This 1983 image of the USNS Southern Cross at McMurdo Station depicts cargo operations on a floating ice pier. Such piers have been in use since 1973.

The M/V American Tern being led by the Russian Icebreaker Krasin to McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze 2006. Mount Erebus can be seen in the background.

The supply ship M/V American Tern during cargo operations at McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze 2006.

An annual sealift by cargo ships as part of Operation Deep Freeze delivers supplies, equipment, and fuel for McMurdo residents. The ships are operated by the U.S. Military Sealift Command and are crewed by civilian mariners. Cargo may range from mail, construction materials, trucks, tractors, dry and frozen food, to scientific instruments. United States Coast Guard icebreakers bust a ship channel through ice-clogged McMurdo Sound in order for supply ships to reach Winter Quarters Bay at McMurdo. Additional supplies and personnel are flown in to nearby Williams Field from Christchurch, New Zealand.

McMurdo Station is about 5 km away from Scott Base, the New Zealand science station, and the entire island is located within New Zealand's Ross Dependency Antarctic claim. Recently there has been criticism leveled at the base regarding its construction projects: in particular the McMurdo-South Pole highway [1].

McMurdo has attempted to improve environmental management and waste removal over the past decade in order to adhere to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, which was signed 4 October 1991 and entered into force 14 January 1998. This agreement prevents development and provides for the protection of the Antarctic environment through five specific annexes on marine pollution, fauna, and flora, environmental impact assessments, waste management, and protected areas. It prohibits all activities relating to mineral resources except scientific. Adhering to the Protocol, a new waste treatment facility was built at McMurdo in 2003. McMurdo (nicknamed "Mac-Town" by its residents) continues to operate as the hub for American activities on the Antarctic continent.

McMurdo, for a time, had Antarctica's only television station, AFAN-TV, running vintage programs provided by the military. The station's equipment was susceptible to "electronic burping" from the diesel generators that provide electricity in the outpost. The station was profiled in a 1974 article in TV Guide magazine. Now, McMurdo receives four channels by satellite through satellite receivers at Black Island, 25 miles away; the signals are relayed to McMurdo by digital microwave.

Like the Australian and New Zealand stations in the Antarctic, McMurdo Station has direct-in/direct-out telephone connections to the outside world, in this case functioning as part of the New Zealand telephone system. Incoming calls are dialed as +64, then area code 2409, and the four digit local number.

McMurdo Station briefly gained global notice when an anti-war protest was held on February 15, 2003. During the rally, about 50 scientists and station personnel gathered to protest the coming invasion of Iraq by the United States. McMurdo Station was the only Antarctic location to hold such a rally.

McMurdo Station is referred to in the science fiction movies Dark Star and Alien as being the site of a major space-traffic control center.

Facilities worthy of note at the station include:

• National Science Foundation Headquarters
• Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center (CSEC)
• Observation Hill
• Discovery Hut, built during Scott's 1901-1903 expedition.
• Williams Field airport
• Memorial plaque to three airmen killed in 1946 while surveying the territory.

• Ice pier
• Icebreaker
• Marble Point
• McMurdo Sound
• Mt Erebus
• Operation Deep Freeze
• Scott Base

• United States Antarctic Research Program Calendar 1983
• "Facts About the United States Antarctic Research Program." Division of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation; July 1982.
• Clarke, Peter; On the Ice. Rand McNally & Company, 1966

• NSF page on McMurdo
• Virtual Tour - McMurdo Station Antarctica
• Zimbio - McMurdo Station Antarctica
• Life and work at the McMurdo Station - from USA Today
• The Adventures of Sandwich Girl at McMurdo station
• More Sandwich Girl adventure!
• Phil Jacobsen
• bigblueglobe
• United States Antarctic Program
• Raytheon Polar Services
• Big Dead Place
• McMurdo Flights Disc Golf Course
• Art of Antarctica (including the Mechanical Equipment Center Alternative Art Gallery, or MAAG)
• Information about stratospheric balloon launches from Williams Field for the NASA Scientific Balooning Program

Coordinates: 77°51′S 166°40′E