A scene at McMurdo Station McMurdo Station, located at 77° 51' South latitude, 166° 40' East longitude, sits on the southern tip of Ross Island in Antarctica, 2,200 miles (3,500 km) due south of New Zealand, and serves as the logistics hub for half the continent. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo. New Zealand claims the territory upon which the station is located,
The station was established in 1956, when it was called Naval Air Facility McMurdo, on the original site for British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and is now Antarctica's largest community. Scott's Hut is still standing and lies at the outer part of McMurdo, adjacent to the harbour at Hut Point. Features include a harbour, 3 airfields (2 seasonal), a heliport and over 100 buildings. The primary focus of the work done here is science, but the summer residents (approximately 1,000 in the summer, shrinks to less than 200 in the winter) process the cargo brought in to support the field camps.
McMurdo Station is located approximately 3 miles away from New Zealand owned Scott Base.
Facilities at the station include:
Recently there has been a lot of criticism leveled at the base regarding its disposal of untreated refuse, its treatment of non-United States nationals, and its construction projects: in particular the McMurdo-South Pole highway. Despite this, McMurdo (nicknamed "Mac-Town" by its residents) continues to operate as the hub for American activities on the Antarctic continent.
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