McMurdo Station (U.S.)77.8 S, 166.0 E Population: ~1200 summer, ~200 winter |
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McMurdo Station is the
largest research station in Antarctica with over 1000 people visiting every
summer. Many of those people quickly leave McMurdo for more remote locations
to conduct their field work. McMurdo has the facilities for science groups
to stage and prepare for their field work. While it is like a little town, McMurdo
has no trees, no kids and set meal times like an army base. Over the summer,
temperatures warm up enough to melt the snow in town.
The main galley in McMurdo has room to feed all of those people but it can get crowded at times. This room is also used for science lectures every Sunday evening.
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There are a lot of facilities in McMurdo.To the left is the town chapel where services of many denominations take place (and yoga classes). There is a greenhouse, a fire station, a gym, a few bars, dorms, a coffeehouse, and even a bowling alley.Click here to see Jonathan's bowling movie. It's a pretty comfortable and fun place to spend time.
There is also a large and impressive science
centre called the Crary Science Building that has excellent laboratory and computer
facilities for use by scientists and a nice library. This is one of the
newest buildings in town. Outside of Crary you can see several mult-coloured
boxes. All of the garbage in McMurdo is sorted; from paper, cans and glass to
construction materials, old clothing, batteries and plastics. McMurdo
recycles 70% of their garbage while in the US we only recycle roughly 17%.
All of the non-recylable garbage is then shipped back to the U.S. where it is
incinerated. Ever since the Environmental Treaty was signed between all
Antarctic countries, no garbage can be disposed of on the continent. To
read the treaty, click here.
McMurdo in the winter courtesy of Deb Roth.
