Американская антарктическая станция Мак-Мердо

American Antarctic base

McMurdo Station is an American Antarctic research station on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand–claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,500 residents, and serves as one of three year round United States Antarctic science facilities. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo. McMurdo Station continues to operate as the hub for American activities on the Antarctic continent. By road, McMurdo is 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from New Zealand's smaller Scott Base.

The station takes its name from its geographic location on McMurdo Sound, named after Lieutenant Archibald McMurdo of British ship The Terror, commanded by Northern Irish explorer Francis Crozier, along with expedition flagship Erebus under command of English Explorer James Clark Ross, first charted the area in 1841. The British explorer Robert Falcon Scott established a base camp close to this spot in 1902 and built a cabin there that was named Discovery Hut. It still stands as a historic monument near the water's edge on Hut Point at McMurdo Station. The volcanic rock of the site is the southernmost bare ground accessible by ship in the world. The United States officially opened its first station at McMurdo on February 16, 1956, as part of Operation Deep Freeze. The base, built by the U. S. Navy Seabees, was initially designated Naval Air Facility McMurdo. On November 28, 1957, Admiral George J. Dufek visited McMurdo with a U. S. congressional delegation for a change of command ceremony.

On March 3, 1962, the U. S. Navy activated the PM 3A nuclear power plant at the station. The unit was prefabricated in modules to facilitate transport and assembly. Engineers designed the components to weigh no more than each and to measure no more than 8 feet (2 m) by 8 feet (2 m) by 30 feet (9 m). A single core no larger than an oil drum served as the heart of the nuclear reactor. These size and weight restrictions aimed to allow delivery of the reactor in an LC 130 Hercules aircraft. However, the components were actually delivered by ship. The reactor generated 1.8 MW of electrical power and reportedly replaced the need for of oil daily. Engineers applied the reactor's power, for instance, in producing steam for the salt water distillation plant. As a result of continuing safety issues (hairline cracks in the reactor and water leaks), the U. S. Army Nuclear Power Program decommissioned the plant in 1972. The subsequent failure of a proprietary, non replaceable part critical to battery storage reduced the power generation of the turbines by 66% by 2019.

Between 1962 and 1963, 28 Arcas sounding rockets were launched from McMurdo Station. McMurdo Station stands about two miles (3 km) from Scott Base, the New Zealand science station, and all of Ross Island lies within a sector claimed by New Zealand. Criticism has been leveled at the base regarding its construction projects, particularly the McMurdo (Amundsen Scott) South Pole highway.

McMurdo Station has attempted to improve environmental management and waste removal in order to adhere to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, signed on October 4, 1991, which entered into force on January 14, 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 ones. A new waste treatment facility was built at McMurdo in 2003.

Scientific diving operations continue with 10,859 dives having been conducted under the ice from 1989 to 2006. A hyperbaric chamber is available for support of polar diving operations.

, McMurdo Station was Antarctica's largest community and a functional, modern day science station, including a harbor, three airfields (two seasonal), a heliport and more than 100 buildings, including the Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center. The station is also home to the continent's two ATMs, both provided by Wells Fargo Bank. The work done at McMurdo Station primarily focuses on science, but most of the residents (approximately 1,000 in the summer and around 250 in the winter) are not scientists, but station personnel who provide support for operations, logistics, information technology, construction, and maintenance. Scientists and other personnel at McMurdo are participants in the USAP, which coordinates research and operational support in the region. Werner Herzog's 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World reports on the life and culture of McMurdo Station from the point of view of residents. Anthony Powell's 2013 documentary Antarctica: A Year on Ice provides time lapse photography of Antarctica intertwined with personal accounts from residents of McMurdo Station and of the adjacent Scott Base over the course of a year. An annual sealift by cargo ships as part of Operation Deep Freeze delivers 8 million U. S. gallons (6.6 million imperial gallons/42 million liters) of fuel and 11 million pounds (5 million kg) of supplies and equipment for McMurdo residents. The ships, operated by the U. S. Military Sealift Command, are crewed by civilian mariners. Cargo may range from mail, construction materials, trucks, tractors, dry and frozen food, to scientific instruments. U. S. Coast Guard icebreakers break 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 into nearby Williams Field from Christchurch in New Zealand.

With all months having an average temperature below freezing, McMurdo features a polar ice cap climate (Köppen EF). However, in the warmest months (December and January) the monthly average high temperature may occasionally rise above freezing. The place is protected from cold waves from the interior of Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains, so temperatures below −40° are rare, compared to more exposed places like Neumayer Station, which usually gets those temperatures a few times every year, often as early as May, and sometimes even as early as April, and very rarely above 0 °C. The highest temperature ever recorded at McMurdo was 10.8 °C on December 21, 1987. There is enough snowmelt in summer that a limited amount of vegetation can grow, specifically a few species of moss and lichen.

Starting in 1963, McMurdo played host to one of the only two shortwave broadcast stations in Antarctica. From sign on to 1971, the callsign was KMSA, from then on it was changed to WASA (W Antarctic Support Activities), later changing to AFAN in 1975. As KMSA, the station broadcast in the same building as the bowling alley, the barber shop and the retail store. A part of the vinyl collection reportedly came from Vietnam, believing to have been played by Adrian Cronauer's show in Saigon. In a 1997 interview to The Antarctic Sun, Cronauer denied these claims and the vinyl collection was apparently destroyed. The station—AFAN McMurdo—initially operated on AM 600 and had a power of 50 W, but by 1974, it transmitted with a power of 1 kilowatt on the shortwave frequency of 6,012 kHz and became a target for shortwave radio listening to hobbyists around the world because of its rarity. The station was picked up by DX for the first time in New Zealand in July 1974, and within a few months had its signal received as far as the US east coast. AFAN had changed frequencies several times in subsequent years. The station continued broadcasting on shortwave into the 1980s when it dropped shortwave while continuing FM transmission. For a time, McMurdo had Antarctica's only television station, AFAN TV, running vintage programs provided by the military. Broadcasts started on November 9, 1973, with a mix of US programs and interviews with visitors and scientists, as well as a daily news and weather service. 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 1975 article in TV Guide magazine, where the station broadcast in the summer months, known by staff as "the season" (November to February), the only season where Antarctica was (at the time) open to aircraft. In the mid 90s, a cable network was installed. By 1998, shortly after the launch of new AFN television services the year before, the traditional AFN network was broadcast over cable channel 2 (the channel that would soon become AFN Prime), NewSports (the current AFN News and AFN Sports) was on channel 11 and Spectrum (current AFN Spectrum) was on channel 13. Now, McMurdo receives three channels of the US Military's American Forces Network, the Australia Network, and New Zealand news broadcasts. A fourth station on 104.5FM is known as Ice Radio, and features local folks at McMurdo hosting their own radio shows, backed by contemporary music. Television broadcasts are received by satellite at Black Island, and transmitted 25 mile (40 km) by digital microwave to McMurdo. McMurdo Station receives both Internet and voice communications by satellite communications via the Optus D1 satellite and relayed to Sydney, Australia. A satellite dish at Black Island provides 20 Mbit/s Internet connectivity and voice communications. Voice communications are tied into the United States Antarctic Program headquarters in Centennial, Colorado, providing inbound and outbound calls to McMurdo from the US. Voice communications within the station are conducted via VHF radio. Testing of the Starlink service began in September 2022, with a second terminal providing connectivity for the Allan Hills field camp brought in November 2022.

McMurdo has the world's most southerly harbor. A multitude of on and off road vehicles transport people and cargo around the station area, including Ivan the Terra Bus (a pun on Ivan the Terrible). There is a road from McMurdo to the New Zealand Scott Base and South Pole, the South Pole Traverse.

The Richard E. Byrd Historic Monument was erected at McMurdo in 1965. It includes a bronze bust on black marble, square, on a wooden platform, bearing inscriptions describing the polar exploration achievements of Richard E. Byrd. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 54), following a proposal by the United States to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. The bronze Nuclear Power Plant Plaque is about in size, and is secured to a large vertical rock halfway up the west side of Observation Hill, at the former site of the PM 3A nuclear power reactor at McMurdo Station. The inscription details the achievements of Antarctica's first nuclear power plant. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 85), following a proposal by the United States to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.