* 1819 – William McMurdo, English army officer ( d. 1894 )

He based his expedition at Cape Royds in McMurdo Sound, and this breach of agreement caused a profound shift in the Scott – Shackleton relationship.

On January 19 – 20, 1991, Charles J. Blackmer, an iron-worker for many years at McMurdo Station and the South Pole, accomplished a solo ascent in approximately seventeen hours via snow mobile.

As part of the multinational collaboration for the International Geophysical Year ( IGY ) 1957 – 58, Byrd commanded the U. S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze I in 1955 – 56, which established permanent Antarctic bases at McMurdo Sound, the Bay of Whales, and the South Pole.

All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen – Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

* Life and work at McMurdo Station – from USA Today

Beginning in 1999 – 2000, the New York Air National Guard 109th Airlift Wing took responsibility for the daily cargo and passenger (" PAX ") flights between McMurdo Station and the South Pole during the summer.

Science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson's book Antarctica features a fictionalized account of the culture at Amundsen – Scott and McMurdo, set in the near future.

He received orders to travel as the Military Escort officer for a group of VIPs who were being flown to the South Pole, November 10 – 28, 1963, to activate a nuclear power plant for heat, light and sea water desalination at the United States Navy Base at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.

* June 18 – The first regularly scheduled winter flight to Antarctica takes place, when the U. S. Navy C-130L Hercules City of Christchurch – with the commander of U. S. Naval Support Force Antarctioa, U. S. Navy Rear Admiral James Lloyd Abbot, Jr., in the cockpit alongside its pilot – flies from Christchurch, New Zealand, to McMurdo Station with 22 people ( including two parties of scientists riding as passengers ), 5, 000 pounds ( 2, 268 kg ) of mail, and almost 3, 000 pounds ( 1, 361 kg ) of fresh food on board.

* Special Report: The McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctic Sun, January 26, 2003, 7 – 21.

Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Martin C. Predoehl, United States Antarctic Research Program ( USARP ) meteorologist at McMurdo Station, 1961 – 62 and 1962-63.

The flight had earlier paused during the approach to McMurdo Sound to carry out a descent, via a figure-eight manoeuvre, through a gap in the low cloud base ( later estimated to be at approximately 2, 000 – 3, 000 feet ) whilst over water in order to establish visible contact with surface landmarks, and afford the passengers a better view.

Then the iceberg sailed on along the coast leaving McMurdo Sound until it ran aground off Cape Adare in Victoria Land and broke into several smaller pieces on 27 – 28 October 2005.

B-15A prevented ocean currents and winds from assisting in the 2004 – 2005 summer break-up of the sea ice in McMurdo Sound, and was an obstacle to the annual resupply ships to three research stations.

* Thomas Deacon Academy, Peterborough – Dr Alan McMurdo

Named by US-ACAN for Martin A. Pomerantz, Director of the Barthol Research Foundation and Chairman of the U. S. Committee for the International Year of the Quiet Sun, who carried on cosmic ray studies in the McMurdo Sound area, 1959 – 60 and 1960-61.

It was mapped by the USGS from surveys and U. S. Navy air photos, 1960 – 63, and named by US-ACAN for Lt. Charles L. Novosad, Jr., medical officer at the Naval Air Facility, McMurdo Sound, in 1957.

It was therefore unwelcome news to him that Ernest Shackleton had announced his own plans to travel to Discoverys old McMurdo Sound base and launch a bid for the South Pole from there.

Shackleton's original plans had envisaged using the old Discovery base in McMurdo Sound to launch his attempts on the South Pole and South Magnetic Pole.

Recently there has been criticism leveled at the base regarding its construction projects, particularly the McMurdo -( Amundsen-Scott ) South Pole highway.

There is a road from McMurdo to the South Pole, the South Pole Traverse.

* Leader, geophysical traverse from McMurdo Station via Skelton Glacier to the South Pole, 1960-61

In 2006, 2 LC-130s closed the 2006 Operation Deep Freeze located at McMurdo Station near the South Pole.

At New Year, the first places to see daylight are the South Pole and the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which both experience midnight sun at this time.

After making stops in Madeira, South Trinidad, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, the Terra Nova was trapped for 3 weeks by pack ice, and finally arrived at Cape Evans in McMurdo Sound in early January 1911.

The TDRSS system has been used to provide data relay services to many orbiting observatories, and also to Antarctic facilities such as McMurdo Station by way of the TDRSS South Pole Relay.

In 1961, he was invited by the National Science Foundation to visit Antarctica, particularly the stations of McMurdo, Byrd and Amundsen-Scott at the South Pole, and the Wright Valley, one of the Dry Valleys ( Victoria Land ).

The Leverett Glacier in the Queen Maud Mountains is the planned route through the TAM for the overland supply road between McMurdo Station and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Captain James Clark Ross discovered this sound, which is about from the South Pole, in February 1841, and he named it for Lt. Archibald McMurdo of the HMS Terror.

Cold circumpolar currents of the Southern Ocean reduce the flow of warm South Pacific or South Atlantic waters reaching McMurdo Sound and other Antarctic coastal waters.

There is a snow road over the ice sheet from McMurdo, the McMurdo-South Pole highway.

), linking the McMurdo area research activities with those of the United States Pole Station and the joint United States-New Zealand station at Cape Hallett, Victoria Land.

Commercial flights landed at McMurdo Sound and the South Pole in the 1960s.

Antarctica's only harbour is at McMurdo Station.

With 33. 7 % salinity, it is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, though Lake Assal ( Djibouti ), Garabogazköl and some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica ( such as Don Juan Pond ) have reported higher salinities.

** The same code is also used to reach Scott Base in Antarctica and the United States base McMurdo Station nearby.

It is launched from McMurdo Station, Antarctica in December 1991, steady winds carried the balloon on a circumpolar flight lasting about two weeks.

In the west of the Ross sea, McMurdo Sound is a port which is usually free of ice during the summer.

Ross Island is an island formed by four volcanoes in the Ross Sea near the continent of Antarctica, off the coast of Victoria Land in McMurdo Sound.

Today Ross Island is home to New Zealand's Scott Base, and the largest Antarctic settlement, the U. S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station.

Scientific study of the volcano is also facilitated by their proximity to McMurdo Station ( U. S .) and Scott Base ( N. Z.

The Balleny corridor through the Southern Ocean would be used by future explorers such as Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and Richard Byrd, and is used today by surface vessels resupplying McMurdo and other scientific bases located in and around the Ross Sea sector of Antarctica.

McMurdo Station is a U. S. Antarctic research center located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

A scene at McMurdo Station Today, McMurdo Station is Antarctica's largest community and a functional, modern day science station, which includes a harbour, three airfields ( two seasonal ), a heliport and more than 100 buildings, including the Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center.

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.

McMurdo Station is about two miles ( 3 km ) from Scott Base, the New Zealand science station, and the entire island is located within a sector claimed by New Zealand, though this claim is not recognized by most countries.

McMurdo is serviced seasonally by three airports:

* McMurdo Station is mentioned in detail in the novel Decipher dealing with an ancient code left by the Atlantians to save the world.