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.
Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947,, was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The operation was organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN (Ret), Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, and led by Rear Admiral Ethan Erik Larson, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68. Operation HIGHJUMP commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947. Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 70 ships, and 33 aircraft.
Alexandra Mountains is a group of low, separated mountains in the north portion of Edward VII Peninsula, just southwest of Sulzberger Bay in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Discovered in January–February 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition during an exploratory cruise of the Discovery along the Ross Ice Shelf. Named for Alexandra, then Queen of the United Kingdom.
Little America was a series of Antarctic exploration bases from 1929 to 1958, located on the Ross Ice Shelf, south of the Bay of Whales.
Marie Byrd Land (MBL) is an unclaimed region of Antarctica. With an area of 1,610,000 km2 (620,000 sq mi), it is the largest unclaimed territory on Earth. It was named after the wife of American naval officer Richard E. Byrd, who explored the region in the early 20th century.
The Leverett Glacier is about 50 nautical miles (90 km) long and 3 to 4 nautical miles wide, flowing from the Antarctic Plateau to the south end of the Ross Ice Shelf through the Queen Maud Mountains. It is an important part of the South Pole Traverse from McMurdo Station to the Admundson–Scott South Pole Station, providing a route for tractors to climb from the ice shelf through the Transantarctic Mountains to the polar plateau.
The Byrd Glacier is a major glacier in Antarctica, about 136 km (85 mi) long and 24 km (15 mi) wide. It drains an extensive area of the Antarctic plateau, and flows eastward to discharge into the Ross Ice Shelf.
The Churchill Mountains are a mountain range group of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Ross Dependency region of Antarctica. They border on the western side of the Ross Ice Shelf, between Byrd Glacier and Nimrod Glacier.
The Hughes Range84°30′S175°30′E is a high massive north–south trending mountain range in Antarctica, surmounted by six prominent summits, of which Mount Kaplan at 4,230 metres (13,880 ft) is the highest. The range is located east of Canyon Glacier in the Queen Maud Mountains and extends 45 nautical miles from the confluence of Brandau Glacier and Keltie Glacier in the south, to the Giovinco Ice Piedmont in the north.
The Prince Olav Mountains is a mountain group in the Queen Maud Mountains in Antarctica stretching from Shackleton Glacier to Liv Glacier at the head of the Ross Ice Shelf.
Operation Deep Freeze is codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on.. Given the continuing and constant US presence in Antarctica since that date, "Operation Deep Freeze" has come to be used as a general term for US operations in that continent, and in particular for the regular missions to resupply US Antarctic bases, coordinated by the United States military. Task Force 199 was involved.
George John Dufek was an American naval officer, naval aviator, and polar expert. He served in World War II and the Korean War and in the 1940s and 1950s spent much of his career in the Antarctic, first with Admiral Byrd and later as supervisor of U.S. programs in the South Polar regions. Rear Admiral Dufek was the director of the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia after his retirement from the Navy in 1959.
The Byrd Station is a former research station established by the United States during the International Geophysical Year by U.S. Navy Seabees during Operation Deep Freeze II in West Antarctica.
Liv Glacier is a steep valley glacier, 40 nautical miles long, emerging from the Antarctic Plateau just southeast of Barnum Peak and draining north through the Queen Maud Mountains to enter Ross Ice Shelf between Mayer Crags and Duncan Mountains. It was discovered in 1911 by Roald Amundsen, who named it for the daughter of Fridtjof Nansen.
The Mulock Glacier is a large, heavily crevassed glacier which flows into the Ross Ice Shelf 40 kilometers south of the Skelton Glacier in the Ross Dependency, Antarctica.
The Dufek Coast is that portion of the coast along the southwest margin of the Ross Ice Shelf between Airdrop Peak on the east side of the Beardmore Glacier and Morris Peak on the east side of Liv Glacier. It was named by the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961 after Rear Admiral George J. Dufek, United States Navy, who served under Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd with the United States Antarctic Service, 1939–41, and as commander of the Eastern Task Force of U.S. Navy Operation Highjump, 1946–47. He was Commander of U.S. Naval Support Force Antarctica, 1954–59, a period in which the following American science stations were established: McMurdo Station, Little America V, Byrd Station, South Pole Station, Wilkes Station, Hallett Station and Ellsworth Station. United States Navy ships, aircraft, and personnel under his command provided broad logistical support to research and survey operations, including aerial photographic missions to virtually all sectors of Antarctica. On October 31, 1956, Dufek in the ski-equipped R4D Skytrain aircraft Que Sera Sera, flew from McMurdo Sound via Beardmore Glacier to make the first airplane landing at the South Pole.
The Harold Byrd Mountains are a group of exposed mountains and nunataks which extend in an east–west direction between the lower part of Leverett Glacier and the head of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. They were discovered in December 1929 by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition geological party under Laurence Gould, and named by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd for D. Harold Byrd, a cousin of his and a contributor towards the purchase of furs for the expedition.
The Lillie Range in Antarctica extends northward from the Prince Olav Mountains to the Ross Ice Shelf. Mounts Hall, Daniel, Krebs and Mason are in the range.
Brockton Station was an American research (weather) station in Antarctica. It was built by the Seabees and operated by the US Navy during the summer months from October 1965 to February 1972. The station was located 300 miles southeast of McMurdo Station, near the center of the Ross Ice Shelf.
Harold Irving June (1895–1962) was a machinist, an aviator, a test pilot, and an explorer in Antarctica. He is best known for his 1928–1930 service in the first Antarctic expedition of Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Sitting in the co-pilot's seat with supplemental radio duties, he flew with Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, and photographer Ashley McKinley over the South Pole on November 29, 1929.
