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. Ross Island lies within the boundaries of Ross Dependency, an area of Antarctica claimed by New Zealand.
Mount Erebus is an active volcano, the second-highest in Antarctica and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth-highest ultra mountain on the continent. With a summit elevation of 3,794 metres (12,448 ft), it is located in the Ross Dependency on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes: Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.
The Mawson Station, commonly called Mawson, is one of three permanent bases and research outposts in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Mawson lies in Holme Bay in Mac Robertson Land, East Antarctica in the Australian Antarctic Territory, a territory claimed by Australia. Established in 1954, Mawson is Australia's oldest Antarctic station and the oldest continuously inhabited Antarctic station south of the Antarctic Circle.
The McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south 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, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 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. By road, McMurdo is 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from New Zealand's smaller Scott Base.
Scott Base is a New Zealand Antarctic research facility at Pram Point on Ross Island near Mount Erebus in New Zealand's Ross Dependency territorial claim. The research facility was named in honour of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, RN, leader of two British expeditions to the Ross Sea area of Antarctica. The base was set up as support to field research and the centre for research into earth sciences, and now conducts research in many fields, operated by Antarctica New Zealand.
The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology is a public university in Socorro, New Mexico. It offers over 30 bachelor of science degrees in technology, the sciences, engineering, management, and technical communication, as well as graduate degrees at the masters and doctoral levels.
McMurdo Sound and its ice-clogged waters extends about 55 kilometres (34 mi) long and wide. The sound connects the Ross Sea to the north with the Ross Ice Shelf cavity to the south via Haskell Strait. The strait is largely covered by the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 4,205 metres (13,796 ft) on the western shoreline. Ross Island, an historic jumping-off point for polar explorers, designates the eastern boundary. The active volcano Mount Erebus at 3,794 metres (12,448 ft) dominates Ross Island. Antarctica's largest scientific base, the United States' McMurdo Station, as well as the New Zealand Scott Base are on the southern shore of the island. Less than 10 percent of McMurdo Sound's shoreline is free of ice. It is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world.
The United States Antarctic Program is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the continent of Antarctica. Founded in 1959, the USAP manages all U.S. scientific research and related logistics in Antarctica as well as aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.
The Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO), located in Hanle near Leh in Ladakh, India, has one of the world's highest located sites for optical, infrared and gamma-ray telescopes. It is operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. It is currently the ninth highest optical telescope in the world, situated at an elevation of 4,500 meters (14,764 ft).
Williams Field or Willy Field is a United States Antarctic Program airfield in Antarctica. Williams Field consists of two snow runways located on approximately 8 meters (25 ft) of compacted snow, lying on top of 8–10 ft of ice, floating over 550 meters (1,800 ft) of water. The airport, which is approximately seven miles from Ross Island, serves McMurdo Station and New Zealand's Scott Base. Until the 2009–10 summer season, Williams was the major airfield for on-continent aircraft operations in Antarctica.
A number of governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the Research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock or on ice that is fixed in place.
The Pole of Inaccessibility Research Station is a defunct Soviet research station in Kemp Land, Antarctica, at the southern pole of inaccessibility as defined in 1958 when the station was established. Later definitions give other locations, all relatively near this point. It performed meteorological observations from 14 to 26 December 1958. The Pole of Inaccessibility has the world's coldest year-round average temperature of −58.2 °C (−72.8 °F).
The Erebus Ice Tongue is a mountain outlet glacier and the seaward extension of Erebus Glacier from Ross Island. It projects 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) into McMurdo Sound from the Ross Island coastline near Cape Evans, Antarctica. The glacier tongue varies in thickness from 50 metres (160 ft) at the snout to 300 metres (980 ft) at the point where it is grounded on the shoreline. Explorers from Robert F. Scott's Discovery Expedition (1901–1904) named and charted the ice tongue.
The Jinnah Antarctic Station (JAS) is an Antarctic scientific research station operated by the Pakistan Antarctic Programme. It is located in the vicinity of the Sør Rondane Mountains, Queen Maud Land, in East Antarctica.
The Kyle Hills are a prominent group of volcanic cones, hills, ridges, and peaks that occupy the eastern part of Ross Island, Antarctica, between Mount Terror and Cape Crozier. The hills extend east–west for 8 nautical miles (15 km), rising from sea level at Cape Crozier to about 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) in Mount McIntosh at the western end of the group. Local relief of features is on the order of 200 metres (660 ft).
UNAVCO is a non-profit university-governed consortium that facilitates geoscience research and education using Geodesy. UNAVCO is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to support geoscience research around the world. UNAVCO operates the GAGE Facility on behalf of the NSF and NASA. As a university-governed consortium, UNAVCO supports the goals of the academic scientific community. UNAVCO has 120 US academic members and supports over 110 organizations globally as associate members.
Caldwell Peak is a peak 2 nautical miles (4 km) north of Mount Terra Nova on Ross Island. The feature rises to about 1,300 metres (4,300 ft), 1 nautical mile (2 km) south of Oamaru Peak. At the suggestion of P.R. Kyle, it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (2000) after David A. Caldwell, geologist, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, who worked two field seasons on Mount Erebus ; completed M.S. thesis on lava flows at the Mount Erebus summit.
Moore Peak is a peak rising to about 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) on the west slope of Mount Terror, Ross Island, Antarctica. The peak is 1.6 nautical miles (3 km) west-southwest of the summit of Mount Terror and 1 nautical mile (2 km) south of Mount Sutherland. At the suggestion of P.R. Kyle it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2000 after James A. Moore, a member of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology team on Mount Erebus in the 1983–84 and 1985–86 field seasons. He completed his Master of Science thesis on the geology of Mount Erebus.
The New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme (NZARP) was a research program that operated a permanent research facility in Antarctica from 1959 to 1996. It was created by the Geophysics Division of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), originally based in Wellington. The programme promoted research in geochemistry, zoology, geology, botany, meteorology, and limnology.
Mount Rittmann is a volcano in Antarctica. Discovered in 1988–1989 by an Italian expedition, it was named after the volcanologist Alfred Rittmann (1893–1980). It features a 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) or 8 by 5 kilometres wide caldera which crops out from underneath the Aviator Glacier. The volcano was active during the Pliocene and into the Holocene, including large explosive eruptions; a major eruption occurred in 1254 CE and deposited tephra over much of Antarctica. Currently, the volcano is classified as dormant.
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