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Welcome to Antarctica!

U.S. Stations in Antarctica

McMurdo Station

(NSF Antarctic Photo Library)

Located on Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island, McMurdo sits on the farthest south solid ground accessible by ship.

McMurdo houses 1200 people during the summer and 200 in the winter.

It was established in 1956 and has grown from a small outpost to a large complex facility with more than 100 structures, a harbor, and an airport; it functions as the logistics hub for the U.S. Antarctic Program.

There are above-ground water, sewer, telephone, and power lines linking buildings.

The Albert P. Crary Science & Engineering Center began full operation during the 1994-95 season, housing biological, earth, and atmospheric sciences all under one roof. It even has an aquarium! The facility is named after Albert P. Crary, the first person to visit both the North and South Poles.

Indigenous wildlife around McMurdo includes penguins (King, Emperor, and Adelie), Weddell seals, and Antarctic skua.

South Pole Station

(NSF Antarctic Photo Library)

Located about 350 meters from the geographic South Pole, it was established in 1957.

It operated year-round until January 1975, when the present station was occupied.

Research at the station includes upper-atmosphere physics, meteorology, geophysics, biomedicine, and astrophysics.

It is supplied by LC-130 military airplanes from McMurdo Station and has no indigenous wildlife.

Palmer Station

(NSF Antarctic Photo Library)

Located on Anvers Island off the Antarctic Peninsula.

It does not have the long period of isolation in the winter that the South Pole and McMurdo stations do, as it is the only US station north of the Antarctic Circle.

About 40 people can occupy Palmer in the summer, and usually about 10 in the winter. It is ideally located for studying birds, seals, and the marine ecosystem, and so it has a large and well-equipped laboratory and sea water aquarium.

In 1990 it was designated by the National Science Foundation as a long-term ecological research site (LTER).

Indigenous wildlife around the station includes elephant, leopard, and fur seals, royal, king, gentoo, and rockhopper penguins, miscellaneous birds, etc.