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McMurdo Dry Valleys, Landsat 7 imagery acquired on December 18, 1999. The Dry Valleys are so named because of their extremely low humidity and lack of snow or ice cover. They are also dry because, in this location, the mountains are sufficiently high that they block seaward-flowing ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet from reaching the Ross ...
Eastern Antarctica is to the right of the Transantarctic Mountains and Western Antarctica is to the left. Positioned asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle (one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the world), Antarctica is surrounded by the Southern Ocean.
Ross Island is an island in Antarctica lying on the east side of McMurdo Sound and extending 43 nautical miles (80 km; 49 mi) from Cape Bird in the north to Cape Armitage in the south, and a similar distance from Cape Royds in the west to Cape Crozier in the east. The island is entirely volcanic.
McMurdo Station briefly gained global notice when an anti-war protest took place on February 15, 2003. During the rally, about 50 scientists and station personnel gathered to protest against the coming invasion of Iraq by the United States. McMurdo Station was the only Antarctic location to hold such a rally. [18]
The McMurdo Volcanic Group is a large group of Cenozoic volcanic rocks in the western Ross Sea and central Transantarctic Mountains areas of Antarctica. [1] It is one of the largest provinces of alkaline volcanism in the world, having formed as a result of continental rifting along the West Antarctic Rift System.
McMurdo Sound's logistic importance continues today. Aircraft transporting cargo and passengers land on frozen runways at Williams Field on the McMurdo Ice Shelf . Moreover, the annual sealift of a cargo ship and fuel tanker rely upon the sound as a supply route to the continent's largest base, the United States McMurdo Station .
Map showing location of Taylor Valley Taylor Valley in center of west of map, opposite Ross Island. Taylor Valley is one of the McMurdo Dry Valleys.Parts of the area were visited by British expeditions led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1901–04 and 1910–13), who referred to Taylor Valley, as well as Beacon Valley and Pyramid Trough (named later), as "dry valleys."
The South Pole Traverse, also called the South Pole Overland Traverse (SPoT), [2] or McMurdo–South Pole Highway [3] is an approximately 995-mile-long (1,601 km) flagged route over compacted snow and ice [4] in Antarctica that links McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, both operated by the National Science Foundation of the United States. [5]