A day at McMurdo Station, Antarctica

In summer, McMurdo is busy, with up to 1,100 people.

In winter, only up to 200 people stay. Some are scientists. Others cook, fix machines, move cargo and keep the station running.

McMurdo's population changes with the seasons. During the busy summer, from about October to February, up to 1,100 people may live there in a week. In winter it drops to up to 200. Altogether, about 2,300 people pass through the station each year.

Some are scientists; others do the work that keeps the station going, in places like the power plant, the water plant, the repair shops, the cargo center, the kitchen, the clinic and the fire station. Everyone is given at least one roommate in a dormitory, a bit like a college dorm.

NSF's station page (published December 2024) gives up to 1,100 people in a summer week, up to 200 in a winter week and about 2,300 passing through annually. The older Participant Guide (2016-2018 edition) gave a summer range of 800 to 1,000 and a winter range of 150 to 200; the NSF figures are the newer ones. In that guide, the busy summer, called Mainbody, ran from October to February, with weekly flights to and from New Zealand, and fewer flights from March to September.

The station's roughly 146 buildings include repair shops, dormitories, offices, a firehouse, a power plant, a water plant and satellite communications. The Movement Control Center handles all cargo and passengers moving through the continent's airfields. Lodging is like college dormitories, with shared bathrooms, and every participant is assigned at least one roommate; because the station works around the clock, a roommate may arrive at any hour.

At McMurdo, everyone eats in one big cafeteria.

Meals are free. People can visit the library, play sports in the gym or join a running race. Letters even arrive by plane!

Food at McMurdo is served cafeteria style, and meals are free. The rule is to take as much as you want but eat everything you take, so nothing is wasted. In summer there is even a midnight meal for night workers. NSF counts 147,956 meals served in a year.

After work, people can use the library, coffee house, gyms, climbing wall and band room. Volunteers organize art shows, chili cook-offs, running races, yoga classes and lectures. There is a post office, a store, a clinic and a radio and TV station. Mail arrives less often in winter, when there are fewer flights.

Food service is cafeteria style, free of charge, with the request that people eat all they take to reduce cost and waste; besides three regular meals, a midnight meal is served in summer, first to night workers. NSF reports 147,956 meals a year. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are often available but not guaranteed.

Recreation includes a library, coffee house, clubs, store, gymnasiums, weight and aerobics rooms, a climbing wall and a band room, with volunteer-run art shows, chili cook-offs, races, yoga, dances, league games, lessons and lectures. The 2016-2018 Participant Guide described a post office offering regular services, with limited mail in winter; a clinic open six days a week, with X-ray, laboratory and pharmacy services, able to stabilize critical patients for evacuation; and a radio station carrying NPR and programs from volunteer DJs. Internet access then ran over a very small shared link (17 Mb) on which science and operations took priority, so video chat and social media were restricted.

There are no rivers to drink from at McMurdo.

So the station takes the salt out of seawater to make fresh water. Big machines called generators make electricity.

McMurdo has its own power plant and water plant. Its fresh water is made from seawater, using a process called reverse osmosis. Because this is an expensive way to get water, everyone is asked to save it.

Electricity comes from generators that run on diesel fuel. Utility lines above the ground link the buildings for water, sewer, telephone and power. Waste is sorted carefully, and as much as possible is recycled.

The station has its own power plant and water plant. The 2016-2018 Participant Guide explained that fresh water is produced from seawater by reverse osmosis, which it called an expensive way to get water compared with a stream or well, so conservation is encouraged; diesel-driven generators supplied 120-volt, 60-hertz power, as in the United States. NSF notes that buildings are linked by above-ground utility lines for water, sewer, telephone and power.

Waste management is part of everyone's job. Participants agree to follow the station's procedures, sorting packing materials and waste so it can be recycled to the extent practical, and McMurdo serves as the waste management center for much of the U.S. Antarctic Program. The environment around the station is protected too: Arrival Heights, near the station, is Antarctic Specially Protected Area 122.

Scientists at McMurdo study ice, rocks, animals and the sky.

They work in a big lab with tanks full of seawater for sea animals. Some travel to a volcano called Mount Erebus, or to the Dry Valleys.

McMurdo's main science building is the Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center. It has labs for biology, chemistry, geology, physics and glaciology (the study of ice), cold rooms for ice cores, and an aquarium of seawater tanks for studying live sea animals.

From McMurdo, scientists travel to nearby research areas: the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Mount Erebus, Cape Crozier and Cape Royds. They study everything from the atmosphere and space to ecosystems, rocks, glaciers, the ocean and climate.

The Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center, dedicated in November 1991 and named for geophysicist and glaciologist Albert Paddock Crary, provides more than 4,320 m² of working space in three phases: a library, offices and shared equipment; biology and chemistry labs with microscope and walk-in freezer rooms; physics, geology, glaciology and engineering labs with rock-sectioning and ice-core cold rooms; and aquarium tanks with a flow-through seawater system for work on live animals and testing equipment before it goes to sea.

NSF lists the station's research fields as aeronomy and astrophysics; biology and ecosystems; geology, geophysics, glaciology and geomorphology; and ocean and climate systems, including ice core studies. Major research areas lie close by: the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Mount Erebus (3,794 m), 25 miles (about 40 km) away and the world's southernmost active volcano, Cape Crozier and Cape Royds.