![]() ![]() See Antarctica for cruises departing from Australia or New Zealand that sail this way. It replaced nearby Pegasus Airfield, which was plagued by dust and has closed. So it has duplicated the Ice Runway without extending the season in which wheeled aircraft can come into McMurdo. It was planned to be firm enough to use all summer, but has proved to be only suitable early in the season. Ift is a single runway of compressed snow that is firm enough to take wheeled aircraft. Phoenix Airfield opened in 2017 and is 21 km from McMurdo.By mid-Dec the ice begins to break up, the runway is abandoned and operations switch to Williams Field. Planes at rest tend to sink into the ice, and are towed elsewhere if this becomes marked. A Boeing 757 has test-landed here, and it's hoped to use 757s for passenger flights, freeing cargo space on other flights. The Ice Runway is a pair rebuilt each spring and is the principal airfield in early summer, as it can take conventional wheeled aircraft, which have greater range and capacity than ski-planes.Pilots will know that Williams himself was lost in 1956 when the ice gave way beneath his tractor. A 16-km pipe snakes across the ice to bring aviation fuel from McMurdo. "Willy Field" (as it's known) is gradually drifting towards the calving edge of the ice but the facilities are mounted on sleds, and have been moved three times. The surface is 8 m of compacted snow, lying on top of 3 m of ice floating over the sea channel. Williams Field is a pair of groomed snow runways on the ice sheet 15 km south of Ross Island, for ski-planes only, operating Dec-Feb.McMurdo has three airstrips, which act as staging posts for flights further into the continent. The treaty forbids military activity but there is no objection to military logistics support to civilian work: nothing could get done here without their heavy-duty aircraft.ħ7★1′0″S 166☄2′0″EMap of Ross Sea By plane įlights to McMurdo start from Christchurch, New Zealand, and take 8 hours in military cargo planes such as the Lockheed C-130 Hercules. References to nations on this page should be understood accordingly. Thus, various nations own and operate bases here and have hypothetical claims to territory which they waive. ![]() However this was superseded in 1959 by the Antarctic Treaty, which seeks to protect the fragile environment and sets aside national claims. In the 19th and 20th century several nations staked claims to Antarctica, and New Zealand claimed the "Ross Dependency", a pie-segment of the continent from the pole to the Ross Sea. There wasn't much whaling or sealing activity here as these creatures depend on open water and dwell further north. The island became the springboard for journeys into the interior. Better still, Ross Island had a natural harbour, and bare rock that was much safer to build huts on than the shifting, cracking ice. In the Ross Sea they found an inlet that was much further south yet occasionally navigable, with potential access to the interior. But from the 19th century they found more areas accessible in summer, such as the Peninsula. They could hardly tell what was mainland, what was islands, or what was just sea-ice. It has airfields and wharfs for shipping, so it's a support and transport hub for the South Pole and other bases in Antarctica.Įarly explorers into Antarctic waters encountered a vast barrier of ice. Over 1000 people work here in summer and 100 in winter. Nearby is New Zealand's Scott Base, with Antarctica's first bus service shuttling between them. McMurdo Station is a US base on Ross Island. There have been exploration camps here for over a century, still preserved, and permanent bases since 1956. It's rugged and actively volcanic, with exposed rock that you can build on. Ross Island in the southwest corner of that sea is 30 km from the mainland and is permanently welded to it by sheet ice. Cruise liners from Australia and New Zealand routinely visit, whilst those sailing from the tip of Argentina tour the Antarctic Peninsula on the opposite side of the continent. It's therefore long been a focus of polar exploration, especially towards the South Pole. It's ice-bound for much of the year, but at the height of summer ships can cautiously enter. The Ross Sea in Antarctica is the world's most southerly sea. ![]()
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