Paul took a few photos the other night just around town.
This is a shot of the area with the dorms. The Science Dorm, where most of the grantees live, is in the center. It’s not very luxurious, but it’s home.
This is a photo across Derelict Junction. The hill in the background is Observation Hill, where the Scott Memorial is placed. The small building in the center is Southern Exposure, one of the few places in town where you can smoke. When McMurdo was a Navy base, I recall that this was the rowdy bar for the enlisted men. It’s still a bar and still a bit rowdier than other places. (It’s a tradition….)
You can see a bit more of Derelict Junction in the shot below. The dorms are behind you when looking at this shot. I’ve always thought that McMurdo Station looks like Truckee.
This is the Chapel of the Snows, where the Erebus Chalice is kept each summer. The chalice first came into the Ross Sea in 1841 aboard The Erebus, which was Ross’ ship. His other ship was The Terror and they did the first exploration of Victoria Land and the Ross Sea. The two peaks of Ross Island are named after these ships. Mt. Erebus is an active volcano.
The Erebus Chalice
The low brown building in the foreground is an exercise room that is affectionately known as the Gerbil Gym because of the treadmills and exercise equipment inside. The large, beige building is the Crary Lab, where the grantees (i.e., scientists) have laboratory and office space.
The Crary Lab is on the right, the beige structure on the left is a temperature controlled facility to store things such as ice cores. You also have another view of Observation Hill. The shoulder of the hill used to be the site of the nuclear power plant in McMurdo. When the plant was decommissioned, they took everything out, including many feet of topsoil.
This is the science support center which houses FSTOP, and also the MEC-the place where we get the snowmobiles, the Pisten-Bully (our tracked vehicles), generators, chain saws, drills, snow blower, etc.
More later.
