McMurdo Station
The McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research center on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as one of three United States Antarctic science facilities. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.
Halzen Mesa
Halzen Mesa () is an oblong islandlike mesa, long and rising to , that is the largest and easternmost of three mesas in the Insel Range, McMurdo Dry Valleys, in Victoria Land. The upper surface is relatively level but the periphery is marked by abrupt cliffs that rise 500 to 600 m above the floor of Barwick Valley and McKelvey Valley. Named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2005 after Francis Halzen, Physics Department, University of Wisconsin–Madison, who in 1988 conceived of AMANDA, the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station; United States Antarctic Program principal investigator in a project to build the IceCube neutrino telescope at the South Pole Station in six field seasons beginning 2004-05.