Antarctica (novel)
Most of the story is centred on McMurdo Station, the largest settlement in Antarctica, which is run as a scientific research station by the United States. Robinson's characteristic multiple-protagonist style is employed here to show many aspects of polar life; among the viewpoints presented are those of X, an idealistic young man working as a General Field Assistant at McMurdo; Val, an increasingly embittered trek guide; and Wade Norton, who works for the Californian Senator Phil Chase (Wade and Phil also appear in the "Science in the Capital" trilogy). As well as McMurdo, the story involves the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, the Shackleton Glacier, the McMurdo Dry Valleys and a South American drilling platform near Roberts Massif.
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.