McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research centre located on the southern 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 the United States Antarctic science facility. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

A wax figure of U.S. actress Scarlett Johansson stands outside Madame Tussauds New York attraction shortly after the figure was unveiled in Times Square in New York, July 30, 2015. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)

Demonstrators hold masks depicting Colombian citizen Mile Virginia, who was murdered along with photojournalist Ruben Espinosa and three other women, during a protest in Mexico City, August 16, 2015. Espinosa, a prominent Mexican news photographer was among five people found dead in a middle-class neighborhood of the capital on July 31, 2015. Espinosa, who worked for the weekly magazine Proceso and the photo agency Cuartoscuro, had sought shelter in Mexico City earlier this summer saying he had been followed and threatened in the eastern state of Veracruz. (Photo by Tomas Bravo/Reuters)

A woman walks through flood water during heavy downpour at a street in Genoa, Italy, 10 October 2014. At least one person died due to flooding after heavy rains caused the Bisagno river, which runs through Genoa city to overflow. Part of the city was in black-out with flooded streets and parked cars dragged away by the water's force. (Photo by Luca Zennaro/EPA)

A young woman cools herself in a fountain in Budapest, Hungary July 6, 2015. Over the weekend, a heat wave has reached Hungary with temperatures topping 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit). (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

An animal advocate lays in fake blood in a replica of a meat package with a label that reads “meat” during a protest “The meat is murder” in the Bulgarian capital Sofia on May 8, 2016. (Photo by Nikolay Doychinov/AFP Photo)

Mosha, the elephant that was injured by a landmine, has her prosthetic leg attached at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang, Thailand, June 29, 2016. Mosha was 7 months old when she stepped on a land mine near Thailand’s border with Myanmar and lost a front leg. That was a decade ago... (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A girl runs from waves crashing over the promenade on December 24, 2015 in Blackpool, England. The Met Office is warning of 80mph winds and torrential downpours over the Christmas holidays, as dozens of flood alerts are issued for already devastated regions. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)