An aerial view taken on March 8, 2021, shows Chinese fishing vessel Lurong Yuan Yu that ran aground on reefs of Pointe-aux-Sables in Port Louis, Mauritius, on March 7, 2021. (Photo by L'Express Maurice/AFP Photo)

Aerial view of contestants attending the opening ceremony of a dragon boat race on the Rongjiang River at Rong'an County on October 10, 2020 in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. (Photo by Tan Kaixing/VCG via Getty Images)

Children take part in the “Carnavalito” children's parade during the Blacks and Whites Carnival in Pasto, Colombia, on January 2, 2018. (Photo by Juan Barreto/AFP Photo)

An aerial view of the new Panama Canal expansion project on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal during an organized media tour by Italy's Salini Impregilo, one of the main sub contractors of the Panama Canal Expansion project, in Panama City May 11, 2016. The newly expanded Panama Canal will be inaugurated on June 26, 2016. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

Anti abortion pregnant women attend a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court as justices hear oral arguments in a bid by President Joe Biden's administration to preserve broad access to the abortion pill, in Washington, U.S., March 26, 2024. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

A fishing boat that was ran aground by the sea while moored in the port of Coquimbo, some 445 km north of Santiago, during the eve's earthquake on September 17, 2015. A million people were evacuated in Chile after an 8.3-magnitude quake struck offshore in the Pacific, killing at least 10 people and triggering tsunami waves along its northern coast. (Photo by Martin Bernetti/AFP Photo)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, uses a binocular, as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, and chief of Russia's military's General Staff Valery Gerasimov, right, observe military exercises near the Baikal Lake on Wednesday, July 17, 2013. (Photo by Alexei Nikolsky/AP Photo/RIA Novosti/Presidential Press Service)

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.