Observation Hill

Observation Hill, more commonly known “Ob Hill,” is a rocky, 750-foot lava dome towering over McMurdo Station, an Antarctic research station.

The site, now a destination for climbers in search of expansive views, was once home to a nuclear power plant that ran from 1962 to 1972. An empty wooden platform is all that remains.

Ob Hill hosts several other curiosities, including a graveyard of dead vehicles waiting to be shipped off the continent; a live camera offering views of McMurdo Station; and a Memorial Cross at the summit commemorating the lives lost in a 1912 expedition to the South Pole led by explorer Robert Falcon Scott.