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Vince’s Cross

George Vince’s cross is a popular destination for visitors to McMurdo Station, the U.S. research base in Antarctica, and New Zealand’s Scott Base. MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Laura Stevens made the trek recently when she visited the southernmost continent to retrieve some instruments placed two years ago on the Ross Ice Shelf. The instruments measured vibrations in the ice caused by waves breaking on the seaward edge of the shelf. Vince was a member of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913 led by Adm. Scott and was the first man to lose his life in Antarctica when he fell from the cliff during a storm.(Photo by Laura Stevens, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)