A New Home

Researchers at the South Pole have some fancy new digs to brag about. The famous geodesic dome was actually a nightmare to deal with as the snow kept drifting over it. The new Amundsen-Scott station has a whole new high-tech design.

The designers of the new station faced innumerable unique obstacles.

One of the most daunting is snow cover. Eight inches of snow accumulate every year, without ever melting, in an environment that routinely sees zero humidity and temperatures of minus 73 Celsius (-100° F). Winds create snowdrifts that inevitably bury low-lying buildings in months. The current station is constructed beneath a 50-meter diameter geodesic dome that is largely covered in the austral winter. So every year, bulldozer crews spend the summer excavating the dome. To avoid a "bowl effect" of snow buildup in the surrounding area, crews now have to push the snow nearly a mile away, expending precious fuel.

The dome is showing signs of structural fatigue from years of excessive and unevenly distributed snow loading, and the enclosure is no longer adequate for a growing population of scientists and operations personnel. The original 1956 South Pole station suffered the same fate, and has long since vanished under 30 feet of ice.

To meet the challenge of drifting snow, the new station is designed with the profile of a sleek airplane wing. It is elevated and faces into the prevailing near-constant 10 to 15 mph wind, which flows above and below the station. The fast-moving winds beneath the station effectively help scour the area of snow, thereby greatly reducing the need for manual excavation. However, because some snow buildup is inevitable, the building also sits on 36 uniquely designed hydraulic jack columns that allow the 65,000-square-foot structure to be raised in 25-centimeter (10-inch) increments, thereby effectively adding decades to its building life.

A home on stilts. The NSF website has video tours of the new facility and some fabulous photos as well.

Other Links to this Post

1. Blue Crab Boulevard » Terra Nova — Wednesday, 13 December , 2006 @ 11:02 am