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Farewell To the South Pole Dome
Julie188 writes "After more than three decades of service to researchers and staff stationed at the bottom of the world, the dome at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was deconstructed this austral summer. Designed and constructed by the Seabees — the construction battalions of the US Navy — in the early 1970s, the dome's geodesic design provided a unique solution to the challenges posed to engineers trying to build structures at the South Pole. The dome is being returned to southern California where it will be held in storage. It could possibly be trotted out as an exhibit in a new US Navy Seabees museum."
Great, how do they know that in the past 28 years The Thing hasn't managed to figure out how to assimilate non-living matter and is now the dome? Just sitting there, waiting in the cold.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
How's that for tying two classics together?
Trolling is a art,
Guess they are also getting rid of the F-302s at McMurdo. Homeworld security must not be important to the current administration.
For anyone interested here is the link on the NSF page showing the old site and the new facility. Pretty cool (pardon the pun).
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
"Dismantled" would be a better choice.
Of course I may be wrong. Perhaps the Seabees really have been standing around considering the the dome's true meaning and searching for inconsistencies in its design.
Proverbs 21:19
It would be awfully nice if submitters would include links to sites with pictures where you don't have enable 50 scripts just to see a jpeg. For example, linking to wikipedia is a no brainer that would save a million keystrokes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scott_South_Pole_Station
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
I live down the street, and the new building is much nicer. Parking is a pain, though.
Because TFS couldn't be bothered to give a hint as to why I will...
"The dome could no longer accommodate the demands of research activities taking place there, however, and each year the structure sunk deeper into the ice it was built on. Blowing snow that collected on top of it had to be removed and hauled away, burning up precious fuel and crew time during the short austral summer. The international treaty that governs human activities in Antarctica requires that buildings and equipment no longer in use be removed and the site remediated whenever possible, necessitating the dome's deconstruction and removal."
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
Snow covering it is sinking into the snow. Same effect. Snow covers it each year but never melts. The next year, more snow covers it.
Meanwhile, the entire glacier is slowly squirting out at all sides towards the sea. The net effect is a glacier that's not necessarily getting any thicker, but items sitting on top of it effectively "sink" in the additional snowfall as any given layer moves down and out to the sea.
The new station can be jacked up on hydraulics up to two stories "higher" than its current position. As the layer its supports are buried in sinks, the building can be kept level.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
I'm one of the 47 down here for the 2010 Winter season, the crew is missing the Dome. It was an icon in Antarctica, and this place feels like it's missing something without it. Someone pointed earlier to Spindler's website http://www.southpolesation.com/ where there is much more on the deconstruction from the unofficial South Pole historian. -- http://www.artificialpulse.com/