The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by phyzome on Thursday July 12, 2018 @06:47PM (#17519259)

Off-topic: Imagine discovering the IceCube detector 10,000 years from now, and trying to figure out what it was for.

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Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by ggambetta on Friday July 13, 2018 @04:49AM (#17521429)

If archaeologists 10k years in the future are like their present day counterparts, they'll conclude it was built for ritual purposes :)

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Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by bacon_waffle on Friday July 13, 2018 @02:22AM (#17520883)

I guess the details will depend on whether it happens before or after the discovery of the giant poo-bergs nearby :).

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Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by redcalx on Friday July 13, 2018 @03:01AM (#17521013)

I believe all the poo is taken away.

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Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by bacon_waffle on Friday July 13, 2018 @03:16AM (#17521061)

Nope, at South Pole it's pumped in to the ice. In general, there's an amazing amount of refuse down there, it's a very expensive place to ship things out from...

The water supply for the station comes from a rodwell, which is effectively a big bubble of molten ice, sustained by heat from the diesel generators. Once the rodwell gets to a certain size, some water can be extracted for use on station, and the bubble lowers progressively in to the ice. Eventually, the liquid surface in the well gets too deep for the pump in the well to pump water all the way to the surface, so a new well is started.

Waste water then goes in to the void left from the old well; poo, gunk off the dirty dishes, etc all included.

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