Design and Operational Issues While Tunneling in Firn at the South Pole Station

Locating utilities on the surface at the United States' Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station causes many maintenance problems unique to that environment. The extreme low temperatures, drifting snow, and long, dark winters all restrict easy access to these critical components for most of the year....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Walsh, Michael R.
Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2003
Subjects:
Civil Engineering
Geography
*POLAR REGIONS
*SNOW
*TUNNELING
*WATER TUNNELS
STATIONS
LOW TEMPERATURE
PERFORMANCE(ENGINEERING)
RESEARCH FACILITIES
SOUTH(DIRECTION)
ANTARCTIC REGIONS
*SOUTH POLE STATION
*FIRN
SOUTH POLE
Amundsen Scott South Pole Station
Amundsen-Scott
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Antarctic
South Pole
Antarc*
National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs
South pole
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA417722
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA417722
Description
Summary:Locating utilities on the surface at the United States' Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station causes many maintenance problems unique to that environment. The extreme low temperatures, drifting snow, and long, dark winters all restrict easy access to these critical components for most of the year. To avoid these problems, a tunneling system to drive tunnels in the dense, hard firn at the South Pole was designed and built for the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs. From 1996 through 2002, a series of 2 3-m tunnels were driven for the water system for both the current station and the new station at the pole. This report describes the design and operational problems that were addressed while driving these tunnels at Pole.

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