What happened to dome houses? Shop possibility?

[Mike Soaper]

"I suppose areas with lots of snow will have problems of collapse at the base."

It was issues with the base ring of the Antarctica south pole dome which caused the need for its replacement. Seems one year they heard a loud crack and its investigation found other ring problems caused by the settling snow/ice below it.

I was at Mcmurdo Antarctica for a bit in 74-75 when the dome was being completed. I heard then that it took longer than expected to complete because the cold caused issues with the materials fitting together correctly, I've wondered if maybe the cold caused enough prefab material shrinkage to throw the geometry off a bit. That said, bad weather and loss of an aircraft probably also slowed its construction.

The dome itself wasn't heated but was used to protect the buildings and items within from snow and wind.

a quick read U.S. South Pole Station | NSF - National Science Foundation

here's a link on building it Building the Dome (southpolestation.com)

[Wes Grass]

Where did I see 'freeze/thaw' cycles pushing posts out of the ground?

[Mike Soaper]

Where did I see 'freeze/thaw' cycles pushing posts out of the ground?

Well, my guess is that freeze/thaw cycles would happen at McMurdo before it happens at the S. Pole. When I was there, some of the buildings at McMurdo were on piers/posts in the ground, not snow

A quick search came across this saying freeze/thaw on posts are an issue at McMurdo McMurdo Foundation Pre-Design Study.pdf (usap.gov).

[Bill Dufour]

Dome we stayed in had newish vinyl plank floors. There was a soft spot about under the center peak. I assume it had leaked and rotted out floor. Probably a cheap contractor did not replace plywood subfloor or roof leaked later. The roof was also newish asphalt shingles.
BilL D

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Now that is a dome! Bucky would be so proud!

Screen Shot 2024-02-18 at 8.08.36 PM.jpg

Thanks for that Mike Soaper! What an experience that must have been!

[Mike Soaper]

You're welcome Maurice!, glad someone found it interesting.

It was definitely an experience and would go back if I could. Awesome landscapes, Scotts hut, pengiuns, seals, killer wales, colbalt blue ice/ice bergs, helping science.

Most of my time there was between Willy field skiway which was about 8 miles from McMurdo and located on an ice shelf, and the ice runway over annual sea ice. Back then, the ice runway was about 10' thick sea ice that wheeled planes like C-130's and C-141's could use early in the spring (our fall) until the ice would get too thin and begin to breakup. At that point only planes with skis would begin using Willie field which was on thick snow, over ice, over water. That Williams field was named after a guy that died when his D8 tractor fell thru the ice was a bit of a constant reminder of some of the hazards.

I never made it to the dome at the pole but did make a early flight to dome Charlie which is not a geodesic dome but a land formation at about 10,000' high on the Antarctic plateau. That day, from altitude it looked like dry ice with it's low hazy vapors, after the open field landing it looked about the same. The "vapors"/haze were just ice crystals, baby snowflakes. I don't know what the temp was there that day but remember thinking it felt a lot colder than -40 i had seen at willie field

About 2 weeks later one of our C-130's crashed at Dome Charlie while using jato during takeoff. Jato are rocket bottles strapped to the fuselage of the plane for additional thrust. One of the jato bottles broke from it's mooring and went thru one of the wings. One of the rescue planes also crashed taking off from there. Its nose ski started to bounce on the rough ice, the front ski strut broke and the plane plowed into the ice and snow.

As i understand it, later a third plane sent with a tractor and equipment to repair those planes also crashed due to a Jato issue. Eventually all of the planes were repaired enough in the field to fly out for additional repairs and go back in to service. Here's a link for those interested in those crashes and repairs Old Dome Charlie, 1974-1977 (gdargaud.net)

apologies for going off topic

[Maurice Mcmurry]

A neighbor out at the woodlot is turning a grain bin into a house. Images coming soon.

The craftsmanship is a little sketchy but it is sort of cute.

IMG_20240225_164108411_HDR.jpg

And the fantasy silo penthouse site.

[Alan Lightstone]

You're welcome Maurice!, glad someone found it interesting.

It was definitely an experience and would go back if I could. Awesome landscapes, Scotts hut, pengiuns, seals, killer wales, colbalt blue ice/ice bergs, helping science.

Most of my time there was between Willy field skiway which was about 8 miles from McMurdo and located on an ice shelf, and the ice runway over annual sea ice. Back then, the ice runway was about 10' thick sea ice that wheeled planes like C-130's and C-141's could use early in the spring (our fall) until the ice would get too thin and begin to breakup. At that point only planes with skis would begin using Willie field which was on thick snow, over ice, over water. That Williams field was named after a guy that died when his D8 tractor fell thru the ice was a bit of a constant reminder of some of the hazards.

I never made it to the dome at the pole but did make a early flight to dome Charlie which is not a geodesic dome but a land formation at about 10,000' high on the Antarctic plateau. That day, from altitude it looked like dry ice with it's low hazy vapors, after the open field landing it looked about the same. The "vapors"/haze were just ice crystals, baby snowflakes. I don't know what the temp was there that day but remember thinking it felt a lot colder than -40 i had seen at willie field

About 2 weeks later one of our C-130's crashed at Dome Charlie while using jato during takeoff. Jato are rocket bottles strapped to the fuselage of the plane for additional thrust. One of the jato bottles broke from it's mooring and went thru one of the wings. One of the rescue planes also crashed taking off from there. Its nose ski started to bounce on the rough ice, the front ski strut broke and the plane plowed into the ice and snow.

As i understand it, later a third plane sent with a tractor and equipment to repair those planes also crashed due to a Jato issue. Eventually all of the planes were repaired enough in the field to fly out for additional repairs and go back in to service. Here's a link for those interested in those crashes and repairs Old Dome Charlie, 1974-1977 (gdargaud.net)

apologies for going off topic

Thanks for that, Mike. I found it very interesting.
I'm still dying to go to the South Pole. Quite a number of my mentor anesthesiologists at Mass General spent time doing research in Antarctica. Warren Zapol (who basically invented ECMO which has saved countless lives, most recently during the bad COVID times) was honored with a glacier named after him. He and I published a paper describing how we (really I) saved a woman who intraoperatively had bled down to the lowest recorded red blood cell (hemoglobin) level in history and survived. Still the World's record. So quite a bit of anesthesiology research in Antarctica on hypothermia with Weddell seals. It's one of the reasons open heart surgery became possible.