Dr. Ray Davis inspects his neutrino detector under construction in the Homestake gold mine. (1965)
A laboratory 4,850 feet underground in the Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota, helped start a revolution in physics.
Dr. Ray Davis installed a neutrino detector in Homestake in 1965. Neutrinos are subatomic particles produced by fusion in stars, and over the course of three decades, the Davis experiment led to the discovery that the neutrinos produced in our sun change type, or "flavor," on their way to earth. The change in flavor meant neutrinos had to have at least a wisp of mass -- a wisp that required a significant change in the Standard Model of how the universe works.
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds joins scientists who are already working at the Sanford Underground Laboratory. Click here to watch on YouTube
The DUSEL Plan
An NSF DUSEL at Homestake The National Science Foundation’s DUSEL at Homestake, would have campuses from the surface down to 8,000 feet. Click Here...
Davis excavation
By late last week, a Sanford Underground Lab crew had removed 13,000 tons of rock to enlarge the Davis Cavern and create the new Transition Cavern in a campus 4,850 feet underground. The crew of 11, which includes nine former Homestake miners, has been working two 10-hour shifts a day to complete the project.
The rock is being disposed of nearly 2 miles away, in old stopes and drifts 150 feet deeper on the 5,000-foot level. Once the muck is removed from the Davis Cavern, rock bolts will be installed in the lower ribs (walls) of the cavern. Excavation and mucking continues in the Transition Cavern, but that work should be complete by early to mid-September, according to Construction Manager Will McElroy. The two caverns also will get coats of shotcrete. The cost of excavating and shotcreting the Davis and Transition caverns will be about $2.8 million.
LEAD — Though Vicki Franzen lives in Rapid City, her dentist and
optometrist are both in Lead. She spends a significant amount of time
and money in the old mining town as she works to advance a proposal to
build a deep underground science and engineering laboratory.
Franzen, who works for RESPECin Rapid City, is one
of the many local employees who are working on the DUSEL project and
spending money in the area. Franzen’s company is working to dogeotechnical characterizationin
the mine so DUSEL project managers can submit a set of detailed plans
for the National Science Foundation to consider when the agency decides
whether to build a multi-million dollar underground lab in Lead.
An NSF DUSEL at Homestake The National Science Foundation’s DUSEL at Homestake, would have campuses from the surface down to 8,000 feet. Click Here...
By late last week, a Sanford Underground Lab crew had removed 13,000 tons of rock to enlarge the Davis Cavern and create the new Transition Cavern in a campus 4,850 feet underground. The crew of 11, which includes nine former Homestake miners, has been working two 10-hour shifts a day to complete the project.
