South Pole

These are pics of South Pole Station from the air.  I didn't take any of these since I didn't get the chance to goto the Pole but they're still cool pics.

 The South Pole marker is just below that biggest set of buildings. You can see the semi-circle of all the flags that surround it.  There are actually 2 markers. There is the ceremonial marker where the flags are and the magnetic pole marker.

Poo Diving

So, this will be likely be the most icky post I make, but the world isn't all sunshine and lollipops, now is it!? Haha

So every year apparently they have to do maintenance to the poo digesters to keep them in good working order.  So they ask for volunteers to help out.  Hearing the words "poo diving" and "slop bucket" when they asked for volunteers was enough for me to be busy that day.  However there are obviously several other people much less selfish than I am who did volunteer. So I thank them.

This is the guy that runs the waste water treatment plant...

 Notice the tank on the left is nice and full up to the top.  What is that, about 20 feet of poo water, mmmmmm...

Water & Power Plant

I found these pics and thought they might interest some of you.  The first set is over at the power plant and the second is at the water treatment plant.

Power Plant

 Looks like backup batteries.  It can't be backup for the town. I think it's probably battery power for the lights and electronic systems in case there is an outage...

 These generators are beasts. You've gotta wear 2 layers of hearing protection to go in and the whole place vibrates from those suckers...

Looks like heat exchangers...

 

 Lots of meters and buttons to push...

Water Treatment Plant

Apparently they desalinate 50,000 gallons of sea water a day for town use.  Tastes delicioussss

 I don't know much about any of this stuff. I'm pretty sure the white tubes are part of the desalination system...

These are all carbon dioxide cylinders.  Since they're all painted red and connected into a big manifold my guess is that it's part of the fire suppression system.  The water treatment plant is pretty important since we only have one.  I can't imagine how bad things would get if that place burned down.  We'd probably be melting snow for drinking water, while we waited for the weather to clear enough to evacuate, assuming that could even be done at all. Lets just hope those little red bottles do their job if God forbid they're ever needed!

 This looks like it might be where they do tests on the water to make sure it's clean and all that...