The Drills
Engineers drilled each of IceCube’s 1.6-foot-wide, 1.5-mile-deep holes in about two days. They started with a coiled heating element called a firn drill (above) to melt the first 250 feet of snow into water.
To burrow through the remaining mile or so of rock-hard ice, they used the Enhanced Hot Water Drill (below). It circulates cold melted water to the surface, where it’s re-heated and pumped back into the drill.
Images: IceCube/University of Wisconsin-Madison/NSF
