Construction of the exhibit in pictures

Early experiments

Image: Initially we performed many experiments on small prototypes made out of coke bottles and such to work out all the technical details. This image shows Andrew Borden, an Earth Semester student who helped tremendously in the early phases of the project.
Image: Our second prototype consisted of a self built sand filled plexi glass box, which allowed us to test the wells, the sandpacking and various other construction elements.

Image: We used acrylic plastic tubes cut at an angle at the bottom as observation wells. We created screens by gluing a fine plastic mesh over the end and drilled out the otehr end to insert a small barbed fitting.
Image: The pumping wells were equipped with a larger diameter screen with holes all around covered with the same mesh.
Image: The wells were then attached to the inside of the sand tank box.
Image: Mountains were constructed from PVC sheet and aluminum wiremesh.
Image: The mesh was attached with metal scres to the PVC.
Image: The mountains were then formed using an epoxy putty.
Image: Springs in the mountains were created by drilling small holes into the mountain and attaching tubing to barbed fittings inserted into the holes.
Image: The next step was the installation of the drain in the front left corner.
Image: We drilled a hole for an NPT - barbed hose fitting and added a screen with a gavel filter behind it.
Image: It was then time to fill the tank with cleaned sand of various grain sizes. The inserted empty acrylic box aloowed us to limit the amount of sand that we needed to add.
Image: The sandfill in the lower part of the box consists of only two ~1 inch wide columns on the left and front side.
Image: This picture shows the front of the sand tank with the lenses created by using sand of various grain sizes. We also began to add small quantities of degassed water to saturate the tank from the bottom up.
more to come

Image: The complete exhibit
Image: The big sand tank in context
Image: The small tank in context
Image: Overflow and dye injection system for the small tank
Image: Membrane pump for pumping the wells and peristaltic pumps for dye injection into landfill, steams and fractures.
Image: Detail of the dye injection pumps
Image: One-gallon dye containers in the large tank module
Image: Pumps and valve assembly from the back
Image: Rain distribution system and springs in the mountains
Image: Fractures in mountains on the side
Image: Inner box from the left side
Image: Syringes for manual pumping the wells
Image: Toilet tank as reservoir for fresh water below the big sand tank
Image: Submersible pumps for water supply in toilet tank
Image: Wet streams near the drain
Image: Dry streams after pump was turned on
Image: Timer for controlling dye injection and rain events, automatic operation mode
Image: Switches for manual operation
Image: Power distribution in large tank module
Image: hoses connecting the modules in the back
Image: drain and water supply behind the exhibit