Excavation of colossal caverns for Fermilab’s DUNE experiment completed

A bird’s eye view of one of the large caverns in South Dakota, about the height of a seven-story building. Large particle detectors for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment will be placed here to study the behavior of neutrinos. The DUNE detectors are expected to be the largest underground cryogenic system in the world. Photo: Matthew Kapust, Sanford Underground Research Facility

A conveyor carried almost 800,000 tons of rock, excavated a mile underground, into the Open Cut in Lead, South Dakota. Photo: Stephen Kenny, Sanford Underground Research Facility

Construction workers created two colossal caverns, each more than 500 feet long and about seven stories tall, for the gigantic particle detector modules of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab. A third cavern will house utilities for the operation of the detector. Photo: Matthew Kapust, Sanford Underground Research Facility