The entrance.
Some exterior views. The place was spotless. Well maintained.
Inside there were desert, savannah and other biomes
This was the beach
The rainforest.
Now let me try and explain what this is. It's like a lung that breathes. It was an enormous circular room. Above our heads was a floating metal disk weighing something like 5 tons. It was surrounded by a rubber baffle like thing. We had entered through a long tunnel. The warm air and the cool air are exchanged down this tunnel. The tour guide opened a door to the outside world and we watched this huge metal disk begin to descend. When we exited through the door it was like jumping out of an aeroplane as the air rushed into the dome. This is a horrible explanation. Maybe Beth can do better. But it was the most impressive thing I've ever seen.
About 20 years ago they had 8 people living for 2 years in the Biosphere. They don't call it a failed experiment because they learned so much about what todo and what not to do. They discovered they didn't have enough trees to keep the oxygen levels up. That they needed more protein in their diet. They were tired all the time because of these deficiences and got cranky. These are some of their rooms, a meeting room, the kitchen and a living room with bedroom upstairs.
I hope you enjoyed this tour as much as we did and strongly recommend a visit here. There are still many ongoing experiments. One of them being finding out why the Pinon Trees in this area are dying. They have found out that while they can withstand drought, infestations with the Pine Bark Beetle, becuase of a 4 degree rise in temperatures lately, it has just tipped them over the edge. They seal of areas and deprive them of water, or heat, or light and see the effects. Not only on the plants, but the bacterias that live in the soil.
