Despite the fact that geophysicists study the earth below our feet and astrophysicists look to the skies, sometimes the best location for conducting scientific research in both fields is actually in the same place.
Antarctica, the southernmost continent at the edge of the world, though hostile and difficult to travel to, holds this special key for unlocking both the mysteries of the cosmos and the traces of earthquakes.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, whose principal investigator Francis Halzen was just awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, sits at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and surveys the ice for signs of elusive cosmic particles.
IceCube is an astrophysical observatory located at the geographical South Pole, where thousands of sensors have been drilled into the ice. Its goal is to detect mysterious and fleeting cosmic particles called neutrinos, which originate from fusion processes in stars. But they can also be created from other violent cosmic events like supernovae, which send the guts of stars hurtling out into the universe. Detection of these particles over the last decade — the first detection in 2013 and the first detection of a neutrino from outside the galaxy in 2018 — has ignited astrophysical research with a greater understanding of how the universe works.
Casting a net for faint particles
Neutrinos are notoriously difficult to detect — billions of them pass through our bodies every second unnoticed. Conventional observation methods, like telescopes, can’t detect them directly, and even where possible, large detection areas must be used to observe enough collisions. But astrophysicists can use the ice sheets of Antarctica to pick up their fingerprints. Cherenkov radiation, a type of light emitted from neutrinos, can be detected when they travel through a material like ice.
But to get a chance to see this fingerprint, astrophysicists need a lot of ice. Enter Antarctica. Halzen envisioned the southernmost continent as the prime location for a giant neutrino detector. But it’s not just the ice that makes it a fantastic option. The South Pole is in the middle of the Antarctic Plate, isolating it from tectonic forces typically felt along the margins of plates. Without major earthquakes to disturb or skew observations, IceCube was established at the South Pole in 2011. To make their observations, astrophysicists drilled strings of neutrino detectors into the ice at depths between 1,450 and 2,450 meters across one cubic kilometer.
The quiet place
Geophysicists have also had their eye on the South Pole — but for the opposite reason. While the South Pole shields IceCube directly from the devastating consequences of earthquakes, it turns out that it is the perfect location for detecting teleseismic signals from earthquakes across the globe.
This is because the South Pole is one end of Earth’s axis of spin. Everywhere else on Earth experiences some degree of rotational force (except, of course, at the other end of the spin axis — the North Pole). When an earthquake happens, it rings out through the solid Earth in the form of waves, but these waves become distorted by the rotational force of Earth’s spin, making their source location and magnitude more difficult to interpret by seismometers around the globe. Seismometers at the South Pole, though, would be able to detect these earthquake signals without the distorting effects of Earth’s rotation.
While the margins of Antarctica are peppered with seismic stations, there’s only been one, lonely counterpart at the South Pole. QSPA, a broadband seismic station, was installed in 1957 and has provided crucial data to the United States Geological Survey’s Global Seismographic Network (GSN), but it needed some extra help to detect low-frequency global seismic waves as it aged. Additional seismometers alongside QSPA would help reduce low-frequency noise and also more reliably correct for fluctuations of pressure and magnetic field.
The GSN is an earthquake monitoring system that spans the globe, using seismometers to detect and locate earthquakes. This network plays a crucial role in earthquake early warning and forecasting systems, including secondary hazards like tsunamis and landslides. Increasing the fidelity of the GSN’s catalog with new and modern South Pole seismometers means boosting global earthquake preparedness.
And in 2025, the groundwork for bringing these seismometers to the South Pole was laid, with a big helping hand from IceCube. The USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory partnered with IceCube to install two seismometers — dubbed the loneliest seismometers in the world — to finally stitch up this observation gap. Thanks to IceCube’s established presence in Antarctica, collaboration was easy.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is the name of the game
Much like the neutrino sensors drilled into icy boreholes, the new GSN seismometers needed to be installed deep within the ice. There, they’d encounter conditions particularly unfriendly for their sensitive instrumentation. Extreme pressures from the compaction of the ice sheet, brutal temperatures reaching -50 C, and a hostile magnetic climate all conspire to wear down seismometers.
Luckily, the problem of an extra harsh environment was already solved by IceCube’s research team, which also had to contend with this hurdle for their own neutrino sensors. With the help of a company called Nanometrics, the GSN seismometers were installed within specially-made pressure vessels to protect them from this harsh Antarctic subterranean environment.
After rigorous testing in Albuquerque and coordinating logistics to slot their delivery into the Antarctic field season, the GSN seismometers were installed just over 2400 meters (just over a mile and a half!) below the surface of the ice in early 2026. Now, they’re taking data and adding high-quality information to the GSN’s earthquake detection system.
Installation of these two seismometers — and the expansion of the GSN — would not have been possible without a collaboration with IceCube. While focused on different scientific goals, scientists working in Antarctica overcome common challenges with shared infrastructure and innovations.