Soudan Underground Laboratory

Located 2,341 feet beneath the surface, in an old iron mine, the lab is deep enough that particle physics experiments see less than 100,000 times the cosmic radiation than on the surface, allowing sensitive searches for exotic particles like neutrinos and dark matter.

Soudan Underground Laboratory

The MINOS neutrino experiment and the CDMS2 dark matter search are the two largest projects supplemented by several smaller experiments taking advantage of low background radiation to search for dark matter, measure neutron background underground, and assay experimental equipment to ensure radiopurity.

Soudan Underground Laboratory

Summer visitors take tours of the lab and learn about particle astrophysics, and during the school year field trips are popular with Minnesota science classes.

Soudan Underground Laboratory

The only operational deep underground lab in the US. Space and infrastructure available for a wide range of neutrino, dark matter, and low background counting experiments.

The Soudan Underground Laboratory was the leading deep underground science and engineering laboratory in the United States for decades. Scientists from around the world have been working at Soudan for 35 years trying to answer basic questions about the Universe in which we live: Is matter completely stable? What is the nature of the fundamental forces? Can we identify the Dark Matter that seems to permeate our Universe? Today, however, the lab is being decommissioned as existing experiments finish and new experiments go into newer, deeper facilities.
 

Virtual Tour

Live MINOS Event Display

Public Visits and Education

Experiments

Lab History

Joseph Giannetti Mural