Desert Dome (Desert Week 2)
Welcome to the second annual GSS Desert Week! In time-honoured tradition, we’ll mostly be posting about deserts. For about a week!
The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, is renowned across the US for exhibits like the largest cat complex in North America, the world’s largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp, and the world’s largest indoor rainforest.
The reason we’re here today however, is that under the world’s largest glazed geodesic dome we find the world’s largest indoor desert, which is home to plants and animals from the Namib Desert, the Australian Outback, and the Sonoran Desert.
The dome has two interior levels covering 7,800 sq m (84,000 sq ft), and rises nearly 42 m (137 ft) above ground. True to the form of the best geodesic domes, there are no internal supports, with the structure’s 1,760 triangles providing all the strength it needs to remain standing.
Dubious claims to fame aside, the zoo does fantastic work in animal conservation and research, and was voted Best Zoo in America 2004 by Reader’s Digest.
Thanks to Juicio.
There’s more information at the Henry Doorly Zoo Official site and Wikipedia page.
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I’m not 100% sure but I think the largest indoor rainforest is the one here: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
But indoor desert sounds fascinating anyway!
Well, after all the sites I’ve checked, the most recent update is that the largest indoor rainforest is still at the Henry Doorly Zoo.
Yeah. Wikipedia is a little bit confusing with all the different areas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Doorly_Zoo#Lied_Jungle
while for the zurich zoo has just got one area stated here:
http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/masoala_factsheet.pdf
the question is: which one is it…
What do you suppose are the odds? The NCAA Division 1 College Baseball World Series is being played (and televised) right now (June 2009) in Rosenblatt Stadium.
That is the Baseball stadium adjacent to the Desert Dome. You can see the dome in
the background of the home plate camera shots of the game. Check it out on ESPN.