The Super-Kamiokande is a gigantic tank full of ultra-pure water, lined with hundreds of glass bulbs with ultra-sensitive detectors. It, like the Canadian SNO+ detector, was buried over a mile under tons of rock to shield it from cosmic rays. The goal of these gigantic underground tanks? To detect neutrinos.

Neutrinos and anti-neutrinos are some of the most abundant particles in the universe, but can fly through miles of rock without interacting with a single atom. The Super-Kamiokande was operating to do the same, and help detect supernova that explode massive amounts of the particles. The SNO+ detector was the first to detect an antineutrino in 2018 – from a nuclear reactor operating over 150 miles away.

Despite planning, the Super-Kamiokande experience a catastrophic failure on November 12, 2001. One of the photomultiplier tubes imploded. Despite having thought of this issue,  in a chain reaction, as the shock wave from the concussion of each imploding tube cracked its neighbors. Around 6,600 tubes were destroyed in just moments. The detector was partially restored by redistributing the photomultiplier tubes which did not implode, and by adding protective acrylic shells that are hoped will prevent another chain reaction from recurring