Anyone know what this structure is?

[jrichard]

[This is only tangentially hiking related, so feel free to move or delete as needed. I tried googling around, but didn't find anything.]

On the way to the Ossipees, on Rt 28 north of Epsom Circle there is a strange hubcap-shaped structure visible from the road (see the attached photo).

Anyone know what this is? Do we have a little bit of Area 51 up here in New Hampshire?

 

[Kevin Rooney]

There are some similar structures near where I now live that are used in the 'settling' process for waste treatment. I don't know if that one is for a similar purpose, however.

 

[peakbagger]

The object is a geodesic dome which is the least expensive way to cover a tank. If the tank is off on its own on a hillside, its probably a cover for drinking water storage tank used to store a large amount of water for fire and daytime use. If its along a river bank downstream of a town its probably a primary clarifier on a Waste Water Treatment Plant used to keep the odors from the treatment process from offending the neighbors. If its out in farm territory, its probably a cover over a manure storage area. In some areas, this technique is used to collect methane from the cow manure.

 

[dRitter]

Looks to me like a bonafide holstein shit dome. Great way to cover a cowflop collection on a farm and let it liquefy for spraying on a field in spring. Easier than getting your back painted by the traditional manure spreader as the snow retreats, but then again you won't get to shoot pigeons as they collect to feed on recently covered fields like you do on a manure spreader.

In the midwest the equivalent is a huge plastic tank the size of a swimming pool where you can collect cow poo all winter and then fling it about in the spring to let all your neighbors enjoy.

 

[rup]

It's one of them there UFO things that ain't supposed to exist.