Thursday, March 05, 2015

Doomsday Vault

As you may or may not know, some many years ago, back in the 80s I believe, the Viking countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland) built a giant underground vault on the island of Svalbad. The island lies in the Arctic and was chosen because it was 130 meters above the sea level, set in a layer of permafrost and had an ample supply of coal locally that enables it to maintain its own energy.

Even if the electricity failed, the vault is so cold it would last for several hundred years. If all the ice caps melted it would remain above sea level. In short it has everything it needs to survive a global catastrophe except the ability for normal humans to actually get to it.

Its designed to hold crop seeds in case of a global catastrophe. In this way if something happens in Ukraine that destroys the vegetation there, the vault can be accessed and the land brought back to normal.

Its in the news lately because they've added some tree seeds to it. Some pine trees. Which they should really just put all trees in there, because trees are pretty cool.


I can just image another ice destroying our civilization and sometime, during the thaw, in our distant future, some half wild primitive men stumble upon the frozen vault. Find the footprints of a long dead civilization.

They would probably just eat the seeds and move on.


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