Doomsday Vault (World Seed Vault)
Doomsday Vault is a figurative name for the World Seed Vault located on Svalbard. The Norwegians, the initiators of the project, have set themselves an ambitious task – to provide a strategic reserve of plant seeds from all corners of the planet in case of a global catastrophe. Whether people provoke the death of the Earth’s green shell or external forces will cause it – it does not matter: the powerful construction will withstand any cataclysms. It is no coincidence that the dry official name was quickly replaced by a bright metaphor of “Doomsday”, because the contents of the storage will be in demand when the bulk of humanity will cease to exist.
Video: Doomsday Vault
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In the second half of the 20th century, seed safety buildings were built in all developed countries of the world. The Svalbard project was a fundamentally new stage in the development of a well-thought-out idea. According to the idea of the authors, who calculated all variants of human history development, the vault should be something like a bank room with cells, where each state will place duplicates of seeds from its national funds. If disaster strikes in the plant’s homeland, there will always be hope for northern reserves. International financial funds have praised the idea and invested almost 10 million dollars in it together with the Norwegian government. Construction began in 2006, and already in 2008 the storage facility received its first batch of seeds.
Why Svalbard?
There were two reasons for choosing the island – geographical, which is more significant, and political. The climatic disadvantages of the archipelago turned into pluses when predicting the success of the project. In conditions of permafrost, because of which Svalbard does not even have its own cemetery, it is easier to ensure the safety of reserves in case of breakdown of all equipment and less energy costs for maintenance of equipment. The facility is built at an altitude of 130 meters above sea level. This guarantees that a potential worldwide flood, which would be triggered by the melting ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, will avoid it. The region lies outside the seismic danger zone, so earthquakes do not threaten the reinforced concrete bunker either. The west coast of Spitsbergen is located outside the comfortable zones for human habitation, but it is not as far from densely populated centers of civilization as, for example, the northern regions of Russia, and even in case of transport collapse it will not be difficult to get to it.
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What is stored in the bunker today
The roof of the vault.https://trevaladvisor.com/img%img/Hranilishe-Sudnogo-dnyareterte/krysha-khranilishcha-2.jpg” alt=””/>%’
The facade and roof of the building are decorated with steel reflective triangles of various sizes. They are complemented by prisms and backlit mirrors. The futuristic composition reflects polar light in the summer months, while in winter a network of 200 fiber-optic cables colors the seed vault in muted greenish turquoise and white. Due to the shimmering colors and the play of light, which are only enhanced by the surrounding snow, the building is interesting to view up close and from afar, at different times of the day and year. The object symbolizes the diversity of life, which is hidden in the vault and reflected to the whole world through a large prism.
.How to get to the facility
Technically, the Doomsday Vault is located within the town of Longyear. This modest village with rows of brightly colored houses and only 2000 inhabitants is the official capital of the archipelago. In fact, the object is built at a distance of about a kilometer south of the runway of the local airport, and to the nearest housing from here is another 3 km in the eastern direction. Domestic tourists can travel to Svalbard without a visa if they somehow get on a flight carrying shift workers from Russia. Other travelers prefer to come here by plane from the largest cities of Norway – Oslo and Tromsø. In recent decades, summer sea cruises along the coasts of the northern part of the country have become popular. Another way to fully enjoy the advantages of the archipelago is to enroll in the Svalbard International University, opened right in Longyear. It trains specialists in Arctic biology, geology, geophysics and engineers working in the Far North. The training program is distinguished by the abundance of hours of field practice in extreme conditions, requiring from the students a great deal of health.
.Precautions for traveling in Svalbard
The lack of people on the island more than compensates for the abundance of polar bears, which are not afraid to enter the territory of settlements and tourist camps. Natives go out for a walk with rifles, the first classes of university students begin with shooting training. If a bear is spotted, a person should leave the danger zone as soon as possible, sometimes helicopters are sent to help potential victims. In case of immediate threat to life it is allowed to kill predators, but in the future the governor of Spitsbergen will personally investigate the incident, determining whether the limits of necessary self-defense. Those who are not intimidated by the cold, the animals, or the paucity of architectural impressions on a visit to the Doomsday Vault will have an unforgettable experience of the rugged northern landscape. Cliffs descending to the water, snow caps on the opposite shore of the Adventfjord, only in summer giving way to rare grass, calm sea and cheerful houses of all colors of the rainbow – such will remain in the memory of travelers who climbed the mountain to the entrance to the vault, Svalbard.
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