369
Doomsday Vault
February 26, 2008 not far from the Norwegian village Longyir the official opening of Svalbard Global Seed Vault - «Doomsday Vault," where Norwegians are going to store the four and a half million seeds collected from around the world, in case of any global catastrophe - nuclear war, Global Warming or asteroid impact. Storage is located in the interior of a large mountain, it leads to a tunnel length of 120 meters, special inserts and airtight doors which will protect the seed from any external influence. The store will operate in virtually autonomous mode without personnel - only once a year here will come a special team for verification.
Cary Fowler (Cary Fowler), executive secretary of the Foundation Global Crop Diversity: «We studied the distant future. We looked at the radiation level in the mountain and on the stability of the geological structure of the area. We simulated climate change on the most catastrophic scenario for 200 years to come, including the melting of ice sheets at both poles and in Greenland to verify that in this case the selected area for the construction site will be above the level of the sea. "
Storage Foundation will be regularly updated. Some cultures, biologists explain, can maintain their viability for only 20-30 years of storage, while others - tens or even hundreds of years.
Now in the world there are about 1, 4000 these seed banks. But most of them may be affected by natural disasters, war or simply a lack of funding. In contrast, the Norwegian project is devoid of these disadvantages. The Norwegian state has spent on the construction of the repository, which took about a year, $ 8 million.
Source:
Cary Fowler (Cary Fowler), executive secretary of the Foundation Global Crop Diversity: «We studied the distant future. We looked at the radiation level in the mountain and on the stability of the geological structure of the area. We simulated climate change on the most catastrophic scenario for 200 years to come, including the melting of ice sheets at both poles and in Greenland to verify that in this case the selected area for the construction site will be above the level of the sea. "
Storage Foundation will be regularly updated. Some cultures, biologists explain, can maintain their viability for only 20-30 years of storage, while others - tens or even hundreds of years.
Now in the world there are about 1, 4000 these seed banks. But most of them may be affected by natural disasters, war or simply a lack of funding. In contrast, the Norwegian project is devoid of these disadvantages. The Norwegian state has spent on the construction of the repository, which took about a year, $ 8 million.
Source:
