The world is preparing for global catastrophes with mystics like Baba Vanga predicting the approach of nuclear wars and apocalypses. In the face of such fateful days, the world is preparing itself with a secret vault that holds something to save humanity in times of crisis. Here’s everything you need to know about this secret ‘doomsday’ vault.
In the icy mountains above the Arctic Circle buried underground lies a huge safety box that’s vital for the future of humankind. It holds the world’s largest collection of, um, seeds! Not coal, not oil, not precious minerals, but seeds. Indeed, food is what humans need to survive the 11th hour. And, this collection of agricultural biodiversity helps the world be ready for the unfortunate.
Located in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, the Global Seed Vault has the capacity to store 4.5 million varieties of crops. The vault safeguards over 1.3 million seed samples from almost every country globally. Each packet consists of around 500 seeds and the vault has room for millions more. These food crop seeds consist of the most diverse collection, from rice, wheat, potato, and lettuce to maize, barley, cowpea, and whatnot. A maximum of about 2.5 billion seeds can be stored in this Seed Vault.
The location to store this ‘treasure’ is strategically chosen. About 800 miles from the North Pole, on an island named Spitsbergen near Norway is a building safeguarding 13,000 years of agricultural history. Svalbard is the ideal location for the seed vault because it is the farthest and the most remote place a person can fly to. It is a vast white expanse of frozen emptiness – perfect for this global repository. It offers a temperature of −18°C even without power to help the seed samples remain frozen with the thick natural rock of Permafrost. The Arctic World Archive is buried 430 ft. down into the mountain away from the dangers of the world. The low temperature and moisture levels ensure that the seeds are viable for long periods.
This ‘secret’ vault is a genebank collection to secure the future food supply if the darkest predictions happen to come true.
