Water breaches Global Seed Vault
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In the permafrost of the Arctic lies a seed reserve meant to save us in the event of global catastrophe, but the seeds may be at risk.
Beneath the permafrost of Svalbard, the Global Seed Vault is the world’s largest store of preserved seeds, home to nearly 500 seeds from around the globe. These seeds have a mission: they will lie dormant in the case some agricultural catastrophe strikes. They will then finally be awoken and sent out to repopulate their species. The seeds’ power lie in their genetics, which make them uniquely effective in dangerous territories: they may be resilient to pests, disease, and other dangers of the environment. The Vault was withdrawn from for the first time in 2015 due to the Syrian Civil War.
To the seeds, the Arctic may seem a far cry from a home, but the permafrost there serves a distinct purpose: in the case of a massive power failure the vault will stabilize at -8 degrees Celsius, continuing to preserve the seeds for decades to come.
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But the ice proved an enemy as well. Last October, due to unusual warmth and rains, the ice melted and infiltrated the vault itself. Thankfully it didn’t get far (it was stopped at the vault’s threshold) and the seeds themselves were left unharmed. Even so, further measures are to be taken: power sources which emit heat will be removed from the tunnel’s entrance, and additional water-proof walls are being erected.
The Crop Trust, an international non-profit which helped found the Vault, says there are threshold leaks almost every year, a byproduct of the design that could never harm the seeds themselves. But they’re still committed to reinforcing the entrance. Better safe than sorry.
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