Image - John Mcconmico / AP
On May 18 in the newspaper »The Guardian»A somewhat curious piece of news was published: Svalbard's doomsday vault has been flooded by ice melting from high temperatures. In this place, nearly a million seeds of a great variety of plants are kept so that, in the event that they become extinct, they can be recovered, which is fundamental to understanding the importance of biodiversity and the end of the world in our ecosystem.
Sure. When such a place is flooded, it is normal to worry; not in vain, tomorrow we could need those seeds. But the reality was not so dramatic.
One of the creators of the vault spoke with him »Popular Science"And explained that it had not really flooded, but rather that water entered the tunnel, something that apparently happens regularly, and frozeThe tunnel, which is about a hundred meters long, serves as a walkway into the mountain. Before reaching the vault doors, the ground shifts upward, and it is precisely in this area that water accumulates and is evacuated by two pumps.
»The tunnel was not designed to be waterproof at the front because we did not think it was necessary" he explained. Even so, if more water were to enter, it would soon freeze, since the temperature is -18°C. But a place like this is supposed to be able to sustain itself, so the Norwegian government plans to fix the leak so it doesn't happen again. For more details on climate-related phenomena, you can visit our article on atmospheric phenomena and end of the world.
However, he said that based on the studies he has done, if all the ice melted and a very large tsunami occurred right in front of the dome, there would be no problem, as the vault would still be about five or seven stories above the eventTo better understand the impact of these phenomena affecting the global climate, we can research more about the .
