What the Doomsday Seed Vault looks like inside: a selection of photos and a virtual tour

At any moment on Earth it can happenlarge-scale catastrophe: a nuclear war, an asteroid fall, a deadly earthquake, and so on. As a result of this incident, not only people and animals, but also many plant species can die. The latter factor can lead to the fact that the surviving people will not have enough food. What to do in such a situation? How will the survivors be able to restore the planet after a terrible disaster? Scientists have been working on this issue for a long time and right now on our planet there are many repositories of plant seeds from all over the world. In the event of a major disaster, the saved seeds can be removed from the containers, planted and restored with the help of the plant world. The largest storage facility for Doomsday seeds is located on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. It looks like a supervillain's lair from the outside, but what's inside? Let's get a look.

From the outside, the Svalbard seed vault looks like a supervillain's lair. What's inside?

The world's first plant seed bank

The first seed storage in the history of mankindwas created in the 1920s by Russian botanist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. It was located in the suburbs of Leningrad and replenished as a result of expeditions to different countries of the world. It is believed that by 1940 there were up to 250 thousand samples in the seed collection. This collection was carefully looked after even during the Great Patriotic War - twelve employees died of starvation, but not a single grain was lost.

For the first time, people thought about creating seed storage facilities at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1976, the Kubanseed genetic bank. It is believed that it contains 260,000 samples of 250 plant cultures. Most of the collection is actively replenished and stored at temperatures ranging from -18 to +4.5 degrees Celsius. The other part of the seeds is used for research.

Seed collection N.I. Vavilov

See also: Photos of the rarest plants in the world - you have not seen them yet

World Seed Vault in Norway

The largest and most famous seed vault in the worldlocated in Svalbard. This is a vast polar archipelago, which is located on the territory of the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost part of Norway.

Doomsday Seed Vault in Svalbard

Construction of the world seed bankwas started in 2006 and completed in 2008. The project was funded by the Norwegian government and cost $9 million. The island of Svalbard was chosen for the construction of the seed vault because it is far from civilization, but it is equipped with roads for heavy transport. In addition, it is very cold there, which is a very important factor for storing plant seeds.

Seed storage in Svalbard at night

The structure is equipped with large gates, whichcan withstand even the most powerful explosions. The vault itself is located at a depth of 120 meters - there are three large halls that can accommodate up to 2.25 billion seeds. At the moment, the collection includes 900 thousand samples, so one room is enough to store them. Seeds are placed in sealed envelopes, which are additionally placed in multilayer plastic bags and containers.

Seed Containers in the Doomsday Vault

Samples are stored at -18 degreeslow oxygen conditions. It is believed that the combination of these factors minimizes metabolism and increases the shelf life of seeds. Refrigerators that run on coal are used to maintain a low temperature. It is believed that even if these refrigeration units break down, the rooms will warm up to +3 degrees only in a few weeks. And all because the storage is built in the cold part of our planet.

Interesting article on the topic: A 'black box' will be built on Earth to record the last 50 years of mankind

Photos of the seed vault in Svalbard

In 2023 from the date of construction of the seed storageExactly 15 years have passed in Svalbard. In honor of this event, the Virtual Tour Company introduced a virtual tour that allows you to walk around the Doomsday vault without leaving your home. To take the tour, just go to the Global Seed Vault website and click on the “Start Tour” button.

Start of the virtual tour of the seed vault in Svalbard

There is a virtual tour guide in the lower right corner

In the upper left corner there is a button that changes day to night and vice versa

To move around the map, you need to click onarrows. It is also possible to look around with the mouse or gestures on the smartphone screen. By clicking on some of the icons, you can find out interesting details about the seed storage. True, the text is presented only in English, but it can be copied and pasted into an online translator. There is a button on top to change the language, but Russian is not there.

Navigating a Virtual Tour of the Doomsday Seed Vault

The tour even added panoramic videos

This is what is located immediately outside the main gate

A long, well-lit tunnel inside the seed vault

Inside there are three halls for storing seeds, but at the moment only one is in use.

Used seed storage room

An empty room with no shelving

Get closer to learn more about stored samples

If you want to stay up to date with the opening of similar virtual tours, subscribe to our Zen channel. If something interesting comes up, we will definitely write about it!

Finally, it is worth recalling that in the future a similarthe repository is planned to be built on the moon. Inside the extraterrestrial warehouse, scientists want to store the genes of animals in order to be able to revive them in the future in the event of a global catastrophe. But this is a very complex project that will require the launch of a huge number of spacecraft. If you want to know the details, read our article “They want to build a warehouse with animal genes on the Moon. This will require 250 missiles.”