Svalbard Seed Vault Flooding
Melting Permafrost Floods Svalbard Seed Vault
By Carl Kruse
On Friday, March 19, a stream of nervous reports warned that water had entered the doomsday seed
repository known as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Temporary panic ensued because Svalbard is
humanity’s last line of defense against a major catastrophe or doomsday situation that might imperil
our ability to produce food. The facility stores a wide variety of crop seeds — almost 1 million
varieties — and is designed to be self-sustaining and survive a range of disasters.
What apparently happened Friday was that warmer than normal temperatures melted some of the ice
near the entrance to the vault, sending melted water rushing in. While none of the seeds were ever in
danger, the incident exposed a design flaw in that higher temperatures could have gushed even more
water in, possibly reaching and damaging the seeds.