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, about a million seeds of a great variety of plants are kept so that, in the event that they become extinct, they can be recovered again.
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 froze. The tunnel, which is about a hundred meters long, serves as a walkway into the mountain. Before reaching the doors of the vault, the terrain moves upwards, and it is precisely in this area where the 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 the water entered more, it would not take long to freeze, since the temperature is -18ºC. But such a site is supposed to be able to stand alone, so the Norwegian government plans to fix the leak so it doesn't happen again.
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 event.