A freezer at the top of the world
Deep inside Platåberget, or "Plateau Mountain," on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen is a facility designed to be the ultimate insurance policy for the world's food supply. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is buried 120 meters into the sandstone mountain, a location chosen for its tectonic stability and the preserving qualities of its natural permafrost. The vault consists of three separate storage halls, each about 27 meters long, with a combined capacity to store 4.5 million distinct crop varieties. Each sample is a package of about 500 seeds, meaning the vault can hold a maximum of 2.25 billion seeds.
The purpose of the vault is to be a secure backup for the more than 1,700 agricultural genebanks around the globe. These national and regional banks store crop diversity but are vulnerable to wars, natural disasters, or even simple equipment failures. The seeds in Svalbard—sealed in three-ply foil packages at a temperature of -18°C—are kept under "black box" conditions. The depositing institution retains ownership and is the only entity that can withdraw them. As of May 2024, the vault holds over 1.3 million seed varieties from nearly every country. The permafrost, which naturally maintains a temperature between -3°C and -4°C, was intended to keep the seeds frozen even if the facility's powered cooling systems failed.