A Vault for the Future
By Krist
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault also known as "The Seed bank" is located in Norwegian Island of Spitbegen near longyearbyen in the remote artctic Svalbard Archipelago.The seedbank is 120 metres (390 ft) and 150 meter deep inside a sandstone mountain on Spitsbergen Island,guarded by robust security system,temperature inside is ranged from a standard of −18 °C (−0.4 °F)which is very helpful to stop the aging of most seeds.All the seeds are also packed in Special Three-Ply Foil packets and heat sealed to exclude moisture resistance. The facility is managed by the Nordic Genetic Resource Center, though there are no permanent staff on-site because of a very cold temperature inside.
A study prior to construction determined that the vault could preserve most major food crops seeds for hundreds of years.YES! you heard it,a hundred of years of preservation!i guess it will be used after the world war,or maybe used in the year 2100,no one could say WHEN,their are some crops including those important grains are well preserved and viable for years to come.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault's mission is to provide a safety net against accidental loss of diversity in traditional GENEBANKS.Genebanks are a type of "Biorepository" which preserve genetic materials such as plants,animal sperm and egg cell in a zoological freezers until further need,Genebank also stored coral fragments which are taken in water tanks under controlled climate conditions.
"there is a total of 930,821 seed samples as of february 2017"
The vault is also designed for water intrusion,seeds is never a risk in colder season or summer season,
according to study the place is free from tectonic or any volcanic activities.
The norweigian government funded a total of $9million (45 million kr) to this project with the help of other organisations such as Bill Gates & Melinda Gates Foundation and other various goverments worldwide aiming to preserve global seeds.
But did you know that Svalbard Global Seed Vault have a very massive restriction and security in place that even researchers and scientist cannot pass except if they have complied authorization from the genebank which is the only gateway inside.Thats why Global seed vault is made one of the most restricted places on earth!
But why do Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a restricted place?
its because "The global seed vault" is made for future use of large scale crisis or global catastrophe, it will be more frequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to natural disasters or human mismanagement,looking on what is the world nowaday.
For referrence see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault#Capacity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_bank