National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Cooling Begins for "Doomsday" Seed Bank


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

Construction was under way at Svalbard Global Seed Vault on an Arctic island in Norway.

Engineers on Friday began pumping cold air deep into the mountain seed-storage vault, launching a three-month cooling process to achieve a steady temperature of about zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius) before the facility opens next February.

The vault was designed to protect the world's seeds in the event of a "doomsday" disaster.

This undated photo was handed out on November 15, 2007, by the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Photograph by Mari Tefre/AP/Global Crop Diversity Trust/HO