Welcome to Global Seed Vault

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#1 Celebrating Ten Years of Conservation

On the 10th anniversary of the Seed Vault, representatives of the international agricultural research centers posed in this exact location for this historic image. The international genebanks safeguard and share the largest collection of crop diversity with users across the world. And together, they backup this diversity in the Seed Vault.

#2 The Technical Building

The technical building hosts technical installations for electricity and power supplies, cooling of the Seed Vault and ventilations. These are all functionalities that, before the construction upgrade in 2018 and 2019, were inside the Seed Vault rather than in another building. In addition, this building has an office, a small meeting room and space for storing warm clothes and other equipment for working inside the Seed Vault.

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#1 Celebrating Ten Years of Conservation

On the 10th anniversary of the Seed Vault, representatives of the international agricultural research centers posed in this exact location for this historic image. The international genebanks safeguard and share the largest collection of crop diversity with users across the world. And together, they backup this diversity in the Seed Vault.

#2 The Technical Building

The technical building hosts technical installations for electricity and power supplies, cooling of the Seed Vault and ventilations. These are all functionalities that, before the construction upgrade in 2018 and 2019, were inside the Seed Vault rather than in another building. In addition, this building has an office, a small meeting room and space for storing warm clothes and other equipment for working inside the Seed Vault. The technical building hosts technical installations for electricity and power s

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#1 Entrance Artwork

This captivating light show above the entrance is the artwork “Perpetual Repercussion,” created by Norwegian artist Dyveke Sanne. It symbolizes the magical quality of Arctic light, using an array of stainless steel, mirrors and prisms cut into triangles of various sizes to reflect the midnight sun of the summer months. Sanne overlaid the pieces with a network of fiber-optic cables to reflect white and turquoise light in the mirrors during the long polar nights.

#2 Introduction to Plateau Mountain

The mountain housing the Seed Vault is called “Platåberget,” or “plateau mountain” in English. The Norwegian architect Peter Wilhelm designed the Seed Vault to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters. Construction started in 2007 and the Seed Vault welcomed its first seeds in 2008.

Why did we build the Seed Vault in Svalbard? This archipelago is the farthest North a person can fly on a scheduled flight, offering a remote location that is nevertheless accessible and with good infrastructure. The area is geologically stable and humidity levels are low. And, the Seed Vault is well above sea level, protected from worst-case scenario sea-level rises.

#3 The Technical Building

The technical building hosts technical installations for electricity and power supplies, cooling of the Seed Vault and ventilations. These are all functionalities that, before the construction upgrade in 2018 and 2019, were inside the Seed Vault rather than in another building. In addition, this building has an office, a small meeting room and space for storing warm clothes and other equipment for working inside the Seed Vault.

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#1 Information

In 2019, this parking lot was created for visitors to the Seed Vault, including the many tourists who regularly stop by to take a selfie in front of the iconic building, or to photograph the beautiful Arctic landscape.

#2 Technical Building

The technical building hosts technical installations for electricity and power supplies, cooling of the Seed Vault and ventilations. These are all functionalities that, before the construction upgrade in 2018 and 2019, were inside the Seed Vault rather than in another building. In addition, this building has an office, a small meeting room and space for storing warm clothes and other equipment for working inside the Seed Vault.

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The Arrival of Boxes

Nanofilms

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#1 The trip down the Tunnel

All seed boxes are transported towards the final storage position through the access tunnel with either a manual trolley, as seen here, or, for heavy boxes, an electrically powered cart.

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#2 The Cathedral

Since the opening of the Seed Vault in 2008, about 3,500 seed boxes have passed through this room on their way to the shelves in the Seed Chambers. There are about 300 to 400 seed packages inside each box. Seeds are hermetically (i.e. airtight) sealed in these custom-made, three-ply foil packages. For a complete overview of the samples stored in the Seed Vault, please visit NordGen's public online database.

#3 Accessing the Seed Chambers

From the Cathedral, one can access the three Seed Chambers, each of which can store nearly 3,000 seed boxes. Altogether, they can store 4.5 million crop varieties.

Explore the Collection

Virtually walk the aisles of this seed chamber and learn about some of the many depositors that have entrusted us with their backup copies of seeds.

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#2 Fun Fact

The width of each seed chamber is approximately 9.5 to 10 meters (31.2 to 32.8 feet) and their height is 6 meters (19.7 feet). Each chamber is approximately 27 meters (88.6 feet) long

#3 The 100-year Seed Experiment

Here in row H is where we're running the 100-year seed longevity experiment. This unique experiment comprises seeds from 14 different crops, produced by six genebank's in Thailand, India, Brazil, Portugal, Germany and Sweden. Seed samples will be tested for germination every 10th year. To enhance the scientific value of the experiment, seeds have been produced repeatedly over three different years and five varieties of each crop are included.

Explore the Collection

Virtually walk the aisles of this seed chamber and learn about some of the many depositors that have entrusted us with their backup copies of seeds.

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#2 Deposited Boxes

It is quite emotional to walk between boxes from different countries and continents and appreciate all the efforts made by genebank staff to produce, dry, pack and send seeds almost to the North Pole. Despite political disagreements and conflicts, when it comes to conserving seeds, all countries, East and West, North and South, rich and poor, are cooperating in this effort, for all of humanity.

#3 Fun Fact

In February 2020, this Seed Chamber reached capacity. During that month's deposit, genebanks from Romania, the United Kingdom, Morocco, Lebanon, South Korea, Germany and the United States deposited seeds. In total, 65,119 seed samples in 190 boxes from 35 depositors were added to the Seed Vault's collection.