The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the world's largest backup facility for crop diversity.
It is carved into a mountain on Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole.
The Norwegian government paid the full construction cost, about 45 million kroner.
The vault extends 430 feet (130 meters) into sandstone.
Samples are kept at −0.4°F (−18°C). Permafrost, ground that stays frozen year-round, and the thick rock keep them frozen even without power.
The vault holds a backup copy of the world's crop diversity.
It can store 4.5 million seed samples. Each averages 500 seeds, so the vault has the capacity to hold 2.25 billion individual seeds.
Depositing seeds is free.
123 depositors have sent samples.
The collection represents more than 13,000 years of agricultural history. It is the largest collection of food-crop seeds in the world.
And 430 feet in?
A little more than one American football field, and the whole path is rock.
If a collection disappears somewhere, the copy here can help restore it.
The mountain grows nothing.
It saves the chance that someone else can grow it again.
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