Mondo Knows Facts
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects crop diversity in permafrost
Built deep inside a Norwegian Arctic mountain, the vault stores back-up seeds from around the globe.
Located on Spitsbergen island in the Svalbard archipelago, the facility sits 130 metres above sea level to remain safe from sea-level rise. The surrounding permafrost and thick rock ensure seed samples stay naturally frozen even during power failures. It currently holds over one million distinct crop seed samples to safeguard world food supplies.
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Tags: svalbard, norway, seed vault, arctic
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects crop diversity in permafrost: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Built deep inside a Norwegian Arctic mountain, the vault stores back-up seeds from around the globe. The figure is taken from Smithsonian Magazine, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.
