Nasa scientists have uncovered a hidden relic from the Cold War—a “secret metropolis” buried beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, as reported by Space.com. During a scientific survey in April 2024, a Nasa Gulfstream III plane, outfitted with radar to map the depth of the ice, revealed the long-forgotten stays of Camp Century, a US army base constructed within the Sixties.
The base, which had been buried below layers of ice for many years, was a part of a top-secret Cold War undertaking known as Project Iceworm. The intention was to assemble 2,500 miles (4,023 km) of tunnels in Northern Greenland, the place nuclear intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) could possibly be hidden and launched on the Soviet Union. “We have been searching for the mattress of the ice and out pops Camp Century. We didn’t know what it was at first,” stated Chad Greene, a scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “In the brand new information, particular person buildings within the secret metropolis are seen in a method that they’ve by no means been seen earlier than,” he added.
Camp Century, constructed in 1959, consisted of tunnels carved into the ice sheet, but it surely was deserted in 1967 because of the excessive prices and the danger of the tunnels collapsing. Project Iceworm’s legacy lives on within the pictures now captured by Nasa. The tunnels have been initially designed to deal with missiles able to withstanding the pressures of launching via the ice.
However, the thawing ice sheet now poses a brand new menace—harmful relics from the bottom, together with weapons, gas, and different contaminants, might quickly be uncovered to the world. In response, the US authorities issued an announcement in 2017 acknowledging the dangers posed by local weather change and promising to work with Denmark and Greenland authorities to deal with the difficulty.
Scientists additionally warn that the continued thawing of Greenland’s ice sheet might produce other implications. “Without detailed data of ice thickness, it’s unattainable to know the way the ice sheets will reply to quickly warming oceans and ambiance, vastly limiting our potential to undertaking charges of sea stage rise,” stated Alex Gardner, one other JPL scientist.
For now, Camp Century stands as a reminder of the Cold War and a chance for scientists to check the results of local weather change on Earth’s ice sheets. Nasa plans to make use of the info from these surveys to tell future analysis on the influence of warming temperatures.
Cold War Secret City: Nasa discovers hidden Cold War period secret metropolis beneath Greenland’s ice sheet | – Times of India
