Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The storage facility contains three refrigerated chambers built 130 meters inside a mountain, maintaining temperatures at minus 18 degrees Celsius throughout the year.

The vault opened on February 26, 2008, following extensive construction work that began in June 2006 to create a secure facility for preserving agricultural diversity.

The facility holds duplicates of seed collections from every nation, representing the agricultural heritage and food security of communities across the globe.

The vault maintains capacity for 4.5 million seed samples, with each variety stored in sealed aluminum packages containing approximately 500 seeds each.

In 2015, the vault released seeds for the first time when Syria requested backup samples to replace those lost from a gene bank during conflict.

Location: Longyearbyen

Inception: June 19, 2006

Architects: Peter W. Søderman

Official opening: February 26, 2008

Website: https://seedvault.no

GPS coordinates: 78.23587,15.49137

Latest update: May 31, 2025 16:11