Chilly Conflict Secret Metropolis: Nasa discovers hidden Chilly Conflict period secret metropolis beneath Greenland’s ice sheet | – Occasions of India

Nasa scientists have uncovered a hidden relic from the Chilly Conflict—a “secret metropolis” buried beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, as reported by House.com. Throughout 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 bottom, which had been buried below layers of ice for many years, was a part of a top-secret Chilly Conflict venture referred to as Mission Iceworm. The purpose was to assemble 2,500 miles (4,023 km) of tunnels in Northern Greenland, the place nuclear intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) may very well be hidden and launched on the Soviet Union. “We had been on the lookout for the mattress of the ice and out pops Camp Century. We didn’t know what it was at first,” mentioned Chad Greene, a scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Within the new knowledge, 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, nevertheless it was deserted in 1967 because of the excessive prices and the danger of the tunnels collapsing. Mission Iceworm’s legacy lives on within the pictures now captured by Nasa. The tunnels had been initially designed to accommodate missiles able to withstanding the pressures of launching by means of the ice.
Nevertheless, the thawing ice sheet now poses a brand new menace—harmful relics from the bottom, together with weapons, gas, and different contaminants, may quickly be uncovered to the world. In response, the US authorities issued a press release in 2017 acknowledging the dangers posed by local weather change and promising to work with Denmark and Greenland authorities to handle the problem.
Scientists additionally warn that the continued thawing of Greenland’s ice sheet may produce other implications. “With out detailed data of ice thickness, it’s not possible to know the way the ice sheets will reply to quickly warming oceans and ambiance, enormously limiting our capacity to venture charges of sea degree rise,” mentioned Alex Gardner, one other JPL scientist.
For now, Camp Century stands as a reminder of the Chilly Conflict and a chance for scientists to review the results of local weather change on Earth’s ice sheets. Nasa plans to make use of the information from these surveys to tell future analysis on the affect of warming temperatures.