In the most extraordinary of circumstances, in April 2024, scientists working for NASA stumbled upon an abandoned military base beneath the Arctic ice in Greenland. It was referred to as Camp Century, a Cold War fossil, supposedly set up by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and for years buried under ice and snow. The exact latitude at which it stood was 150 miles inland, within which the base was operational between 1959 and 1967. Its purpose was to study whether it was feasible to launch nuclear missiles from the Arctic.
A NASA Gulfstream III aircraft, which totes around a piece of equipment known as UAVSAR — that’s short for Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar — recently uncovered something quite astonishing: a network of tunnels and buildings underneath more than 100 feet of snow and ice that have long since concealed them from view. Indeed, the data momentarily baffled the team, which was expecting to see the ice base itself. “We were looking for the bed of the ice, and out pops Camp Century,” said cryospheric scientist Alex Gardner.
This unexpected find has revealed detailed maps of the base’s structures, offering unprecedented clarity about the once-secret city. Chad Greene, another NASA scientist involved in the survey, explained that the mission’s primary objective was to study ice sheet dynamics in the context of climate change.
Camp Century’s rediscovery raises significant environmental concerns. Experts warn that as climate change accelerates ice sheet melting, the site could be exposed by the end of the century. This unearthing risks releasing radioactive waste and other harmful chemicals into the surrounding environment, remnants of the base’s nuclear experiments.
“The melting ice sheets present challenges in understanding their impact on global sea level rise,” Greene stated. The UAVSAR data will enhance scientists’ ability to map internal ice layers and predict ice sheet responses to warming oceans and atmosphere.
This unexpected glimpse into the frozen past underscores the dual challenges of uncovering historical relics and addressing the ongoing impacts of climate change.
