At this height, the vault will be protected from the sea-level effects of climate change, including the absolute worst case scenario that most scientists believe won't happen: If the entire ice structure of the continent of Antarctica were to melt, the sea would rise about 200 feet (61 meters). The entrance and the inner seed vaults stand at 430 feet (130 meters) above sea level. If the mechanical refrigeration system were to malfunction, the seeds would remain frozen due to the year-round permafrost in the mountain, maintaining an inner temperature of about -5C (23F). The entrance to the vault is on a mountain called Spitsbergen, chosen for a number of factors including its perpetually frozen temperatures. It will be located on the remote, frigid island cluster of Svalbard, well north of Norway's mainland, 621 miles (1,000 km) into the Arctic Ocean. Norway revealed the design of the vault in February 2007. Its main purpose is to provide diverse crop life in the event that life as we know it disappears.

But other uses aside, the design of the vault screams 'the end is near.' This is definitely a structure built with doomsday in mind. The Global Crop Diversity Trust has named several other uses for the vault, including replacing seeds lost in damage to any of the 1,400 seed vaults around the world, safeguarding seeds for developing countries and spreading general knowledge of the threat to crop diversity (the United Nations puts the percentage of genetic diversity already lost to ecological damage at 75 percent). The vault's purpose is safeguard agricultural biodiversity in the event that nuclear war, climate change, a meteor hit or another Earth-shattering event destroys all current plant life in the world or in a particular region. The Svalbard International Seed Vault, dubbed the 'doomsday vault,' will house samples of every variety of crop seed available in every country in the world. While some of us are stocking up on duct tape, gas masks and enough bottled water to last through the initial weeks of the end of the world, the government of Norway has partnered up with the Global Crop Diversity Trust to prepare for the event that doomsday leaves some survivors.

Norwegian doomsday vault