Camp Century

Camp Century
Part of Project Iceworm
Near Qaanaaq in Greenland
Plan of base
Camp Century
Site information
Owner United States Army
Site history
In use 1959–1967 (1967)

Camp Century was an Arctic United States military scientific research base in Greenland.[1] It is situated 240 km east of Thule Air Base. It was part of Project Iceworm to install sites for launching nuclear missiles in Greenland. Powered by a nuclear reactor, the camp operated from 1959 until 1967. The base consisted of 21 tunnels with a complete length of 3000 m.

History

Construction on the camp and the sub-glacial nuclear reactor began without explicit permission from the government of Denmark, leading to a political dilemma for Prime Minister H. C. Hansen.[2]

Scientific research

Ice core samples from Camp Century were used to create stable isotopes analyses used to develop climate models.[3][4][5]

Further reading

  • Colgan, Liam; Machguth, Horst; MacFerrin, Mike; Colgan, Jeff D.; van As, Dirk; MacGregor, Joseph A. (16 August 2016) [4 August 2016]. "The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate". Geophysical Research Letters. 43 (15): 8091–8096. doi:10.1002/2016GL069688. Retrieved 6 June 2017. The original news story.
  • Rosen, Julia (16 August 2016). "Mysterious, Ice-Buried Cold War Military Base May Be Unearthed by Climate Change". Science. doi:10.1126/science.aag0726. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  • Sima Sahar Zerehi (5 August 2016). "Climate change could expose Cold War–era Arctic military base". CBC News. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  • Doyle, Alister (17 October 2016). "Greenland calls for clean-up of toxic U.S. Cold War bases". Reuters. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  • 1963 documentary about building the camp, narrated by the project manager for the U.S. War Office on YouTube
  • Thule Air Base/Camp Century information

References

  1. ↑ Reed, John (April 6, 2012). "Inside the Army's Secret Cold War Ice Base". DefenseTech. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Nielsen, Kristian Hvidtfelt (December 19, 2017). "How the US built a mysterious military camp under the Greenland ice sheet". Translated by Jex, Catherine. ScienceNordic. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  3. ↑ William Sweet (February 2008). Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy. Columbia University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-231-13711-9.
  4. ↑ Chester C. Langway; Hans Oeschger; W. Dansgaard (1985). Greenland Ice Core: Geophysics, Geochemistry, and the Environment. American Geophysical Union. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-87590-057-5.
  5. ↑ Thomas M. Cronin (5 September 1999). Principles of Paleoclimatology. Columbia University Press. p. 415. ISBN 978-0-231-50304-4.

Coordinates: 77°10′00″N 61°08′00″W / 77.1667°N 61.1333°W / 77.1667; -61.1333

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