Snow continued to accumulate over Camp Century. It is now known as ‘the city under the ice’. It is estimated that it is buried 30 meters from the surface. It won’t be for long. If global temperatures continue to rise at the current rate, by 2090 the area will dangerously lose its ice and the military base will break the surface.
Scientists are monitoring the site because if the ice melts, all the chemical, biological and radiological waste from the Cold War will be exposed to the environment. A study published in 2016 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters estimated that Camp Century must have around 200,000 liters of diesel fuel and about 24 million liters of wastewater.
Chad A. Greene studies glacial retreat in Greenland. In January 2024, he published his last article in the magazine Naturewhere he explained that the frozen layers of the territory had lost their density in the last four decades at a greater rate than expected. To investigate the ice, he uses NASA’s Pituffik space base in northern Greenland and travels via Gulfstream III aircraft.
The Gulfstream III uses Aerial Vehicle Disabled Synthetic Aperture Radar (AUVSAR). The system produces maps of the ice by sending waves downward and to the sides. Thanks to this, the images look clearer and three-dimensional. Greene boarded the plane to calibrate the AUVSAR capabilities and measure them. According to the scientist, it was not in his plans to meet the Camp Century base.
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The discovery was a coincidence. However, it exposed a climate problem that had literally been buried for decades. “What a thrill it was to be the scientist aboard NASA’s G-III plane in April when we stumbled upon a secret nuclear city abandoned under the ice!” Greene explained on his social networks.
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