{"id":130478,"date":"2024-11-27T01:31:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T18:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=130478"},"modified":"2024-11-27T01:31:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T18:31:31","slug":"nasa-uncovers-nuclear-city-under-ice-was-part-of-u-s-militarys-top-secret-project-iceworm-in-greenland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=130478","title":{"rendered":"NASA Uncovers &#8220;Nuclear City&#8221; Under Ice! Was Part Of U.S. Military&#8217;s Top-Secret &#8216;Project Iceworm&#8217; In Greenland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n            <!-- image --><br \/>\n            <!-- content --><br \/>\n <!-- A generated by theme --> <\/p>\n<p> <!-- end A --> <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>In an accidental yet stunning discovery, NASA got a fresh and unexpected view of a Cold War tunnel built under the ice sheets of Greenland as part of the US military\u2019s top-secret \u2018Project Iceworm\u2019 to store nuclear weapons.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A team of NASA scientists surveying the polar ice sheets in Greenland stumbled upon the abandoned \u201ccity under the ice\u201d constructed by the US military for storing nuclear weapons during the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The unprecedented discovery was made in April this year when NASA scientist Chad Greene and a team of engineers boarded a Gulfstream III to monitor radar equipment <a href=\"https:\/\/earthobservatory.nasa.gov\/images\/153616\/new-view-of-the-city-under-the-ice\">probing the Greenland Ice Sheet<\/a> below.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The team was tasked with carrying out a scientific mission to measure the depth of the ice sheet in Greenland and the bedrock layers beneath it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> During the mission,\u00a0<\/span>Greene photographed the wide, desolate landscape of the ice sheet from the airplane\u2019s window while it was flying roughly 150 miles east from Pituffik Space Base in northern Greenland.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century,\u201d said Alex Gardner, a cryospheric scientist at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who helped lead the project. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what it was at first.\u201d \u00a0The photos taken by the aircraft provide a fresh perspective of Camp Century, a US military installation from the Cold War that consists of a network of tunnels cut straight into the ice sheet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">NASA said in a statement that aerial surveys conducted over Camp Century in the past have shown evidence of the base inside the ice. The agency explained that the traditional ground-penetrating radar employed in those flights <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarioNawfal\/status\/1861342649824805222\">created<\/a> a two-dimensional profile of the ice sheet by pointing directly downwards. In that perspective, the substantial structures of Camp Century appeared like a blip in the distorted ice layer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, for the April 2024 missions, NASA installed UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) on the aircraft\u2019s belly. This particular device is different and more potent in how it looks downwards and toward the side to create maps with greater dimensionality. This is how the abandoned site, referred to as a \u2018Cold War relic,\u2019 was discovered accidentally by NASA this summer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UAVSAR image provides a unique perspective on the condition of Camp Century after almost 60 years by displaying individual buildings that can be compared to the layout plans. Moreover, the discovery was not intentional. Greene said, \u201dOur goal was to calibrate, validate, and understand the capabilities and limitations of UAVSAR for mapping the ice sheet\u2019s internal layers and the ice-bed interface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is pertinent to mention that even though UAVSAR has provided fresh perspectives on Camp Century\u2019s condition, the photos aren\u2019t flawless. NASA observed that a band on the image gives the impression that Century is below the ice bed due to the angular nature of a portion of the capture. However, it is miles below the ice sheet.<\/p>\n<p> <!-- A generated by theme --> <\/p>\n<p> <!-- end A --> <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">Nevertheless, this discovery is important because it provides a fresh (and more lucid) look at the US-led nuclear operations during the Cold War, at a time when nuclear rhetoric is once again at its height and tensions have reached unprecedented levels between the US-led NATO and Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Project Iceworm And The Abandoned Camp Century<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During the Cold War, the military officials of the two nuclear superpowers\u2014the United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union\u2014constantly developed strategies to outmaneuver the other side in the heated rivalry that threatened to spill over into a full-blown nuclear escalation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The US Army conceived a top-secret program known as \u2018Project Iceworm\u2019 in 1959. The objective of this project was to construct a network of mobile nuclear missile launch locations beneath the Greenland ice sheet that could launch a strike in case of a nuclear conflict and withstand a first strike from the enemy i.e., the Soviet Union (USSR).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This covert program envisaged a 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) network of tunnels that would be used to store (and launch) up to 600 nuclear missiles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The program was based on the fact that the ice sheet covering Greenland would conceal the missile positions, which were to be rotated regularly.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/news\/project-iceworm-cold-war-nuclear-weapons-greenland\">history.com<\/a> notes, \u201cPentagon planners thought that by shuttling 600 nuclear-tipped \u201cIceman\u201d missiles (a new moniker for the existing Minuteman) back and forth between 2,100 silos, they could keep their counterparts in the Soviet Union guessing. Imagine a potentially deadly game of atomic \u201cwhack-a-mole\u201d spread out across 52,000 square miles of northern Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 708px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mw-mmv-final-image jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/d\/d4\/PM2Anuclearpowerplant.jpg\" alt=\"undefined\" width=\"708\" height=\"522\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of ice camp- Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As soon as the program was finalized, researchers and engineers began investigating the viability of working beneath the ice. The Danish government, which controlled the territory of Greenland, was not given full details of the classified project. The US Department of Defense told Danish officials that Camp Century\u2019s \u201cofficial purpose\u201d was to support scientific experiments on the ice cap, test different construction methods in the Arctic, and investigate real-world issues with a semi-mobile nuclear reactor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">After the site was chosen, hundreds of military engineers and technicians walked 150 miles to reach the Camp Century site from the nearby Thule Air Base on the northwest coast of Greenland. Between 1959 and 1961, they excavated hundreds of feet under the compacted snow to ostensibly create a subterranean city with sleeping quarters, offices, laboratories, a barbershop, a library, a laundry room, and warm showers for 200 soldiers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Massive, deep trenches were dug out, and the underground city was covered with steel semicylinders coated with snow and ice that solidly froze them into place. From 1960 to 1963, the world\u2019s first mobile\/portable nuclear reactor, the PM-2A, which was built by Alco for the US Army, supplied the electricity for this project. Meanwhile, the water came from the glaciers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The trenches were designed for a type of modified Minuteman IRBM missile known as \u201cIceman,\u201d which could endure the pressures of launching through the ice sheet. According to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/03468750701449554\">article<\/a> titled \u2018The Iceman that Never Came\u2019 published in the Scandinavian Journal of History in 2007, \u201cThe key concept was to deploy the missile force in \u2018thousands of miles of cut-and-cover tunnels,\u2019 or rather covered trenches, whose floor would lie 28 feet beneath the surface.\u201c<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Iceman Could Not Be Stationed In Greenland<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, the project never reached completion. In an unforeseen event at the time, the snow and ice walls continued to move, squeezing the lines that transported the missiles, forcing the termination of Operation Iceworm.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">By 1966, the US Army had completely abandoned Camp Century. The Iceman missiles, which had the potential to hit targets within the Soviet Union, were never deployed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A set of documents released by Denmark in 1997 referred to a 1960 US Army report titled \u201cStrategic Value of the Greenland Icecap,\u201d which outlined the idea of the US Army\u2019s \u201cIceworm\u201d missile network. The report stated that when the project is finished, it will span 52,000 square miles or about 130,000 square kilometers, about three times Denmark\u2019s size.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The launch complex floors would be 28 feet (8.5 meters) below the surface.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Moreover, the report noted that clusters of missile launch sites would be separated by 4 miles or about 6.4 kilometers. According to that report, the US planned to dig new tunnels annually, resulting in thousands of firing points within five years, from which several hundred missiles could be launched. The iceman was to be deployed in these tunnels.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_220561\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220561\" style=\"width: 696px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-220561\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"559\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg 1106w, https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg?resize=300,241 300w, https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg?resize=768,617 768w, https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg?resize=1024,823 1024w, https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg?resize=523,420 523w, https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg?resize=696,559 696w, https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-11-26-at-2.07.44-AM.jpeg?resize=1068,858 1068w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220561\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camp Century<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Greenland was chosen because it was far closer to Russia than the mainland United States, and the Iceman ICBMs could have instantly hit nearly any target in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the planned Iceworm complex\u2019s enormous scale and the missile\u2019s comparatively broad distribution would guarantee the US\u2019s second-strike capability in addition to strengthening the land-based leg of the US nuclear triad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Denmark, at the time, had a policy against nuclear weapons on Danish soil despite allowing the US military to use Greenland as a staging area. Since the project was abandoned, no permissions were taken for the deployment of nuclear missiles under the ice sheets of Greenland, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As Camp Century was abandoned, weapons, sewage, fuel, and other pollutants were buried there. Several scientific predictions have been made, suggesting that the Camp Century ice will start to melt by 2090, causing radioactive and human waste to spill into the ocean. In 2017, the US government said it \u201cacknowledges the reality of climate change and the risk it poses\u201d and that it would \u201cwork with the Danish government and the Greenland authorities to settle questions of mutual security\u201d regarding Camp Century.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For now, NASA says the tools it employed that led to this discovery should assist researchers in determining the thickness of ice sheets in comparable Antarctic conditions and making projections of future sea level rise. \u201cThe test flights that captured Camp Century earlier this year will enable the next generation of mapping campaigns in Greenland, Antarctica, and beyond,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 2 -->\n        <\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurasiantimes.com\/nasa-uncovers-nuclear-city-under-ice-was\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an accidental yet stunning discovery, NASA got a fresh and unexpected view of a Cold War tunnel built under the ice sheets of Greenland as part of the US &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=130478\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}