During the Cold War, the U.S. planned to build a secret nuclear launch site in the Arctic. From there, they would be able to destroy Soviet targets at a moment’s notice. This project, codenamed "Iceworm," was never finished. The military abandoned it after a few years and left it buried under layers of ice. But now a warming climate threatens to expose the site. Contaminants left behind decades ago could have a serious impact on the environment.

Camp Century

In 1959, the U.S. Army sent the Corps of Engineers to Greenland to build an entire city under the ice. This city, called Camp Century, could house around 200 soldiers. It had its own nuclear power plant, hospital, movie theater and chapel. The cover story was that Camp Century was a polar research station, and, indeed, this was somewhat true. Scientists at the camp did, in fact, drill the very first ice core for studying the earth’s climate. But, the “city under ice” was actually meant to store up to 600 nuclear missiles. These missiles would travel on railcars through tunnels in the ice to specific launch sites across Greenland. The Army planned to have this network of tunnels stretch across more than 52,000 square miles of ice.

