This “city under the ice” was made for scientific research and turned out to be a secret Arctic base during the Cold War

As Greenland—and President Donald Trump’s remarks about wanting the U.S. to take control of the territory—make headlines, we take a look at a little-known American investment in the Arctic country during the Cold War.

Positioned between Europe and the U.S., Greenland became a strategic outpost for NATO allies during the Cold War. The U.S. military recognized its importance as early as the 20th century, and after World War II, the U.S. began investing in the country—not all of which was defense-related.

“The city under the ice” located decades after being abandoned

One of the most intriguing projects was “the city under the ice,” otherwise known as Camp Century, a military and research base in northern Greenland. Recently, NASA published a blog detailing how one of its scientists, Chad Greene, detected the site while aboard a Gulfstream III aircraft equipped with a monitoring radar system. From above, Greene saw nothing but the “barren expanse of the ice sheet’s surface” when, suddenly, “the radar unexpectedly detected something buried within the ice.”

At the time, the team had no idea what they were seeing. “We were looking for the bed of the ice,” said NASA scientist Alex Gardner, unaware that their radar had picked up remnants of Camp Century.

Built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1959, the base consisted of a network of tunnels just below the ice sheet’s surface. Less than a decade later, it was abandoned, left to be buried beneath ice and snow. According to NASA’s radar data, the tunnels now sit approximately 30 meters below the surface.

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