NASA scientists made a remarkable discovery under Greenland’s ice sheet when Chad Greene inadvertently came across a hidden US Army base while conducting research. The base, known as Camp Century, was a Cold War facility constructed 100 feet below the ice between 1959 and 1960. It consisted of 21 underground tunnels spanning about 9,800 feet. Using radar imagery from the Gulfstream III aircraft, the distinct structures of the base were identified.
Alex Gardner from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who led the project, expressed surprise at finding Camp Century while mapping the ice bed. The discovery was made possible using an Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), a radar technology commonly used to locate concealed structures globally.
Camp Century was established following an agreement between the United States and Denmark in 1951 to allow NATO forces to use Greenland facilities for defense purposes. The base, built with 6,000 tons of materials transported on heavy sleds, included passageways, wooden buildings, and a nuclear reactor. Despite conducting geological research, the true purpose of Camp Century was allegedly to conceal Project Iceworm, a US nuclear weapon strategy involving ballistic missiles.
Although plans for expanding the base were ambitious, Project Iceworm was never fully realized, leading to Camp Century’s decommissioning in 1967. The abandoned base, now buried under ice, reportedly left behind significant amounts of nuclear waste. With concerns about climate change’s impact, experts predict that Camp Century may resurface by 2090.