Longyearbyen · 78.22 N 15.63 E

Svalbard Wire

Est. 2026

Everything said about Svalbard, in one place

Monday 26 October 2026No. 1Graphic

Back to the front of 26 October

The vault holds 1.4 million seed samples, 95% of one hall; it has room for 4.5 million.

The three halls of the vault, drawn the same size because each holds the same number of samples; the dark part is the samples kept today.

Hall 1in useHall 2not in useHall 3not in use1.4 millionEach hall: room for about 1.5 million samplesInside the mountainmore than 100 mRock above the halls40 to 60 mSeed store-18 °CPermafrost in the mountain-3 to -4 °C
Hall 1in useHall 2not in useHall 3not in use1.4 millionEach hall: room for about 1.5 million samplesInside the mountainmore than 100 mRock above the halls40 to 60 mSeed store-18 °CPermafrost in the mountain-3 to -4 °C
Hall 1in useHall 2not in useHall 3not in use1.4 millionEach hall: room for about 1.5 million samplesInside the mountainmore than 100 mRock above the halls40 to 60 mSeed store-18 °CPermafrost in the mountain-3 to -4 °C
Graphic: Svalbard Wire · Sources: halls, capacity, depth and temperatures: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, retrieved . Samples kept today: NordGen Seed Portal, retrieved .
halls
3
samples fit in one hall (about)
1.5 million
samples fit in the vault (about)
4.5 million
halls in use
1 of 3
seed samples kept today
1,417,799
of one hall filled
95%

Halls and capacity: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, retrieved 26 October 2026. Samples kept today: NordGen Seed Portal, retrieved 24 October 2026. The share of one hall is computed from the two.

What the vault's own page says

  1. Depth in the mountain

    "more than 100 meters inside the mountain"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

  2. Rock above the halls

    "layers of rock that range between 40 and 60 meters thick"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

  3. Temperature of the permafrost

    "stable temperature of between minus 3 and 4°C"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

  4. Temperature of the seed store

    "seed storing temperature to minus 18°C"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

  5. Halls

    "consists of three halls"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

  6. Capacity of one hall

    "Each hall can accommodate about 1.5 million seed samples"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

  7. Capacity of the vault

    "total capacity to store 4.5 million seed accessions"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

  8. Halls in use

    "Only one of the three halls is in use"

    Source: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, The Facility

Graphic: Svalbard Wire · Sources: Svalbard Global Seed Vault; holdings: NordGen Seed Portal. Each figure on the drawing is read by the Wire's retrieval script from the words quoted above, retrieved 26 October 2026.