A thousand years ago, a man named Red-Haired Eric who lived in Iceland was exiled for murder. Many people know that Greenland is the world's largest island, but few people can accurately tell whether it is an independent sovereign state.

Whether in English or in the languages ​​of Nordic countries, Greenland (Greenland) means "green land". This is a complete lie. Most of the island is located in Arctic Circle , and 80% of the area is covered by ice layers with an average thickness of 1.5 kilometers all year round. Even in the warmest summers, only a small part of the coastal areas can barely climb to above zero 10 degrees.

Greenland is covered under the ice all year round

A thousand years ago, a man named Red-haired Eric who lived in Iceland was exiled for murder. After leaving Iceland on a boat, he discovered the land in the northwest. In order to attract more people to settle here with him, Eric deliberately gave this place such an attractive name.

Many people know that Greenland is the largest island in the world, but few people can accurately tell whether it is an independent sovereign state. The answer to this question is no. Greenland is the overseas territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

For this distant land lying under the snow and ice, which is equivalent to 50 times the local area, the Danish government has neither the will nor the ability to develop it. Until 2021, Greenland's population will be only more than 50,000, and even one stadium will not be fully equipped.

But there is no useless land in this world, only mismatched resources. For Denmark, which is in a stable corner, Greenland, 2.16 million square kilometers, may be a valuable burden, but it is different for the United States, which was ready to throw nuclear bombs with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

If nuclear war breaks out between the United States and the Soviet Union, whether it is the nuclear warhead or the strategic bomber , the flight route through the Arctic is the shortest. Therefore, for the United States, Greenland has important strategic value for national security. And national security can be ignored.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 I wish I could understand that Wang could make more fools White House officials turned around and told the media about this. The American media immediately seized this opportunity and made great efforts to describe Trump as a real estate businessman who knew nothing about international politics and was simple-minded.

Danish female prime minister also took the opportunity to jump out to show his presence. She said that Greenland cannot be sold, and the discussion on this issue is "absurd".

But the idea of ​​knowing the king is not as outrageous as the news media exaggerated. Because in 1946, the United States officially made this request to the Danish government and offered a price of $100 million. The Danish government did not want to accept the requests of the Americans, but did not dare to offend the big brothers in the Western world, so in the end the Danes proposed a smooth compromise: Greenland is not for sale, but Americans can build a permanent military base on it .

If you draw a shortest straight line from Los Angeles to Moscow on the globe, then the midpoint of the straight line falls approximately in a place called Thule in the northwest corner of Greenland. The U.S. military decided to build an air base here to provide a supply point for strategic bombers flying to the Soviet Union to throw nuclear bombs.

The shortest flight route from Moscow to Los Angeles passes over Greenland

It is not easy to transport large machinery and supplies here. Each year, only from the end of July to mid-August, can the fleet push away the partially melted ice in the sea and arrive at Toure with the help of the icebreaker . In July 1951, 120 ships of the US military transported 12,000 workers, 300,000 tons of machinery and building materials to Toure, and began the construction of the military base. In just two months, an air force base that can take off and land large aircraft was built.After completion, Toure, which penetrated 1,200 kilometers deep into the Arctic Circle, became the United States' military base closest to the Arctic.

U.S. military at Toure Air Force Base in Greenland

It is not easy to maintain military personnel living at the end of this world. For most of the year, the boat just couldn't get into the bay where the base was located. In addition to the annual maritime supply, other cargo and personnel transportation are completed by air. But in the US military's dictionary, there is no such thing as "hard work and simplicity". Even in this bitter and cold place, soldiers can still enjoy the same standard of living as other military bases.

By 1954, the Americans decided to build an early warning system consisting of 63 radar stations along the 69th north latitude line, which extends eastward from northern Alaska to Greenland, to monitor intercontinental missiles and strategic bombers flying from the Soviet Union. Just by looking at the radar station on the map below, you can hear the sound of military spending burning. But for the US military during the Cold War, money was never a problem.

In 1957, this radar warning system that stretched 5,000 kilometers along the winding direction began to be put into use. If we look at the map carefully, we will find that Toure is not on this line, but a large piece is protruding towards the North Pole. If such a good geographical location is just for defense, it would be a waste.

So the Americans decided to build a new base under the ice field 240 kilometers east of Toure. When the Danish government asked about the purpose of the new base, the Americans replied that it was for scientific research. This is of course a lie. The Danish government also knew that this was a lie, but they were very sensible and did not ask any more questions.

959, the US military dragged professional large-scale snow excavation equipment to this endless ice field and began to dig tunnels of 8 meters deep and 8 meters wide in the ice and snow at a speed of 900 cubic meters per hour. Such crisscrossing tunnels were excavated in total for three kilometers, and then the Americans built prefabricated houses inside and connected them together with various pipes. In addition to military and residential spaces, there are shops, pharmacies and cinemas, which can accommodate 200 people for a long time, making it a miniature town hidden under the Arctic ice cap. The Americans gave the base a code name called Camp Century.

Americans dig tunnels in ice

Century camp under construction

Workers install equipment in tunnel

"Century camp" Layout diagram of this underground city

It is already very difficult to transport materials to Toure, and providing supplies to Century camp is almost an impossible task. There is no harbor or airport here, and all supplies can only be transported from Toure 240 kilometers away by sleds or special snow vehicles. How much fuel does it take to provide electricity and heating for this snow-under town? Don’t forget that the American soldiers here also need unlimited hot water supply 24 hours a day.

The answer given by the American engineer is to use nuclear energy to provide energy to the town. The energy generated by 10 kg of nuclear fuel is equivalent to 2 million liters of diesel, which will greatly reduce the pressure on logistics supply. The military specially redesigned a portable small nuclear reactor for Century Camp. After being disassembled, every part of it can be installed into the C130 transport machine. In October 1960, the small nuclear reactor began to provide energy for the Century Camp.

transported components of the PM-2A nuclear reactor. Even today, this is a very advanced technology. The US military's plan is as follows: let this small base run for a few years first. If there is no problem, build a similar sub-ice base on a large scale in Greenland and arrange 600 medium-range ballistic missiles that can launch nuclear warheads. The United States bet that the Soviet Union would never find a nuclear warhead hidden under the ice, so that if the United States is destroyed by the Soviet Union's preemptive strike, the 600 nuclear bombs hidden here can also launch a second counterattack against the Soviet Union.

But a few years later, Americans discovered that Greenland's ice sheet was not as stable as they thought. The ice layer around the base has been deforming at a speed that cannot be detected by the naked eye. After these years, the accumulated displacement is sufficient to affect the stability of the base. So the US military completely abandoned the base in 1967, and the plan to deploy 600 nuclear bombs was also cancelled. Afterwards, the slowly moving ice layer crushed the base with unstoppable force, burying it under several meters of ice and snow.

But so far, the Danish people have no idea that the US military has deployed nuclear reactor on Greenland and taken off and landed strategic bombers carrying nuclear bombs. In 1968, a severe fire broke out in the cabin of a B52 strategic bomber cruising over Greenland, and the pilot tried to put out the fire without success. Finally, the captain decided to fly towards the Toure Air Force Base. When the plane arrived over Toure, the crew members ejected from the cabin and parachuted to escape, while the bomber continued to glide and crashed on the ice field in the distance. On this bomber, there are four nuclear bombs. The explosion of the plane crash caused severe nuclear pollution to within a range of about 30 square kilometers.

Americans later spent a full nine months cleaning the area. They used large machinery to shovel the contaminated ice layer, put it into special containers, and transport it to the United States for processing. The incident was discovered by local residents of Greenland, and the news was then sent back to Denmark. The Danish people began to question the government, and the Danish government has always pursued a strict nuclear-free policy. Why did American nuclear warheads appear on Greenland? The Danish government explained that the bomber should not have appeared over Greenland, and the pilot had to crash near Toure Air Force Base in order to parachute.

This set of rhetoric from the Danish government lasted for thirty years. After the collapse of , the Danish people found in documents declassified by the US government that it was routine for U.S. bombers carrying nuclear bombs to cruise over Greenland, and the Toure Air Force Base also deployed a considerable number of nuclear warheads. What is even more embarrassing is that the Danish government at that time knew this clearly, but they chose to conceal the people. This triggered a political scandal in Denmark known as the "Turai Gate".

In addition, the Danes also discovered that the century camp abandoned by the United States decades ago now has huge environmental risks. When the Americans were evacuating, they believed that the base would gradually be buried by thicker and thicker snow, so the remaining nuclear radiation inside would not affect the external environment. But what they did not expect was that under the influence of global warming , the ice and snow covering the base did not thicken, but instead tended to melt. On the day when the snow above the base completely melts, which government should deal with the ruins of this base that may be nuclear-contaminated? No one can give an answer yet.

If it were not for the system of regular decryption and disclosure of US government documents, these things would never be known to the general public. As the US government releases more documents in the future, I wonder if we will discover more secrets hidden under the 1.7 million square kilometers ice sheet in Greenland?