The Arc

Natural History Museum

Svalbard as an archipelago has a special position in geology due to its migration in plate tectonic history. There is an enormously rich history preserved for eternity within the vast mountain massifs of Svalbard. Geological excavations over the last 200 years have first revealed a valuable layer of coal that has provided a livelihood for the archipelago, and in recent times fossils of plants and animals have been uncovered that testify to a quite different and tropical past. Throughout the history of the globe, Svalbard's tectonic plate has moved from Antarctica, crossed the equator and finally found its current position in the Arctic. Throughout this extensive history, Svalbard has been a very fertile archipelago that has inhabited everything from tropical sea creatures to large dinosaurs. In this context, we are not only a human being in the normal world, here and now. We are animal creatures that roam this planet in the middle of the galaxy. Through mining and archaeological excavations, some layers of history have been removed on Svalbard and used for human needs and research. With the establishment of the Arctic World Archive, we preserve some of the world history, albeit just a small glimpse of it, layer by layer. During the construction of the associated visitor center, this analogy will be visualized, and we will be better able to understand our own past - present and future. The visitor center will make us see the word with new eyes.