A Botanist Found a Plant Growing in a Sealed Underground Vault — It Had Been Sealed for 70 Years
Dr. Patricia Moon, a botanist specializing in extremophile plants — species that survive in conditions hostile to most life — was part of a team commissioned to inspect a series of Cold War-era storage vaults beneath a decommissioned government facility in rural Maryland in 2021.
The vaults had been sealed in 1951 and, according to facility records, not opened since. The inspection was part of a broader environmental assessment required before the land could be redeveloped.
The team opened five vaults over three days.
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