Original article (in Albanian) was published on 07/04/2025; Author: Patris Pustina
A claim has been circulating online suggesting that U.S. President Donald Trump constructed a secret prison for state enemies beneath an airbase in Greenland.
As usual, the claim is not accompanied by any evidence or reference source to support it.
The airbase mentioned in the claim was known as Thule Air Base until 2023, when it was renamed to honor Greenland’s cultural heritage and was given the name Pituffik Space Base.
Pituffik Space Base is located on the northwestern coast of Greenland, around 1,200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 kilometers south of the North Pole. It is approximately 1,500 kilometers north of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.
In 1946, the United States and Denmark jointly established a radio and weather station near the site of the base today. Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
The base is icebound for nine months of the year, but its runway remains open year-round. It is in continuous darkness from November to February and in continuous daylight from May to August.
In the early 1960s, during the Cold War, the ‘Iceworm Project’ was a top-secret initiative by the United States Army, aimed at building a network of mobile nuclear missile launch sites beneath the ice of Greenland. The plan was to create a vast system of missile launch sites that could withstand a first strike.
However, the missiles, capable of targeting locations within the Soviet Union, were never deployed, and the necessary approval from the Danish government was never secured.
This happens because, although the surface of Greenland’s ice sheet appears strong and immobile, snow and ice are viscoelastic materials that slowly deform over time, depending on temperature and density. Despite its apparent stability, the ice sheet is in continuous, slow motion, spreading outwards from the center. This outward movement causes tunnels and trenches to gradually narrow, as their walls deform and swell, eventually leading to the collapse of the ceiling.
Deformation of the Camp Tunnel
Within three years of its excavation, ice core samples taken by geologists working at the camp, which was established as part of the 1959 project, 240 km from Pituffik, indicated that the ice sheet was moving much faster than expected and would destroy the tunnels and stations within about two years.
In 1960, the U.S. Department of Defense informed Danish officials that the camp’s purpose was to test different construction techniques under Arctic conditions, investigate practical issues with the semi-mobile nuclear reactor PM-2A, and support scientific experiments on the ice cap.
In 1957, Denmark authorized the United States to install air defense and artillery missiles, but explicitly prohibited nuclear missiles. The establishment of the camp and the nuclear reactor beneath the ice proceeded without clear consent from the Danish government, resulting in a political dilemma for then-Prime Minister H. C. Hansen.
In April 2024, NASA conducted an aerial survey over Greenland to evaluate its radar’s capability to detect internal ice layer features. The UAVSAR radar identified a structure beneath the ice, which NASA was able to confirm as the remains of the camp, now located at a depth of at least 30 meters below the surface.
Remains of the Camp
This history of Project Iceworm is presented to highlight the massive logistical, economic, and political undertaking required to build a structure beneath the ice of Greenland.
Had the United States initiated the construction of such a facility beneath the Pituffik Air Base, activity in the area would have been visible to the public and to both the local and Danish governments, which would have had to approve such a project on their territory.
