Rodriguez well

[citation needed] Developed at Camp Century in Greenland during the early 1960s, a Rodriguez Well (Rodwell), uses heat exchangers and a submersible pump to create a cavity deep under a glacier’s surface and cycle the heated water up an ice shaft, siphoning a portion of the flow for consumption before sending the rest back down to the well.

If this model were found to be effective, an efficient means of supplying water to staff stationed on site needed to be developed.

Project Iceworm was a top secret United States Army program of the Cold War, which aimed to build a network of mobile nuclear missile launch sites under the Greenland ice sheet.

The ultimate objective of placing medium-range missiles under the ice — close enough to strike targets within the Soviet Union — was kept secret from the Government of Denmark.

[1] The lifespan of a Rodriguez well is over seven years, ending when the depth of the cavity becomes too deep for the facility to efficiently heat and recirculate water.