Science
As the dark season settled in, a unique parade of light appeared in Interior Alaska
In the course of a couple days in Fairbanks, stunning light pillars were visible, followed by a rare red aurora.
Seeing a rare red aurora is undeniably special
Charles Deehr remembers his first red aurora in 1958 but others have appeared over the decades, including earlier this month.
From Pensive Pup to Weeping Wall, few Alaskans know these perplexing place names
While many of the places exist on older charts and maps, they’re mostly unknown among the populace.
NOAA cancels funding for data collection crucial to tsunami warning systems
Direct feeds from seismology stations across Alaska are expected to stop in mid-November, state officials say.
‘Explosion’ of invasive European green crabs reported in Southeast Alaska
The Metlakatla Indian Community, which has been at the forefront in the effort to control the invaders, has trapped more than 40,000 of them this year.
In the aftermath of Typhoon Halong, faces reveal themselves on a beach in Southwest Alaska
The storm changed the composition of the old village site of Quinhagak, where thousands of artifacts had been collected in recent decades.
An extended fall reveals the existence of hair ice in Interior Alaska
The phenomenon has been studied for over a century with fungus providing a helping hand in its development.
Did an Alaska volcano eruption trigger the rise of the Roman Empire?
Two thousand years ago, Alaska’s Mount Okmok volcano spewed ash high into the atmosphere for months. Scientists believe it had major repercussions half a world away.
Mendenhall Glacier is pulling its icy toe from the lake it created
The glacier’s retreat has been ongoing, but scientists believe within a few years it will be separated from Mendenhall Lake.
A return to the lands traced in ‘Coming into the Country’ and look toward a changing north
Author Ben Weissenbach tagged along with a trio of adventurer/scientists to document the changes since John McPhee’s classic book was published in 1977.
When permafrost thaw turns Arctic Alaska river red, toxicity levels rise, scientists find
A study of the “rusting” Salmon River and its tributaries in Kobuk Valley National Park suggests that permafrost thaw is causing wider ecological problems.
With an eye on recovery, scientists study the Chena River, a quietly essential salmon stream
The river is one of the richest waterways for king salmon along the entire drainage of the Yukon River.
Arctic research consortium closing down after Trump administration cuts funding
The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, established in 1988 and credited with helping scientists and Alaska communities, is closing this month.
The season of senescence arrives in Alaska
Sensing that the days are getting too short for their leaves to efficiently change sunlight into tree-feeding sugars, trees have stopped flooding their leaves with chlorophyll.
From rain-drenched mountains to Arctic permafrost, Alaska landslides pose hazards
Scientists with government agencies and academia depend on each other and the public to help keep track of risky spots. Federal funding may be at risk, though.
Joint effort assesses landslide and tsunami risks in Alaska’s Prince William Sound
Closely monitored Barry Arm is a test case in a region where melting glaciers, steep slopes and narrow fjords set up conditions for dangerous tsunami-generating slides.
From the Bronx to Barrow to Ghana, UAF’s Lewis Shapiro covered a lot of ground during his 90 years
He was a co-founder of the Nyarkoa Foundation, which helped bring clean water to villages in Ghana.
Alaska’s largest glacier is in a long decline, a victim of its sunken location and encroaching seawater
Unable to wall itself off from the Pacific Ocean, the Malaspina Glacier is losing 20 to 30 feet per year in surface elevation.
Calling lost chickadees in far-north poplars
The gray-headed chickadee was last heard in Alaska in 2018 and encroaching beavers may diminish what was the birds’ natural habitat.
Recent landslide in Southeast recalls the giant wave of Lituya Bay in 1958
A magnitude 8.3 earthquake triggered a tremendous landslide into the ocean and the wave that followed reached 1,740 feet above sea level on a hill opposite the slide.
New APU lab helps researchers identify microplastics in Alaska’s waterways
With a cutting-edge microscope and spectrometer, Dee Barker and other Alaska Pacific University researchers are identifying the chemical composition of plastics found in water around the state.
As a mountain crumbled Sunday, Alaska experienced its largest landslide-caused tsunami in a decade
Seismic stations more than 600 miles away picked up the rumbling as a mountainside collapsed upon South Sawyer Glacier and into the ocean at the head of Tracy Arm.
During a rainy stretch in Alaska, consider the perfect positioning of Earth and its atmosphere
We live far enough away from the sun to keep our flood-swollen rivers from boiling away, yet close enough to keep all this precious moisture from being frozen.
Within aspen leaves, a ferocious war is fought
The aspen leaf miners feast on each other, keeping their species alive and helping maintain a portion of the leaf healthy.
Experts emphasize need for Interior Alaska wildfire mitigation
Gwich’in panelist Edward Alexander explained how cultural burnings every two years can be used as preventive maintenance.
The secrets of a lost world nestled within a Southeast Alaska lake
Preserved pollen and spores that plants leave behind have settled at the bottom of the lake, which allows scientists to study samples that are over 15,000 years old.
From the hidden to the harassers, Alaska is heavy with summer insects
A professor of entomology who does work in Alaska reported the possibility that more than 12 million adult mosquitoes may live above each acre of the worst-infested northern tundra.
Toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning blamed for Alaska seal deaths
A die-off last year at St. Paul Island, the first compelling case of fatal saxitoxin poisoning in marine mammals, comes as more harmful algae is found farther north
Visiting two Alaska ghost towns on the anniversary of one very big earthquake
Calling it an exercise in imagination, seismologist Carl Tape stopped at the site of Dome City and the former townsite of Meehan 113 years after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the area.
Homer author’s new book puts facts and stories about Alaska glaciers at your fingertips
Author Naomi Klouda says “The Alaska Glacier Dictionary” is for travelers and armchair adventurers alike, to give them quick access to a glacier’s vital stats. But it’s more than a reference book.