The mystery of mammoth tusks with iron fillings
Embedded iron particles surrounded by carbonized rings in the outer layer of a mammoth tusk from Alaska. Inset photo shows how an object ripped through the tusk. Image courtesy Richard Firestone. This...
View ArticleGreen, leafy invaders finding a home in Alaska
Hairy catsear is an invasive plant that is spreading into Alaska. Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service. This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska...
View ArticleOn the long trail to permafrost
A sunset over Norton Sound as seen from the village of Stebbins. Photo by Ned Rozell. This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in...
View ArticleA day in the life of Kenji Yoshikawa
The Iditarod trail between the Seward Peninsula villages of Elim and Golovin. Kenji Yoshikawa is traveling along part of the trail to visit schools and install permafrost boreholes. Photo by Ned...
View ArticleFilling in the Alaska Permafrost Map
Kenji Yoshikawa drills a hole to monitor permafrost in the Seward Peninsula village of Wales. Photo by Ned Rozell This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University...
View ArticleThe latest word on Alaska birds
A barred owl in Juneau. Unknown in Alaska before the late 1970s, barred owls are now the second most-abundant owl in Southeast. Photo by Paul Suchanek. This column is provided as a public service by...
View ArticleBad desert air and a glacier that licks a river
Atmospheric scientist Cathy Cahill points to two recent air samples from Baghdad, one showing dust and the other fine trapped particles from burned diesel fuel. Photo by Ned Rozell This column is...
View ArticleArctic sea ice extent plunges toward record
Summer hiatus is over. Far North Science returns to discover the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean has shriveled like an ice cube in a pitcher of lukewarm lemonade. The eye-in-the-sky scientists from the...
View ArticleArctic Ocean ice shrinks to second lowest on record
The countdown to the annual Arctic slush cup has ended, and the realm of polar bear and ice seal has shrunk yet again. The meltback may not be as bad as last year, but it’s worse than any other season...
View ArticleArctic Ice: The Shrink Goes On
Source: NSIDC The annual late-summer meltdown of the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska has commenced in earnest. While the satellite jockeys at the National Snow & Ice Data Center aren’t logging...
View ArticleFar North Science update!
Far North Science will return soon with fresh content on Alaskan science developments and Arctic natural acts. Bear with me as I tweak the machine.
View ArticleArctic sea ice melt slows in August
With only one month left before the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean typically shrinks to its annual minimum for the year, stormy weather and chilly temperatures have partly slowed the retreat, according to...
View ArticleAre pink salmon colonizing Scottish streams?
As the scientists, fishermen and Native Americans worry about the environmental consequences from the escape of as many as 160,000 Atlantic salmon from a collapsing Puget Sound net pen, a biologist...
View ArticleNorthern Sea Route opens wide
The Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast has become completely ice free, triggering a late summer surge in shipping traffic, mostly along the Russian Arctic coast, according to new story...
View ArticleAntarctic Ice does not balance
Year after year, the summer extent of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has dramatically declined — making life more difficult for marine mammals like walrus and polar bears while increasing the amount of...
View ArticleBeluga Update: New study and whale fans pod up
On a brilliant sunny Saturday along the roiling ocean shore near Anchorage, 1,237 volunteer whale watchers used scopes and binoculars and raw enthusiasm to nail 260 sightings of one of the country’s...
View ArticleTwo stokes forward, one stroke backward
Climate science and weather prediction can be a lot like paddling down a river in a one-person packraft. You intend to thread a mid-river line, but you catch a contrary back eddy that squirrels you...
View ArticleWarmer and wetter winters ahead for Alaska, colder and drier behind
One hundred twenty years ago today, hard winter struck Southcentral Alaska, with frigid temperatures biting down in the spirit of a Robert Service couplet. We know this because pioneer miners had...
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