Alaska’s water crop is a natural resource
As much of Alaska’s landmass crosses the magical temperature threshold that turns ice and snow into water, it’s time to consider the state’s richness...
Alaska Science Forum: Awaiting river breakup on the Yukon
We had so much snow this year — knee deep on top of the river,” he said. “When that melted off, it laid on top of the ice and helped soften it up.”
Alaska Science Forum: The worst fire year we can remember
In a gorgeous warm May this year, we have not yet sniffed the bitter scent of flaming spruce. When we do, some of us will think back to a year that still haunts us. In summer 2004, a Vermont-sized patch of Alaska burned in wildfires. That hazy summer was the most extreme fire year in the half century people have kept score.
Alaska Science Forum: A field guide to old coffee cans
The year is 1905. You are a prospector in Alaska relaxing in your cabin after a chilly day of working the tailings pile. Craving a cup of joe, you pull a tin of coffee off the shelf. Though you can’t imagine it, that distinctive red can, the one you will later use for your precious supply of nails, will long outlive you. And it will give an archaeologist a good idea of when you made your Alaska home.
If a lake drains in northern Alaska . . .
“Lakes seem, on the scale of years or of human life spans, permanent features of landscapes, but they are geologically transitory, usually born of...
Adopt a woolly mammoth and win!
A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist wants to find out when the last woolly mammoth fell to the grass in Alaska. He is asking for help from an unusual source: people like you.
Ancient moose antlers hint of early arrival
When a great deal of Earth’s water was locked up within mountains of ice, our ancestors scampered across a dry corridor from what is...
Report of frog’s death greatly exaggerated
Things didn't look good for the five frozen wood frogs. The palm-sized amphibians were hibernating in a box outside Brian Barnes' Fairbanks home a few...
Alaska’s small glaciers on the way out
Glaciers worldwide are withering. Half of them will disappear by the end of this century, and much of the lost ice will vanish from...
Butterflies in the middle of winter
Rod Boyce of Two Rivers, Alaska, reports that he has noticed — at a time when the outside air’s temperature has not been above...
