Scientists have wondered what happens to the organic and inorganic carbon that Earth’s Pacific Plate carries with it as it slides into the planet’s interior along the volcano-studded Ring of Fire. A new study suggests a notable amount of such subducted carbon returns to the atmosphere rather than traveling deep into Earth’s mantle. The finding […]
University of Alaska Fairbanks
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Arctic ground squirrel hibernation trend could affect mating
As soils in Arctic Alaska become warmer and freeze for shorter periods in winter, mating conditions for arctic ground squirrels are changing. New research published in the journal Science analyzes more than 25 years of climate and biological data gathered by researchers and students from the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The team members […]
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University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist finds Alaska’s Arctic coastal towns face extensive inundation
Coastal erosion and land subsidence driven by permafrost thawing may lead to extensive seawater inundation in several northern Alaska communities by 2100, according to research by a University of Alaska Fairbanks geomorphologist. Louise Farquharson, a research assistant professor at the UAF Geophysical Institute, made the long-term projections for the communities of Point Lay, Wainwright, Kaktovik and […]
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Melting glaciers contribute to Alaska earthquakes
March 18, 2021 – In 1958, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake triggered a rockslide into Southeast Alaska’s Lituya Bay, creating a tsunami that ran 1,700 feet up a mountainside before racing out to sea. Researchers now think the region’s widespread loss of glacier ice helped set the stage for the quake. In a recently published research article, […]
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Rivers melt Arctic ice, warming air and ocean
A new study shows that increased heat from Arctic rivers is melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and warming the atmosphere. The study published this week in Science Advances was led by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, with contributing authors in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Finland and Canada. According to the […]
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Study shows stronger winds in store for northwestern Alaska
December 9, 2019 – By 2099, winds along Alaska’s northwestern coasts are projected to grow stronger, according to a new study from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. To understand past and future winds, programmer Kyle Redilla, of UAF’s International Arctic Research Center, and Sarah Pearl, an undergraduate from Dartmouth College, analyzed over 30 years of […]
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Ground Failure Study Shows Deep Landslides Not Reactivated by 2018 Anchorage Quake
October 23, 2019 – Major landslides triggered by the 1964 magnitude 9.2 Great Alaska earthquake responded to, but were not reactivated by, the magnitude 7.1 Anchorage earthquake that took place 30 November 2018, researchers concluded in a new study published in Seismological Research Letters. The shaking that accompanied the 2018 earthquake was of a higher […]
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New research shows an iceless Greenland may be in the future
June 19, 2019 – New research shows an iceless Greenland may be in the future. If worldwide greenhouse gas emissions remain on their current trajectory, Greenland may be ice-free by the year 3000. Even by the end of the century, the island could lose 4.5% of its ice, contributing up to 13 inches of sea […]
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Students’ 3D model illustrates decline of Alaska glacier
April 10, 2019 – Matthew Balazs sits at his desk holding a plastic model of the Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding valley in his right hand. In his left, he has a plastic blob the size of a deck of cards, representing the ice it has lost. On the model of the valley, there is a […]
Posted inEnviro
New ocean invader spotted in Alaska
October 8, 2018 – Scientists and local volunteers have detected a new invasive species in the waters of Southeast Alaska. Alaska Sea Grant’s Gary Freitag, Marine Advisory agent in Ketchikan, is a member of the scientific team that discovered Bugula neritina, an invertebrate filter feeder also referred to as a branching bryozoan. These tiny organisms form colonies […]
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Study links climate policy, carbon emissions from thawing permafrost
March 28, 2018 – Controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades could substantially reduce the consequences of carbon releases from thawing permafrost during the next 300 years, according to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. Conversely, climate policy that results in little or no effort to […]
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Research reveals evidence of new population of ancient Native Americans
January 3, 2018 – Genetic analysis of ancient DNA from a six-week-old infant found at an Interior Alaska archaeological site has revealed a previously unknown population of ancient people in North America. The findings, published in the Jan. 3 edition of the journal Nature, represent a major shift in scientists’ theories about how humans populated […]
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Study: Added Arctic data show warming didn’t pause
November 20, 2017 – Gaps in Arctic temperature data caused a misperception that global warming slowed from 1998 to 2012, according to a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change. A University of Alaska Fairbanks professor and his colleagues in China built the first data set of surface temperatures from across the world that […]
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Salmon could win and lose in changing climate
October 25, 2017 – Pacific salmon face an uncertain future due to accelerated climate and landscape change, according to a synthesis paper published in the October 2017 edition of the journal Fisheries. Researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Anchorage, University of Alaska Southeast, U.S. Geological Survey and […]
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Mountain glaciers recharge vital aquifers in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic
July 21, 2017 – Small mountain glaciers play a big role in recharging vital aquifers and in keeping rivers flowing during the winter, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The study also suggests that the accelerated melting of mountain glaciers in recent decades may […]