Thermometers at Work Everywhere in Alaska
Every Alaskan owns at least one version of a sensitive scientific instrument: the thermometer. But what is it measuring?
Author: Ned Rozell
When Biologists Stocked Alaska with Wolves
In 1960 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game conducted a wolf-planting experiment on Coronation Island in southeast Alaska. Alaska’s only wolf-stocking experiment taught biologists the importance of habitat size.
Icelandic Glaciologist Feels a Weighty Responsibility
Icelanders will soon install a plaque they hope people will read, long after those who bolted it to a mountain are dead.
Extreme Melting Where Glacier Meets Ocean
LeConte Glacier near Petersburg is the farthest-south glacier that spills into the sea on this side of the equator. Where that ice tongue dips into salty water, scientists recently measured melting much greater than predicted.
The Thin Line Between Alaska and Canada
Marked by metal cones and a clear-cut swath twenty feet wide, Alaska’s border with Canada is one of the great feats of wilderness surveying.
Village Move Intensifying in Summer 2019
The relocation of an Alaska village is happening fast this summer, after many years of planning and work.
A Sleepless Walk Under the Midnight Sun
Mark Ross, a naturalist at Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge in Fairbanks, invented the cross-country, solstice-celebrating AlaskAcross—a nonstop 60-mile hiking traverse in northern Alaska, from Lost Creek to Eureka.
Monitoring a Mystery Bird in Yakutat
On sandy barrier islands between mountains and the sea, two different birds that look alike lay their eggs side-by-side. Biologists here are learning more about the less-common, more mysterious one.
The Sound of Silence in Russell Fjord
While the tides stopped in Russell Fjord, the meltwater from glaciers did not. During the five-month closure, water within Russell Fjord and the connected arm of Nunatak Fjord crept upward.
How Many Alaska Glaciers? There’s No Easy Answer
Not long ago, a glaciologist wrote that the number of glaciers in Alaska “is estimated at (greater than) 100,000.” That fuzzy number, maybe written in passive voice for a reason, might be correct. But it depends upon how you count.