Rocket on the Chilled Rail at Poker Flat
In cold, dry, subarctic air, a rocket taller than a house tilts northward, awaiting the moment when a person inside a nearby concrete building pushes a button. The ink-black…
Denali Park Road Failings and Other Stories
By the summer of 2020, a landslide will bury a portion of the road from the Denali National Park entrance to Wonder Lake. That’s the conclusion of Zena Robert,…
Northern News from a Massive Conference
For the 20th straight year, in December 2019 I carried a notebook into the halls of the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Most of those years the…
The Physics of 40 Below
A father wakes, rolls out of bed and drops his toes to cold carpet. He grabs a flashlight and shines it outside the window. The thermometer reads 40 below…
The Demise of Scotch Cap Lighthouse
In spring of 1946, five men stationed at the Scotch Cap Lighthouse had reasons to be happy. World War II was over. They had survived. Their lonely Coast Guard…
Redoubt’s Big Impact 30 Years Ago
On Dec. 15, 1989, a pilot who had flown a 747 passenger jet all the way from Amsterdam was looking forward to landing in Anchorage. There, he would take a…
Plastic Discs Keep Returning Home
Forty years later, another plastic canary has come home to roost. In August, University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Ben Jones was hiking near Drew Point on the northern coast of…
What Killed the World’s Giants?
Most of the large animals that have walked the surface of Earth are no longer here. Why? Dan Mann thinks it’s because our recent climate has been too stable, at…
Dirty Glaciers all over the World
When my boss, Sue Mitchell, was in Tibet recently, she asked a local guide if the glaciers there were shrinking. The guide told her no, the glaciers were fine. When…
