Image: Yakutat Glacier. Photo by Sam Herreid 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. Another glaciologist saw an example of the confusion […]
Photo: A brood of ruddy ducks in Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in summer 2018. Photo by Michelle Lake, USFWS. Every spring, millions of ducks touch down on Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, a spread of muskeg and dark water the size of Maryland. These days, more ruddy ducks seem to be among them. Recent […]
Fifty years ago, a ship long as the Empire State Building sailed toward obstacles that captains usually avoid. The icebreaking tanker SS Manhattan was an oil company’s attempt to see if it might be profitable to move Alaska oil to the East Coast by plowing through the ice-clogged Northwest Passage. Begging his way aboard […]
To learn more about one of the largest environmental changes of our lifetimes, Brittany Jones studies clam breath. Jones is a student earning her Ph.D. at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is an expert on creatures that live in the muck covering the underwater continental shelf off western Alaska. There, sea ice waxes […]