Two-hundred and forty-one years ago, when Gen. George Washington marched back into New York City as British troops were walking out, a volcano erupted in Iceland. For eight months of 1783, Laki volcano spewed lava and belched noxious fumes into the atmosphere. One quarter of the residents of Iceland died, and the sulfur-rich gases that […]
Has the moon seemed exceptionally noticeable this winter? There’s a reason: The full moon currently never sets for many Alaskans. During the winter of 2023-2024, we are passing through a period when the moon is at one extreme in its precession cycle. The full moon is now higher in the sky than it will be […]
This year, like the years and decades before it, again showed the strength and significance of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute as a leader in research, especially in Arctic research. Geophysical Institute scientists — research faculty, graduate students and undergrads — study permafrost, ice, snow, sea ice, the depths of the Arctic Ocean, […]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When it comes to greenhouse gases, methane is one the biggest contributors. Not only is it massively abundant — it’s about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. That makes tracking methane emissions critically important, and nowhere more so than in the Arctic, which is […]