The rapidly melting Malaspina Glacier in southeastern Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park could create a new ocean bay, one feature in what may be the largest landscape transformation underway in the United States. To better understand these changes, the National Science Foundation recently awarded researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and two partner […]
There are two primary causes of global mean sea level rise — added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, and the expansion of sea water as it warms. The melting of Antarctica’s ice sheet is currently responsible for 20-25% of global sea level rise. But how much of a role will it play hundreds of […]
The forces shaping Alaska never sleep, especially near Yakutat. I visited the fishing town of about 800 people and many dogs a few years back. My assignment was to write about scientists studying Hubbard Glacier, which slammed the door on Russell Fiord in summer 2002, creating the largest glacier-dammed lake in the world for a […]
Dear Reader, The Arctic Ocean maybe the smallest and shallowest, but its importance and relevance are increasingly critical; the science tells us that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. That means sea ice, a vital component of Arctic marine ecosystems, could disappear by 2040. But it gets worse, […]