Latest Research News and Events
A guide to the Alaska that was (is)
September 12, 2024
In 1935, in the middle of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Federal Writers' Project. His goal was to provide jobs for American writers who found themselves unemployed after the stock market crash of 1929. Merle Colby was one of those writers.
Why is that caterpillar looking at me?
September 05, 2024
On a trip to Quartz Lake, visitor to Alaska Garrett Ast once plucked a caterpillar from a twig. As Garrett held it in his palm, the caterpillar reared up and -- with two sparkling baby blues -- looked him right in the eye.
The lost world of northern dinosaurs
August 30, 2024
On a recent river trip in northern Alaska, scientists from the University of Alaska Museum of the North found a lost world, a time of "polar forests with reptiles running around in them."
The galloping glacier's recent dramas
August 23, 2024
In 1937, what scientists call a "surging" glacier was rumbling across the valley toward a roadhouse along a major Alaska highway. That mountain of ice advanced upon the log structure at more than 100 feet each day.
ÎÞÂëÂÒÂ× receives funding to enhance nuclear proliferation detection
August 20, 2024
The ÎÞÂëÂÒÂ× has been named to a group of 12 universities tasked by the federal government with improving and expanding the nation's detection of nuclear weapons proliferation.
The recent history of a black rock
August 16, 2024
In June of 1867 -- a few months before Alaska would become part of the United States with the transfer of $7.2 million to Russia -- William Healey Dall picked up a shiny black rock from a riverbank.
Pondering the mystery of the Mesa people
August 08, 2024
Now as quiet as wind whispering through grass, a plateau rising from the flats of northern Alaska was for thousands of years a lookout for ancient Alaskans.
Museum exhibit, video series to explain Aleutian Island storm history
August 03, 2024
A 2022 science cruise to the Aleutian Islands to learn about ancient storms and tsunamis has generated a traveling museum exhibit and video series that highlight the research and how scientists and Indigenous Alaskans worked together.
A shaky September in Yakutat Bay
August 02, 2024
More than a century ago, eight prospectors were panning the glacial sands near Hubbard Glacier when the Earth starting shaking and never seemed to stop. A few days later, they had survived a natural phenomenon they probably should not have.
ÎÞÂëÂÒÂ× volcano field school explores 20th century's biggest eruption
August 01, 2024
Eight students from across the United States were the latest participants in the International Volcanological Field School, which began in the late 1980s and became a for-credit offering in 2004.