Rocks from space in Alaska backcountry

Rocks from space in Alaska backcountry By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]O[/fusion_dropcap]n February 26 at 1:06 p.m., someone in northern Alaska may have seen a torch of light in the cold daytime sky. On that afternoon, satellites detected a meteoric fireball headed toward Earth. An asteroid six feet in diameter penetrated the atmosphere at 13 miles per [...]

Anatomy of the worst fire year

Anatomy of the worst fire year By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]I[/fusion_dropcap]n a gorgeous warm May this year, we have not yet sniffed the bitter scent of flaming spruce. When we do, many of us will think back to a year that still haunts us. In summer 2004, a Vermont-sized patch of Alaska burned in wildfires. That [...]

Mosquito Season Starts In Alaska

Mosquito Season Starts In Alaska By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]S[/fusion_dropcap]luggish mosquitoes, sprung from the leaves where they overwintered. Moths and butterflies flitting the fields and south-facing slopes. Beetles skittering along in pinstripe-grooved exoskeletons. One of the 17 trillion mosquitoes,Photo by Ned Rozell How many insects are stirring on the surface of Alaska? That's a [...]

An Oasis on the Seward Peninsula

An Oasis on the Seward Peninsula By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]O[/fusion_dropcap]n a recent ski trip across the Seward Peninsula, I followed a trail along the Pilgrim River broken by five friends. Their path led to a subarctic oasis. Beyond the blank white of frozen river was a small settlement nestled in balsam poplar trees 60 feet [...]

Serpentine Hot Springs and early Alaskans

Serpentine Hot Springs and early Alaskans By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]S[/fusion_dropcap]kiing across the raw, open landscape of the Seward Peninsula a few weeks ago, my friends and I dreamed of getting out of a big wind and into the tub at Serpentine Hot Springs. Though none of us had been there, we all recognized the Serpentine [...]

How did earthworms reach Alaska traveling 30 feet a year?

How did earthworms reach Alaska traveling 30 feet a year? By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]U[/fusion_dropcap]nder its own power, an earthworm gains about 30 feet of new territory each year. But that does not help explain how worms got to Alaska. "It's almost geologically slow," Matt Bowser, said of the earthworm’s locomotion. Bowser, Alaska's closest thing to [...]

Beaufort Sea Lake Drains Into the Sea

Beaufort Sea Lake Drains Into the Sea By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]I[/fusion_dropcap]f a lake drains on top of the world, will anyone hear it? Ben Jones and Chris Arp did. The Anchorage- and Fairbanks-based scientists placed sensors in a bathtub-shaped lake on Alaska's northern coast a few years ago. From what they can tell, the lake [...]

Northern trails sponging up winter rainfall

Northern trails sponging up winter rainfall By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]A[/fusion_dropcap]s he contemplates another long snowmachine journey, Matthew Sturm might consider packing a raincoat. Rain fell in Interior Alaska a few weeks before his trip, glazing supercooled highways and forming a crust on the snowpack. "You remember all the jokes about how climate change is going [...]

Denali has the clearest air of any monitored U.S. national park

Denali has the clearest air of any monitored U.S. national park By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]F[/fusion_dropcap]airbanks's air turns bitter every winter as we fill it with woodsmoke and other things, but just down the road Denali National Park has the clearest air measured among America's monitored national parks. Scientists at Colorado State University have taken a [...]

Sea Ice at the Top of the World

Sea Ice at the Top of the World By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]O[/fusion_dropcap]n a February day long ago, a family living in a sod hut near the Arctic Ocean saw blocks of sea ice bulldozing their way onto shore. Winds shoved more ice until the mass towered above them and started dripping water through a ventilation [...]