GI Press Releases
The Geophysical Institute welcomes Kathryn Moran, an associate professor of ocean engineering and oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, to discuss findings from the 2004 Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) in a free public lecture on October 13. Cores collected from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's ACEX mission are surprising many who believed the Arctic Ocean lacked sufficient remains to record evidence of ancient climate. Now scientists are able to analyze Earth's previous conditions through ribbons of ocean floor sediment taken from depths as deep as 1,300-feet below the sea floor. 
A comet's make-up is still a mystery. Scientists believe they're filled with ice, dust, and perhaps the building blocks for life, but they've never been able to get an up close and personal look. On July 3, 2005 all of this will change with a mission dubbed "Deep Impact."
Images showing smoke from Interior wildfires suitable for publication in newspapers and for still images for television are available from the Geographic Information Network of Alaska Web site, located at http://www.gina.alaska.edu/media/. These images have been reduced in size to allow for easy media use. The new images demonstrate how the smoke situation in Alaska's Interior has evolved over the last three days (July 27 through July 29, 2005). More images will be available as they are received and processed, so check the Web site often for updates.
The Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has supplied the summer's first Landsat 5 image to the Alaska Fire Service for mapping of the Sheenjek River Fire. The image was captured June 21, 2005, and portrays active burning as bright orange spots in the scene. Armed with this satellite image, fire personnel can better map the Sheenjek River Fire and formulate the proper response to fight the blaze northeast of Fairbanks.
The Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is collaborating with other agencies to provide near-real-time satellite data to the Bureau of Land Management's Alaska Fire Service. Armed with images taken from space, fire personnel will be able to track hot spots and fire movement, even under heavy smoke that may ground mapping aircraft. Data from Landsat 5 and MODIS satellites will be available to fire crews and other users in less than 24 hours through the GINA network.
South-central Alaska's Mount Wrangell rumbled for 11 minutes following the Sumatra earthquake in December 2004. A swarm of 14 earthquakes were triggered at Mount Wrangell about one hour after the initial rupture in Indonesia, more than 6,800 miles away.
From the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, to the biblical story of Noah and the flood, history is steeped in stories about an ancient, catastrophic flood that changed the world. Dr. Walter C. Pitman III, a geophysicist from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, has found
evidence of a gigantic flood that took place 7,600 years ago in the area where the Black Sea is located today. Pitman will describe his findings in a free public lecture. "Noah's Flood: Myth or Reality?" will take place Tuesday, April 26 at 7 p.m. in Schaible Auditorium on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.
Two Improved-Orion sounding rockets were launched in succession from Poker Flat Research Range last night. The first rocket of the DUST project launched at 8:45 p.m. and the second rocket launched at 10:45 p.m. Both rockets flew through Earth's upper atmosphere, reaching altitudes of 62 vertical miles. Their flights lasted nearly 6 minutes each, before landing about 28 miles north of the rocket range.
Debris from the Black Brant XII sounding rocket that malfunctioned during flight on Sunday, March 6 were recovered and transported back to Poker Flat Research Range. Remnants of the rocket, CASCADES, will now be analyzed as part of an investigation to see what caused the failure of the rocket's third stage, which dropped hundreds of miles shy of its intended location. Once the snow melts, range staff will search again to see if there is any additional debris.
CASCADES, a rocket project of Dartmouth College scientist Kristina Lynch, launched at 1:37 a.m. this morning from Poker Flat Research Range. The four-stage Black Brant XII rocket reached an altitude of about 18 vertical miles, and flew for 5 minutes. Although the first two stages appeared to
function properly, normal ignition of the third stage did not occur. Range staff and NASA personnel believe the failure occurred during the rocket's third stage, but are unsure what exactly triggered the malfunction. The rocket debris will be retrieved and analyzed as part of an investigation.
