Bison Bob a big discovery on the North Slope
Dan Mann holds the skull of a steppe bison that died on Alaska’s North Slope more than 40,000 years ago. Mann and Pam Groves found the nearly complete skeleton of the bison while floating down a northern river last summer.
Photo by Pam Groves.
As she scraped cold dirt from the remains of an extinct bison, Pam Groves wrinkled her nose at a rotten-egg smell wafting from gristle that still clung to the animal’s bones. She lifted her head to scan the horizon, wary of bears that might be attracted to the flesh of a creature that gasped its last breath 40,000 years ago.
Alaska Science Forum: Bison Bob a big discovery on the North Slope
By nrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Ned Rozell)
Alaska Science Forum: White River ash made its way across the globe
By nrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Ned Rozell)
The White River Ash blasted from giant eruptions somewhere in today’s Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains, drifted as far away as Ireland and Germany, said experts who attended the December 2012 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, held in San Francisco.
Bowheads rise, Barrow sinks. fire scars the tundra
Craig George at work watching for bowhead whales on a sea-ice platform north of Barrow.
Photo by Ned Rozell.
From my notebook, here’s more northern news presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a five-day gathering of more than 20,000 scientists held in early December 2012 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco:
Climate change and the People of the Mesa
The Mesa Site in northwest Alaska.
Photo courtesy Mike Kunz.
Alaska was once the setting for an environmental shift so dramatic it forced people to evacuate the entire North Slope, according to Michael Kunz, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management.
About 10,000 years ago, a group of hunting people lived on the North Slope, the swath of mostly treeless tundra that extends north from the Brooks Range to the sea. These people, known as Paleoindians, used a chunky ridge of rock west of the Colville River as a hunting lookout. Michael Kunz first discovered stone spear tips at the site, known as the Mesa, in 1978.
AVO updates status of Iliamna, Little Sitkin Volcanoes
The Alaska Volcano Observatory has issued a Volcanic Activity Notice for Iliamna and Little Sitkin on Jan. 9, 2013. Volcano Alert Levels were updated to Normal and their Aviation Color Codes were updated to Green at both volcanoes.
Alaska Science Forum: Rocket parts picked up in northern Alaska
By nrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Ned Rozell)
Following up on a NASA promise to recover spent rocket parts scattered for decades across northern Alaska, workers for Poker Flat Research Range recovered more than 7,000 pounds of debris from 17 different sites in 2012.
Alaska Science Forum: Bowheads rise, Barrow sinks, fire scars the tundra
By nrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Ned Rozell)
From my notebook, here’s more northern news presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a five-day gathering of more than 20,000 scientists held in early December 2012 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco:
Girls on Ice 2013: Call for applications until February 1
Organizers announce that the Girls on Ice 2013 Expeditions are now accepting applications. The 2013 program includes two expeditions. The original North Cascades expedition on Mount Baker in Washington State will be held July 21 through Aug. 1, 2013, and an Alaska-based expedition will take place June 21 through July 2, 2013.
Alaska forests in transition
Aspen trees in Fairbanks, part of the Alaska boreal forest in decline.
Photo by Ned Rozell.
In almost every patch of boreal forest in Interior Alaska that Glenn Juday has studied since the 1980s, at least one quarter (and as many as one-half) of the aspen, white spruce and birch trees are dead.
“These are mature forest stands that were established 120 to 200 years ago,” said Juday, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences. “Big holes have appeared in the stands.”
