Skip to main content
The Elvey Building houses the Alaska Satellite Facility, part of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. UAF Geophysical Institute photo.

NASA awards Alaska Satellite Facility five-year, $70 million contract

Geophysical Institute
June 30, 2023
The Alaska Satellite Facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will continue to operate NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Center for...
Read more  
Degassing is seen on Pavlof Volcano in July 2017. Photo by Taryn Lopez.

Research reveals sources of CO2 from Aleutian-Alaska Arc volcanoes

Geophysical Institute
June 28, 2023
Scientists have wondered what happens to the organic and inorganic carbon that Earth’s Pacific Plate carries with it as it slides into the planet...
Read more  
A sign welcomes visitors for free guided summer tours of the Geophysical Institute, which start at the Elvey Building on UAF's West Ridge. UAF/GI photo by JR Ancheta.

Geophysical Institute, Poker Flat offer free summer tours

Geophysical Institute
June 19, 2023
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is offering free public family-friendly tours through Labor Day. Tours began on Memorial...
Read more  
Graduate student researchers Claire Puleio and Valerie Wasser of the UAF Geophysical Institute take ground carbon dioxide measurements and ground and atmospheric readings on a Kruzof Island beach. Photo by JR Ancheta.

International science team explores gassing of Mt. Edgecumbe volcano

Geophysical Institute
June 6, 2023
Three pairs of scientists began walking purposefully on one end of a curving Kruzof Island beach on a cloudy, cool and damp Monday, then stopped...
Read more  
A grizzly is seen from a helicopter bringing scientists to a predetermined study area on Kruzof Island in Southeast Alaska on Sunday. Photo by Taryn Lopez.

Mt. Edgecumbe volcano research starts with a bear encounter

Geophysical Institute
June 6, 2023
The first volcano scientists of an international team deposited on a Southeast Alaska island by helicopter Sunday quickly learned they had an...
Read more  
The community of Chignik Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. Photo by Chris Maio.

UAF group receives philanthropic grant to aid Chignik region communities

Geophysical Institute
May 22, 2023
The region has seen extreme high water levels related to more frequent storm flooding, causing increased erosion that has affected subsistence...
Read more  
Research assistant professor Louise Farquharson works at an ancient raised marine shoreline on the north shore of Teshekpuk Lake near Alaska’s Arctic Ocean coast in 2013. The ancient shoreline is believed to have formed due to an ice shelf pressing down on the Beaufort Sea coast. Photo by Ben Jones.

UAF scientists to hunt for clues about Arctic Ocean glaciation

Geophysical Institute
May 19, 2023
Evidence indicates a thick ice sheet, not annual sea ice and icebergs, covered the Arctic Ocean at some point during the last 140,000 years. Now...
Read more  
The map shows infrasound stations and earthquakes considered in this study. Not all stations operated contemporaneously, but all were active for some period between 2018 and October 2022. Image from research paper.

Scientists find novel way to aid earthquake magnitude determination

Geophysical Institute
May 18, 2023
Sensors that detect changes in atmospheric pressure due to ground shaking can also obtain data about large earthquakes and explosions that exceed...
Read more  
Ph.D. student Sebin John presents his research on observing the impact of ocean storms and sea ice on seismic background noise across Alaska. Photo by Mike West

UAF researchers show work at Seismological Society of America meeting

Geophysical Institute
April 25, 2023
Fifteen people from the Geophysical Institute attended the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America annual meeting in person in San...
Read more