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Some of the 300 people who attended the 2024 Alaska Defense Forum listen during a session at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel and Conference Center. The 2025 forum, set for Aug. 25-27 at the 8 Star Event Center, is the sixth year the forum has been held. Photo by RED Photography

Geophysical Institute organizes defense forum to discuss shared goals

Geophysical Institute
August 21, 2025
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute has organized this year’s Alaska Defense Forum, which brings together military leaders...
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Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano is one of 12 confirmed submarine volcanoes along a segment of the larger Tonga-Kermadec volcanic arc.  Photo courtesy of Tonga Geological Services via the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program

2022 Pacific volcano eruption made a deep dive into Alaska

Geophysical Institute
August 20, 2025
Atmospheric waves from a massive 2022 South Pacific volcanic eruption created seismic waves that penetrated Earth to at least 5 kilometers in...
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Debris from an Aug. 10, 2025, landslide in Southeast Alaska spilled into Tracy Arm and onto South Sawyer Glacier. Dirt, rock and debris now fill an area of the fjord in the lower left of the photo. Image from video by Lt. Chip Baucom and Cmdr. PJ Johansen, U.S. Coast Guard

Tsunami-causing slide was largest in decade, earthquake center finds

Geophysical Institute
August 12, 2025
Sunday’s massive tsunami-causing landslide in Southeast Alaska likely sent more than 100 million cubic meters of debris into an icy fjord and...
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Monthly mean temperature departure from normal, July 2025, at selected stations in Alaska. A technical issue in Yakutat is causing erroneously high temperature readings at the station.

Alaska climate report: Above and below normal, July had it all

Geophysical Institute
August 12, 2025
Nome was a hot place to be in early July. The temperature was 20 degrees above normal at one point during that period, according to the monthly...
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This chart shows warning times that could have been provided in advance of peak shaking from the July 16, 2025, magnitude 7.3 earthquake near Sand Point, Alaska, if Alaska had an early warning system. Chart courtesy of Alex Fozkos

Research shows early quake warning system could provide critical seconds

Geophysical Institute
August 5, 2025
A proposed earthquake early warning system could have provided several Alaska communities an alert of 10 seconds or more ahead of strong shaking...
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The Indian Space Research Organization’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast with the NISAR satellite at 4:10 a.m. Alaska time Wednesday. ISRO photo

UAF satellite facility to manage massive NASA data surge

Geophysical Institute
July 31, 2025
Years of preparation by the Alaska Satellite Facility will ensure that a flood of freely available data from a NASA-India satellite mission that...
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This file photo shows the research vessel Sikuliaq in Alaska's Resurrection Bay. UAF photo by Eric Engman

Sikuliaq underway on unique Alaska coastal research voyage

Geophysical Institute
July 25, 2025
A 2,500-mile, 16-day research cruise that began Thursday in Seward and concludes in Nome aims to advance environmental research in coastal Alaska...
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Research assistant professor Florian Hofmann of the UAF Geophysical Institute’s Geochronology Lab works on the lab’s argon mass spectrometer. Photo by JR Ancheta

UAF critical minerals proposal advances in federal funding competition

Geophysical Institute
July 14, 2025
A University of Alaska Fairbanks proposal to reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign sources of minerals critical to the technology and...
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A steam plume with minor ash extends northeast from Augustine Volcano on Jan. 30, 2006. Photo by R.G. McGimsey/Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey

Tiny crystals provide insight to massive 2006 Augustine Volcano eruption

Geophysical Institute
July 11, 2025
Samples of extremely small crystal clots, each polished to the thickness of a human hair or thinner, have revealed information about the process...
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