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

June 19, 2023
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is offering free public family-friendly tours through Labor Day. Tours began on Memorial...
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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

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...
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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

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...
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The community of Chignik Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. Photo by Chris Maio.

UAF group receives philanthropic grant to aid Chignik region communities

May 22, 2023
A University of Alaska Fairbanks coastal organization has received a $590,000 philanthropic grant to map rapidly changing watersheds of the...
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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

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...
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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

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...
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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

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...
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The venue of the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna, Austria, is shown prior to the start of this week’s meeting. Photo courtesy EGU.

Geophysical Institute research on display at European science meeting

April 25, 2023
Research by several University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute scientists is being presented this week at the annual meeting of the...
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This still photo from the Poker Flat Research Range's all-sky camera on the night of Saturday, April 15-16 shows a spiral in the sky resulting from the the SpaceX rocket's gas exhaust. Photo courtesy Don Hampton

Giant spiral appears in Alaska sky

April 18, 2023
Aurora watchers in Alaska were startled early Saturday morning when a huge spiral appeared in the sky. People quickly posted photos on social...
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This scanned image of a slice of the Pacific Ocean nodule reveals the nodule’s growth rings. Photo courtesy of Gunther Kletetschka

Paleomagnetism aids research on the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

April 14, 2023
A small piece of Pacific Ocean floor, brought up 10 years ago by a Chinese research vessel from a depth of 16,500 feet and 2,700 miles from the...
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The ore body containing graphite is shown in this 2021 photo of Graphite Creek. At far left is a Graphite One drill rig. Photo by George Case, U.S. Geological Survey.

Research reveals geologic history of critical Alaska graphite deposit

April 13, 2023
A University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher is among the scientists who have revealed the metamorphic history of a high-grade graphite deposit on...
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ACUASI pilot Matt Westhoff guides the SeaHunter aircraft to the runway at Nenana Municipal Airport on May 5, 2022, for another test flight. Photo by Rod Boyce

New hangar will make Nenana a base for drone cargo testing

April 12, 2023
Nenana’s airport will be the site of a new 4,800-square-foot hangar for the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration. The hangar...
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Graduate student researcher Emily Fedders sits on top of an ice island with the portable interferometric radar. The ice island is in landfast sea ice on Alaska’s Arctic coast near Utqiaġvik. Photo courtesy of Andy Mahoney.

New method of monitoring shore ice could improve public safety

March 29, 2023
Specialized portable radar could serve as an early warning system to reduce risk for humans working on shorefast sea ice, according to a recently...
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The Elvey Building, right, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks houses the Geophysical Detection of Nuclear Proliferation University Affiliated Research Center. Photo by JR Ancheta.

‘Airborne object’ response builds on UAF, military partnership

March 16, 2023
Robert McCoy, director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, was driving to the movie theater in Fairbanks on a Saturday...
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Image is a colored 3D perspective view of Venus’ Maat Mons. Image by David P. Anderson, SMU/NASA science photo library

UAF scientist offers evidence that Venus is volcanically active

March 15, 2023
Venus appears to have volcanic activity, according to a new research paper that offers strong evidence to answer the lingering question about...
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The Magellan probe that orbited Venus from 1990 to 1994 was able to peer through the thick Venusian clouds and build up the above image by emitting and re-detecting cloud-penetrating radar. Visible as the bright patch below central North is Venus’ highest mountain, Maxwell Montes. NASA image

UAF researchers aiding NASA in developing Venus seismometer

February 23, 2023
Earth has earthquakes, Venus has venusquakes. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, working with NASA, are...
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Alaska Earthquake Center research seismologist Ezgi Karasözen displays a map of earthquake activity in a computer application named Earthquake. UAF/GI photo by JR Ancheta

For a UAF seismologist, the Turkey earthquake is personal

February 21, 2023
Ezgi Karasözen, a University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute research seismologist, was packing for a trip from her home in Colorado to...
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David Newman. UAF photo by Todd Paris

UAF research contributes to progress on fusion energy

February 20, 2023
Fairbanks and nuclear fusion research usually aren’t mentioned in the same sentence. But they could be. Plasma physicist David Newman at the...
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About

Since it was established by an Act of Congress in 1946, scientists at the Geophysical Institute have studied geophysical processes from the center of the Earth to the surface of the sun and beyond, turning data and observations into information useful for state, Arctic and national priorities.

Contact info

The GI is located on the West Ridge of the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

2156 Koyukuk Drive
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775

We acknowledge the Alaska Native nations upon whose ancestral lands our campuses reside. In Fairbanks, our Troth Yeddha' Campus is located on the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River.

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