As of Tuesday, two new fires had started in the Galena Zone, bringing the total number of fires in the area to 35. To date this year, wildland fires have burned more than 44,000 acres in the region.
The Air Force is trying to better understand the erosion bearing down on its valuable radar sites.
The incident appears similar to an oil and gas release in 2017 blamed on thawing permafrost and hot production fluids.
A September storm caused damage in Utqiagvik, and Gov. Bill Walker declared a disaster there last month.
Because ice makes up a good portion of the underground foundation of northern Alaska, thawing has dropped the landscape as much as 3 feet in some places.
A new study estimates that climate impacts to public infrastructure in Alaska will total about $5 billion by century's end.
In villages like Kongiganak, communities have stopped burying their dead because, as the permafrost melts, the oldest part of their cemetery is sinking.
Temperatures in the area were unseasonably high last week, reaching into the mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service. Then temperatures dropped below freezing Sunday and into Monday morning. "There's a lot of water flowing underground in this area," McCarthy said. The freeze-thaw "caused some instability and that made it slide."
When 200 million metric tons of rock tumbled down a remote Southeast Alaska mountain in October, nobody was around to see it. But thanks to a beefed-up seismic network and a new system that can distinguish landslides from earthquakes, scientists knew it had happened.
Alaskas tundra landscapes carpet a good portion of the state, from the North Slope to the elbow of the Alaska Peninsula. Researchers say it's slowly sinking in places -- as much as a fifth of an inch each year.
The Northway Mall in northeast Anchorage sits almost totally empty. That’s led to people dumping loads of trash, furniture, appliances and industrial waste all over the property.
At least 36 ships will skip scheduled stops in Skagway this summer because the cruise dock closed after a landslide sent debris toppling from the mountain above.
The McCarthy Road was closed between Mile 0 and 1 in Chitina on Monday, June 3, 2024, after a portion of the road sank. The transportation department is still assessing the cause of the road settlement, Perreault said, but it is not river washout or a landslide.
The president of the Canary Islands said that by 11 p.m. some 5,000 people had been evacuated from their homes.
It’s not clear whether the unrest will lead to an eruption at Tanaga Volcano, which is located on an uninhabited island about 65 miles from Adak.
“This has been a very trying time,” mother Tanisha Charles said. “You don’t prepare for this. You think of fires, you think of earthquakes, but you never think of a mudslide in the middle of town.”
An evacuation alert was also issued Friday for residents of the Lower Salcha River, from river mile 3 to 40. The Middle Salcha remains under a SET status, from river
Smoke from a handful of fires in northeast Alaska and across the border in Canada drifted south to Fairbanks on Tuesday and is expected to linger through Wednesday night.
In northern Alaska, an amphitheater of frozen ground thaws where a northern river cuts into it, exposing walls of ice. The feature, known by scientists as “yedoma,” is the largest of its kind yet found in Alaska. A great wall of ice holds a lot of treasures from the past, which science is eager to explore.
Of the 140 unstable slopes along the 92-mile park road, Pretty Rocks has the most potential to disrupt traffic.
All Topics
All Countries
Any Date
Apply