July 6, 2020
Long-distance champions of Alaska
A few years ago, Joly wondered if he could quantify an often-heard hypothesis that caribou were the animals that traveled farthest across the surface of Earth. As a boy, he had watched a television show on wildebeests in Africa that inspired him and later made him curious about which animal moves the most in a calendar year.
June 29, 2020
Calling on hydrologists to help each other with emergency remote teaching
Lecture halls will be empty for many this fall. How can you help the hydrology community pivot to online teaching?
Rain falls, as it always has
“Chances are good that the drop of rain that splashes on your forehead is made of molecules that were here long before the first humans looked up in wonder at a cloudy sky, long before the first leafy plants stretched their roots into the soil, long before the first single-celled organisms took the critical step of dividing in half to reproduce.”
June 19, 2020
World traveler visits South Fairbanks
“I saw this black-and-white bird, smaller than my hand, its beak open, music pouring out. I remembered the blackpoll warbler making headlines a few years ago. Researchers had discovered that, in fall, after crossing North America from the far north, the birds leap off branches on the East Coast. They then fly thousands of miles over the open Atlantic Ocean on their way to South America.”
Fold-thrust belt outcrop pattern with doubly-plunging anticline
The latest post from The Geo Models blog.
June 15, 2020
Postcards from a frozen icebreaker — Part 30
Anchors up, and underway. After a few days of turnover, we are now on our way. We’ve said goodbye to our Leg3 colleagues, after absorbing as much information as possible on their experiences, the state of the instrumentation, and ideas on how to proceed.
June 14, 2020
Postcards from a frozen icebreaker — Part 29
After 5.5 weeks in transit, we are finally onboard of Polarstern. What a long journey it has been just to get to this point…. And our journey is really just beginning…
June 13, 2020
Postcards from a frozen icebreaker — Part 28
As we wait here…. For an excruciatingly long time to rendezvous with Polarstern, there has been some moderately good news. The sea-ice melt season has started out at the MOSAiC floe. I wish we were there with the full arsenal of observations and samples.
June 12, 2020
Postcards from a frozen icebreaker — Part 27
Polarstern is making slow progress as it tries to leave the ice. Funny how the ice has drifted so fast this year, and broken up so much. Yet it still has a firm grip on Polarstern. Not wanting to let her pass easily to the edge.
When permafrost kills? A moose story
While standing over the festering moose, Douglas points out meat on the animal’s ribs, along with internal organs undamaged, seeming proof that a hungry bear or wolf did not pull it down. There are no large animal tracks nearby in the mud. Did this northern sinkhole kill the moose? Thawing permafrost — ground that has remained frozen through the heat of at least two summers — is usually a slow-motion disaster, resulting in slowly sinking buildings and roller-coaster roads.
