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July 29, 2022
A high-country Eden for sockeye salmon
In late summer, a few months before this mossy valley will feel the sting of 40-below air, bright red salmon dart through a crystal-clear pool amid fragrant green vegetation. The Gulkana Hatchery has a Garden-of-Eden feel, which is fitting since millions of sockeye salmon begin life here each year.
May 19, 2022
Wading into the icy Yukon River for science
Snow geese flew in a ragged V overhead, rasping as they looked down upon Alaska’s bumpy face for the first time in 2022. Nine hundred feet below, the Yukon River flowed by quietly, except for the dull thuds of icebergs skidding along the river bottom near the shore. Sensing a break in the ice traffic, U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Heather Best — wearing chest waders with a hole she would soon discover — stepped into the river.
May 13, 2022
Alaska’s big river breaks up at Eagle
While most of the town was sleeping, the ice slipped out. Breakup happened on the Yukon River here at its first settlement in the United States at around 2 a.m. on Saturday, May 7, 2022. That’s when meltwater rushing from side creeks into the colossal groove of the Yukon lifted a winter-hardened sheet in front of the town.
May 12, 2022
Awaiting river breakup on the Yukon
Andy Bassich lives on the south bank of the Yukon River, about 12 miles downstream from Eagle, Alaska, the first community in America along the largest waterway in Alaska. Like all of the few-thousand people who live along the big river in Alaska, Bassich hopes that river ice formed by the cold air of winter will continue to disappear in a mushy fashion, one that does not cause flooding.
May 2, 2022
Alaska’s water crop is a natural resource
As much of Alaska’s landmass crosses the magical temperature threshold that turns ice and snow into water, it’s time to consider the state’s richness in a resource more essential to humans than oil or gas. Clear as gin, brown as iced tea or tinted aquamarine by glacial dust, Alaska’s freshwater supply is so abundant the numbers are hard to comprehend.
April 29, 2019
The landslide that is too big to notice
The southeast slope of Sinking Creek Mountain in Craig County, Virginia hosts what is certainly one of the largest landslide complexes in eastern North America–and possibly the least noticeable. Despite extending for 15 miles (25 km) along the mountainside…this group of translational blockslides was not documented until 1986 by Art Schultz of the USGS.
November 17, 2018
Pescadero Vent Diving — Week Two Video
There have been amazing results and very exciting discoveries in the first two weeks of the expedition. Hear firsthand from the scientists and engineers how technology is empowering innovation and exploration in these unique hydrothermal vent fields.
October 18, 2018
Twist hackles, kayaks, and stream capture…for real!
This week’s post was inspired by the photo below. Seldom will you see such lovely patterns generated by tensional failure of any material, much less polyethylene! If this type of feature is unfamiliar, just google “plumose structures” and you’ll find all you need.
September 21, 2018
Kerala Floods – Rescue and Rehabilitation using Information Technology and Social Media
The south Indian state of Kerala used a new model of rescue and rehabilitation during worst floods of the century.
May 2, 2018
Bosque del Apache – BEMP’s 33rd BEMP site!
It was muddy… really, really, muddy. The cold February nights didn’t have much of a chance against the quick warming sunshine that had us in t-shirts before lunch.
