A physics-informed digital twin uses high-resolution temperature data to track, update, and predict permafrost conditions beneath an Alaskan embankment road.
Alaska
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The 10 August 2025 landslide and tsunami at Tracy Arm fjord in Alaska
A wonderful new paper on the huge Tracy Arm landslide and tsunami will have profound but challenging implications for the management of risk in an age of increased tourism and rapid climate change. The journal Science has published an excellent new paper (Shugar et al. 2026) that examines the extraordinary 10 August 2025 landslide and […]
Posted inNews
The Forensics of a Skyscraper-Sized Tsunami
A landslide in Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska created the second-largest tsunami on record. A new analysis links this abrupt event to the retreat of a glacier and, ultimately, to climate change.
Posted inNews
Alaska’s Wildfires Heat the Planet, but Canada’s Cool It
Using 2 decades of satellite data, researchers learned that wildfires in North America don’t follow the same script: In western Canada, snow reflectivity drives a cooling effect, whereas in Alaska, permafrost burning leads to net warming.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Melting Glaciers Mix Up Waters More Than We Thought
Existing theory underestimates the mixing of freshwater and seawater by up to 50%.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
A landslide inventory that extends over a century in Alaska demonstrates that climate change is having a major impact
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. Of course, allow me to start by wishing all my readers a Happy 2026. I suspect that we are in for quite a landslide journey again this year. In late November, a […]
Posted inNews
Crystal Clusters Contain Clues to Magma’s Past and Future Eruptions
It’s now become easier to forecast the next eruption of Alaska’s Bogoslof volcano. New research led by Pavel Izbekov, a volcanologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, is applying the foundations of diffusion chronometry—the study of chemical change in crystals over time—to a new eruption forecasting approach. Izbekov’s team used crystal clusters and their collective records […]
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Climate Modeling for Communities, with Communities
End users, such as Indigenous community members developing climate adaptation efforts, make better use of climate models when researchers collaborate with them from the start.
Posted inNews
Amid the Arctic’s Hottest Year, Arctic Science Faces a Data Deficiency
The 20th annual Arctic Report Card reveals new highs in temperature and new lows in sea ice, as well as an uncertain outlook for the availability of federal data.
Posted inNews
Changing Winters Leave Indigenous Alaskans on Thin Ice
Researchers are blending Indigenous Knowledges with climate models to describe shifts in snow and ice.