The maximum extent of Arctic ice on Feb. 25 was the lowest on record. The orange line shows the median extent for that day from 1981 to 2010. (Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center)
The Arctic’s summer ice melt has begun -- earlier than ever.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Friday that Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent on Feb. 25.
That extent covered about half a million square miles less than average -- and it maxed out two weeks sooner than normal.
The Data Center says ice is still growing in parts of the Bering Sea -- and there could be some spikes later in the season. But they don’t think the overall extent will see a major increase again this season, especially further north.
The Arctic saw lower than average ice conditions across the board this year, except in the Labrador and Davis straits.
A plan to prevent oil spills by moving ship traffic further off shore in the Aleutian Islands is moving forward.
The International Maritime Organization approved a set of areas to be avoided in the Aleutians at a subcommittee meeting in London on Friday.
The plan came to the United Nations body from the U.S. Coast Guard. It’s part of recommendations by the Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment, released last fall.
The barge was already partially ice-bound on Oct. 31, 2014, as seen from a Coast Guard aircraft in Alaska's Arctic. (Courtesy: Cmdr. Shawn Decker/USCG)
It sounds like the makings of a children’s book: the long, unexpected journey of a little barge called the NTAL-2.
The unmanned fuel carrier that got stuck in Arctic sea ice last fall has now made it almost as far as the northern coast of Russia.
It’s traveled almost 1,400 nautical miles without ever touching solid ground -- about the distance from Maine to Florida.
Shell wants to use its Noble Discoverer drill rig to explore the Chukchi Sea this summer. (KUCB)
Federal regulators are suggesting that Shell’s disputed oil leases in the Chukchi Sea be left intact.
That’s the conclusion of a new assessment of Lease Sale 193 -- the auction where Shell and other companies spent more than $2 billion on Arctic drilling prospects.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released its final analysis today, almost a year after a federal appeals court ordered them to double-check how much development the sale would trigger in the Chukchi.
The boundaries of a marine sanctuary proposed by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. (Credit: PEER)
For over a hundred years, presidents have used the Antiquities Act to order permanent protections for federal land and resources at sea. Now, Alaska’s congressional delegation is looking to curb that authority.
Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan are co-sponsoring a bill that would require lawmakers to sign off before a president can set up a national monument.
Murkowski introduced similar legislation in the past. But spokesman Matthew Felling says the senator has new concerns about the president's agenda for Alaska.
A swarm of earthquakes have been recorded in the central Bering Sea. (Credit: AEIC)
The Pribilof Islands aren’t usually prone to shaking. But more than a dozen earthquakes have been recorded in between St. Paul and St. George since Friday afternoon.
Michael West, the director of the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, describes the activity as a "swarm."
"That is, a cluster of earthquakes that are responding to some stress in the earth that appears to be releasing itself kind of incrementally," West says.
Shishaldin lets off steam on day one of its eruption in January 2014, and again in early December. (Credit: Janet Schaefer/Levi Musselwhite, AVO)
If you’ve taken a PenAir flight between Unalaska and Anchorage in the past year, you’ve been traveling over an erupting volcano.
Wednesday marks one year since Shishaldin Volcano woke up on the Alaska Peninsula in January 2014, and didn’t go back to sleep.
Dave Schneider is a geophysicist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. He says Shishaldin hasn’t appeared to do much over the course of this eruption, because its summit crater is so deep.
The grant for the Iliuliuk River requires revegetation and stairway installation along areas like this. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)
City council and neighbors from around Unalaska Lake got a reality check Tuesday night about just how far they can stretch $1 million in grant money for watershed restoration projects.
Consultants from PND Engineers spent much of Tuesday's council meeting presenting their recommendations for how to use the grants at the lake and Iliuliuk River.
Engineer Paul Kendall says some of the river grant was based on conditions that seem to have changed in the past several years, since the city first received the money.
