Amchitka Island (Courtesy of USFWS)

A team of scientists is descending on a former nuclear test site in the Aleutians today to look for damage from a massive earthquake.

The 7.9 quake that struck this June was pretty close to the old nuclear sites at Amchitka, according to the federal site manager.

Over the past eight months, the village of King Cove has waged a constant campaign to get a road built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge -- even suing officials in the Interior Department.

Interior has been mostly silent on the issue until now.

Four local businesses helped arrange the hazmat scene on Front Beach. (Lauren Rosenthal/KUCB)

Fire trucks and military officers in hazmat suits swarmed Front Beach Wednesday night.

But the risk wasn't real: It was all part of a drill for Unalaska’s fire department and the National Guard’s visiting Civil Support Team.

KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal was there, and has this postcard from the scene.

A pair of crested auklets nests on Buldir Island in 2012. /Courtesy: Ian Jones

Every summer, thousands of tiny auklets flock to the Aleutian Islands to nest. But scientists don’t know where the seabirds go in the winter.

That’s about to change, thanks to a group of researchers who’ve just returned from Buldir Island, east of Attu, and Gareloi, near Adak.

They’ve been camped on the uninhabited islands since late May, outfitting crested and parakeet auklets with tracking tags for the first time.

The Islands of the Four Mountains as seen from the International Space Station in 2013. Cleveland Volcano is at center. /Courtesy: NASA

A group of researchers left Unalaska this past weekend for a remote part of the central Aleutians: the Islands of the Four Mountains.

The 16 scientists are beginning a three-year mission in territory that’s unpredictable -- and largely unexplored.

Weather was clear and sunny in Dutch Harbor on Saturday while the research team loaded up their charter vessel with food and supplies.

For almost a year, Unalaska’s been missing out on an important educational resource: a marine advisory program agent.

Tight budgets meant the University of Alaska Fairbanks couldn’t afford to fill the MAP position -- until now. 

UAF’s Sea Grant program, which oversees MAP offices across the state, has found money to hire a new person for an abridged version of the old job.

Researchers collect water samples in the Chukchi Sea. (Courtesy of Amanda Kowalski/ArcticSpring.org)

They’re not recognizable like polar bears or whales. But phytoplankton are a key part of life in the Arctic -- and now, they're at the center of a new research effort to predict how the region will respond to climate change.

Almost every animal in the Arctic eats -- or eats something that consumes -- phytoplankton.

They’re tiny specks of algae that usually blossom into big clouds out in the ocean in the springtime.

The Healy broke through Arctic ice to reach the S/V Altan Girl near Barrow on Saturday. /Credit: USCGC Healy

The Coast Guard cutter Healy made a detour from its science mission in the Arctic last Saturday to rescue a sailboat trapped in ice near Barrow.

The Altan Girl is a 36-foot steel boat, trying to sail the Northwest Passage from Vancouver to eastern Canada.

It got stuck in sea ice Saturday, 40 miles northeast of Barrow.

Weather conditions meant search and rescue couldn’t fly in from the North Slope -- so the Coast Guard diverted the Healy to help out.

Sockeye Salmon, courtesy of ADF&G

The sockeye salmon run at Cape Wislow has hit 10,000 fish, meaning the whole creek is open again for subsistence fishing.

The run met the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s minimum goal yesterday, with a total of 10,005 fish.

That milestone comes later this year than in 2013. Assistant area management biologist Nat Nichols says the number of salmon passing through their fish weir at McLees Lake is just now picking up speed.