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  • The sun illuminates a snow-capped mountain rising above small cumulus clouds, dark foothills, a mixed evergreen and deciduous forest, a grassy field and a gravel beach.

    A wrinkle beneath the icy face of Alaska

    December 12, 2025

    A few days ago, the forces beneath Alaska rattled people within a 500-mile radius: A magnitude 7 earthquake ripped under Hubbard Glacier.

  • Subscribe and submit content to the VCR Report

    December 12, 2025

    Are you a student, staff member, faculty member or researcher involved in UAF's research community? If so, we encourage you to subscribe to the VCR Report. This weekly publication provides timely updates, important announcements, events, funding opportunities and other research-related information.

  • These two growth plates from the University of Alaska Museum of the North, originally thought to be from ancient woolly mammoths, were later determined to be from whale species.

    Mammoth mystery takes an unexpected turn

    December 12, 2025

    University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Matthew Wooller and a large international team have studied the remains of more than 300 mammoths during the past three years. None of them have delivered a journey quite like samples UAMN3760 and UAMN3724.

  • The West Ridge research area at the University of Alaska Fairbanks nestles against frosted woodlands in November 2025. Photo by Eric Marshall

    Alaska climate report: November anything but normal

    December 11, 2025

    November brought two wildly differing snow stories to Alaska, according to the monthly summary from the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

  • The July 9, 1962, Starfish Prime explosion above the Pacific Ocean.

    Research offers defense against energized space electrons

    December 09, 2025

    Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is advancing the ability to quickly clean up Earth's radiation belts from a flood of energetic electrons created by an extraordinary solar blast or a nuclear explosion in space.

  • A field scientist stands in a rainy tundra while measuring plant cover

    Apply for Toolik Field Station's 2026 early career Tundra Award

    December 08, 2025

    Toolik Field Station invites students and early career researchers to apply for the Tundra Award for the 2026 field season. This competitive award sponsors independent and original Arctic research projects with up to 10 days at Toolik Field Station.

  • A man in a red knit cap, standing in a grassy fields with mountains and the ocean behind him, holds a dirty, white cylindrical piece of equipment, about a foot long, with an electrical cord hanging from it.

    The people behind earthquake early warning

    December 05, 2025

    When you follow scientists in the Alaska wilderness, you'll almost certainly get alder-snagged.

  • Three people smile insides a yellow tent, inside a building. They hold a poster that reads Alaska Voices. The tent is labeled the Alaska Voices Story Telling Tent.

    'Alaska Voices' shares climate adaptation stories

    December 03, 2025

    The second season of the podcast "Alaska Voices" brings listeners into the lives of Alaskans dealing with one of the most rapidly changing environments on Earth.

  • A diagram shows how air movement causes wires to bounce.

    The mystery of the dancing wires

    December 01, 2025

    In this quiet, peaceful time of year, with all the noisy birds flown south and all the scary bears in hillside dens, little things catch our attention. Like wires that move as if by magic.

  • A man stands in a greenhouse next to pots of wheat and barley.

    Seminar explores Alaska food independence scenario

    November 24, 2025

    A University of Alaska Fairbanks professor will explore how Alaska might grow enough grain to supply its needs and limit reliance on imported food. The presentation by Jakir Hasan, research assistant professor of plant genetics with the UAF Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension, is part of the seminar series "Circumpolar Connections: A Dialogue on Arctic Food Systems."

  • A woman in a gray and purple parka and brown knitted cap stands in front of farmland backed by a bay with mountains in the background

    Talk will share insights from circumpolar farms, cultures

    November 21, 2025

    Chelsea San Roman, a farm and research technician at the Matanuska Experiment Farm in Palmer, will share stories and experiences from the 2025 Circumpolar Agriculture Conference in Tromsø, Norway. San Roman was part of a group from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension who spent a week in September with farmers, producers and researchers from Earth's circumpolar regions.

  • Pillars of light rise above a snowy field.

    As the dark season begins, more light

    November 20, 2025

    It's November in Fairbanks, when the sun reminds you of where you're leaving your bootprints on the planet.

  • The research vessel Sikuliaq navigates Resurrection Bay on the way to its homeport at the Seward Marine Center in 2020.

    Sikuliaq embarks on its first journey to Antarctica

    November 20, 2025

    The research vessel Sikuliaq will begin a long journey to Antarctica this week, marking a new era for the Seward-based ship and its crew. The ship, which has been owned by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences since 2014, has largely been used in waters around Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for the past decade. Starting early next year, the vessel's duties will temporarily shift to Antarctica for the first time.

  • UAF expands structural testing capacity

    November 18, 2025

    The University of Alaska Fairbanks has installed powerful new load frames in the High Bay Structural Testing Laboratory, giving researchers the ability to simulate full-scale stresses on buildings, utilities, and other northern infrastructure. Led by the Arctic Infrastructure Development Center, this upgrade strengthens Alaska's only high-bay facility capable of replicating permafrost settlement, freeze-thaw impacts and seismic forces.

  • A person stands on a snowy forested hilltop looking down at a piece of equipment partially buried in snow.

    UAF study: Seismic data can identify aircraft by type

    November 18, 2025

    Instruments typically used to detect the ground motion of earthquakes can also be used to identify the type of aircraft flying far overhead, research by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists shows.

  • A green light beam from the new lidar

    New lidar advances atmospheric science at UAF research site

    November 14, 2025

    A new science tool at the University of Alaska Fairbanks research center in Gakona will advance understanding of Earth's middle and upper atmosphere regions.

  • A couple in winter jackets poses for a picture.

    Red aurora is a rarity

    November 14, 2025

    Charles Deehr will never forget his first red aurora. On Feb. 11, 1958, Deehr was a student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He asked a Fulbright student from Norway named Tone to the Portland Symphony that night.

  • Beaver dam complex in northern Alaska

    UAF study links beaver expansion to faster Arctic thaw

    November 13, 2025

    The climate-driven spread of beaver ponds in Alaska's Arctic accelerates the effects of a warming environment by causing pond-adjacent permafrost to thaw and by increasing the amount of liquid water present during winter.

  • A combine harvests oats in a field under a colorful sky

    2025 Delta Harvest Wrap-Up highlights the year in agriculture

    November 12, 2025

    An update on the 2025 year in Alaska agriculture and summaries of research progress on soils, grains and weeds will highlight the annual Delta Harvest Wrap-Up in Delta Junction. The free annual wrap-up brings together Alaska's agricultural researchers with local farmers to provide updates on their various projects.

  • An unusual triple whammy of solar outbursts, including one scientists call a cannibal, began hitting Earth this afternoon and is likely to bring the curtain up on spectacular aurora performances starting tonight.

    Triple solar blast sets stage for active aurora show

    November 12, 2025

    An unusual triple whammy of solar outbursts, including one scientists call a cannibal, began hitting Earth this afternoon and is likely to bring the curtain up on spectacular aurora performances starting tonight.

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