Image of the Day: A Fountain of Color in Yosemite Valley
The seasoned visitors to Yosemite National Park in California know that if you want to see Yosemite Falls in all of its majesty, you’d better go before late summer. In the spring and for most of the summer, snowmelt from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains plunges nearly half a mile from the cliffs above to the Yosemite Valley below. By … Read More
Image of the Day: The Hidden Rainbow of an Arctic Worm
Alexander Semenov photographed this colorful Alitta virens deep underwater in the arctic. He is a researcher and photographer at the remote White Sea Biological Station. Alitta virens -- also known as "sandworms" -- are commonly used as live bait by commercial fishermen. In addition to their brightly colored bodies, these amazing creatures can also… Read More
Image of the Day: A ‘Drunken Forest’ in Alaska
"Drunken forests", such as this one in Alaska, can be found where large-scale thawing of ground ice has occurred, loosening up the soil and causing the trees to randomly lean over and tip. As the fast-melting Arctic sea ice raises inland temperatures in areas such as Alaska, Canada and Russia, permafrost will continue to melt and ecosystems such as… Read More
Arctic Off-shore Oil Exploration Could Be Imminent
According to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, off-shore oil exploration in Alaska could be imminent. According to the New York Times, Salazar indicated that Shell would most likely get to start off-shore exploration near Alaska’s North Slope this summer, once they jump a few more hurdles. “If Shell meets our standards and passes our inspections … Read More
Image of the Day: Chinstrap Penguins on Slippery Slope
The 2005 film March of the Penguins sparked an Emperor penguin fever. Now, because of the earth’s rising fever, their feathered cousins, the chinstrap penguins, are in trouble. According to a BBC Nature slideshow, the Natural History Museum in Madrid found that within the past 20 years, more than 30 percent of the chinstrap penguin population … Read More
Image of the Day: Where Green Might Not Be Good
Algae need sunlight to grow and there’s typically not enough sunlight underneath arctic ice to support any algal growth. That’s why researchers from Stanford were so surprised to find a 60-mile wide algal bloom thriving in the frozen sea between Russia and Alaska… Read More
New Mexico Wildfire Now a Record-Setting ‘Megafire’
As Climate Central reported on May 23, the 2012 fire season is likely to continue the trend of severe wildfire seasons in the Southwest, due largely to the prevalence of long-term drought conditions in the region. Long-burning, massive wildfires have become more common in the U.S. recent years. … Read More
NASA’s Latest Hit: Ice Show from Space
If you don’t know what causes the seasons, you’re not alone: a mini-documentary made in the 1980’s showed that lots of Harvard grads don’t, either. For the record, the reason is that Earth’s spin axis is slightly tilted. In the months surrounding June, the Northern Hemisphere leans toward the Sun. There’s more sunlight, days are longer, and the … Read More
