Rusting Rivers: Assessing the Causes and Consequences in Alaska and Across the Arctic
Featured in NOAA's 2025 Arctic Report Card
Featured in NOAA's 2025 Arctic Report Card
Sea Otter Survey Visualization Tool
Alaska Science Center’s Commitment to “Gold Standard Science” for Data Products
Q&A: USGS Ecosystems Provides Objective Science to Manage Lands, Fish, and Wildlife
Alaska Critical Mineral Resource Assessments
Alaska has potential for a wide range of critical minerals including, but not limited to, graphite, lithium, tin, tungsten, rare earth elements, and platinum-group elements.
Alaska has potential for a wide range of critical minerals including, but not limited to, graphite, lithium, tin, tungsten, rare earth elements, and platinum-group elements.
Q&A: USGS Ecosystems Science Provides Information on Subsistence and Hunter-Harvested Food Resources in Alaska
Science Spotlight: USGS Monitoring of Glacial Outburst Flood in Juneau Alaska
Alaska Science Center
The mission of the Alaska Science Center is to provide objective and timely data, information, and research findings about the earth and its flora and fauna to Federal, State, and local resource managers and the public to support sound decisions regarding natural resources, natural hazards, and ecosystems in Alaska and circumpolar regions. We have offices in Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks.
In the Spotlight
In the Spotlight
Critical Minerals in Ores (CMiO) database
Critical minerals are commodities essential to modern industrial and strategic technologies and are highly vulnerable to supply chain disruption. The CMiO database contains geochemical data for more than 20,000 samples from more than 100 deposit types comprising 10 deposit environments.
Current Water Conditions
Current Water Conditions
Explore real-time Alaska streamflow, groundwater, and water-quality conditions and access data with our new interactive map application.
News
USGS Measures Glacial Flooding in Juneau, Alaska
USGS Measures Glacial Flooding in Juneau, Alaska
Science Spotlight: USGS Monitoring of Glacial Outburst Flood in Juneau Alaska
Science Spotlight: USGS Monitoring of Glacial Outburst Flood in Juneau Alaska
Project Spotlight: USGS Scientists Work with Kenai Peninsula Communities to Define Baseline Water Data Amid Climate Uncertainty
Project Spotlight: USGS Scientists Work with Kenai Peninsula Communities to Define Baseline Water Data Amid Climate Uncertainty
Publications
A time-space model of graphite mineral systems A time-space model of graphite mineral systems
Increasing demand for graphite in energy storage systems warrants review of graphite ore genesis in a mineral systems framework. Orogenic graphite encompasses the metamorphic and orogenic mineral systems that produce flake graphite and hydrothermal vein (lump and chip) graphite deposits, respectively. A common feature of orogenic graphite deposits is an association with upper amphibolite...
Power source, data retrieval method, and attachment type affect success of dorsally mounted tracking tag deployments in 37 species of shorebirds Power source, data retrieval method, and attachment type affect success of dorsally mounted tracking tag deployments in 37 species of shorebirds
Animal-borne trackers are commonly used to study bird movements, including in long-distance migrants such as shorebirds. Selecting a tracker and attachment method can be daunting, and methodological advancements often have been made by trial and error and conveyed by word of mouth. We synthesized tracking outcomes across 2745 dorsally mounted trackers on 37 shorebird species around the...
River ice controls permafrost bank erosion across an Arctic delta River ice controls permafrost bank erosion across an Arctic delta
Bank erosion in Arctic rivers helps shape channel geometry, mobilizes carbon from permafrost and influences sediment delivery to the Arctic Ocean. On Alaska's Arctic coastal plain, rivers begin flowing during snowmelt in late spring while extensive river ice persists in channels, such that hydraulics are altered and water is kept cool. The effects of river ice on permafrost bank erosion...
Science
Tracking Data for Long-billed Curlews (Numenius americanus)
Available here are tracking data for the largest shorebird in North America, the long-billed curlew. This species nests in deserts and grasslands of central and western North America and spends the nonbreeding season in agriculture fields and pastures or along coastlines in California, Texas, and Mexico. These data were collected to better understand the migratory patterns of this unmistakable and...
Tracking Data for Caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti)
Available here are tracking data of Caribou, an ungulate that ranges between the Alaska Peninsula, up through interior Alaska and the Arctic Coastal Plain, and over to the Yukon Territory. These data were collected from animals living in three different herds including the Fortymile herd, Nelchina herd, and Denali herd.
Tracking Data for Buff-Breasted Sandpipers (Calidris subruficollis)
Available here are tracking data of buff-breasted sandpiper, a shorebird species that breeds only in Arctic Alaska and Canada, spending the winter in the grasslands of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina after a lengthy migration. These data were collected to determine range-wide migratory routes, migratory timing, and stopover habitats of this species.
