Videos

This video was edited and compiled from raw footage recorded by a camera equipped radio collar that was put on a female polar bear in the Beaufort Sea during April 2014 by the US Geological Survey. This new type of camera technology was developed by videographer Adam Ravetch with the support of the World Wildlife Fund.

See English version already posted in Gallery

Spring 2014. USGS scientists conduct a health evaluation of a young male polar bear in the Arctic as part of the annual southern Beaufort Sea population survey. The bear is sedated for approximately an hour while the team records a variety of measurements and collects key biological samples.

By George Plafker, USGS Geologist Emeritus

"1964 Quake: The Great Alaska Earthquake" is an eleven minute video highlighting the impacts and effects of America's largest recorded earthquake. It is an expanded version of the four minute video "Magnitude 9.2". Both were created as part of USGS activities acknowledging the fifty year anniversary of the quake on March 27, 2014.

Magnitude 9.2: The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake is a short video relating how the largest quake in U.S. history had profound and lasting impacts on our lives. The video features USGS geologist George Plafker who, in the 1960's, correctly interpreted the quake as a subduction zone event.

For questions about this project, please contact the speaker, John Crusius at jcrusius@usgs.gov, (206) 543-6978. The northern Gulf of Alaska (GoA) maintains a productive ecosystem, with commercially important fisheries.

Rapidly changing glaciers in Alaska demonstrate tight physical and ecological linkages with downstream ecosystems that bridge the icefield-to-ocean continuum.

This fast paced, one minute trailer, promotes the award winning USGS video ‘Tracking Pacific Walrus’

Summer ice retreat in the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Russia is a significant climate change impact affecting Pacific Walruses, which are being considered for listing as a threatened species. This twelve minute video follows walruses in their summer sea ice habitat and shows how USGS biologists use satellite radio tags to track their movements and behavior.

-- a Centennial perspective of the Novarupta-Katmai eruption, the largest of the 20th century

By Judy Fierstein, USGS

Female Pacific walruses and their calves traditionally spend summers far from shore, diving for benthic invertebrates over the shallow continental shelf waters of the Chukchi Sea. These female walruses and their calves prefer to rest between forage bouts on sea ice drifting above their feeding grounds.

In order to study sea otters in the wild, research divers on the Pacific Nearshore Project must brave frigid waters from Alaska to California. Here's an explanation of how this special equipment works.

-- the contrasting stories of two recent spectacular eruptions

by Stephanie Prejean, USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory

During the course of our research on walruses hauled out near Point Lay in

early September, USGS obtained aerial video footage of the

walrus aggregation.  This footage was taken from an altitude of 4,000' with

a Cineflex camera by Daniel Zatz, of Zatzworks, on contract to USGS for

How do you catch a sea otter? Very carefully. Researchers must use high-tech equipment and teamwork in order to safely capture these marine mammals and collect blood samples and conduct health exams as part of the Pacific Nearshore Project.

American and Canadian scientists head north on a collaborative expedition to map the Arctic seafloor and gather data to help define the outer limits of the continental shelf. Each coastal nation may exercise sovereign rights over the natural resources of their continental shelf.

Aviation safety, energy development, resource assessments, flood plain management, and a long list of other Federal and State government activities depend on access to accurate, up-to-date topographic maps and data.

Great Earthquakes, Great Waves, and Great Volcanic Explosions!

by Steve Kirby, Geophsicist, and Dave Scholl, Scientist Emeritus

Glaciers are Earth's largest reservoir of freshwater. As they change, so does global sea level. Alaska has one of the largest accumulations of glaciers anywhere on Earth outside of the Polar regions. For most of the past half century, Alaska has experienced a significant increase in temperature that has profoundly impacted its glaciers. Join USGS scientist Dr.

Beginning in early November 2008 Redoubt Volcano, 106 miles southwest of Anchorage, AK, began to show signs of unrest including significant changes in gas emission and heat output. On November 5, 2008, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) raised Redoubt's Aviation Color Code to Yellow and the Volcano Alert Level to Advisory.