Unified Interior Regions
Region 11: Alaska
Alaska Science Center
4210 University Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
Phone: (907) 786-7000
Volcano Science Center
4230 University Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
Phone: (907) 786-7497
Climate Adaptation Science Center
4230 University Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
Phone: 907-301-7830
Regions L2 Landing Page Tabs
USGS in Alaska engages approximately 400 scientists and support staff working across 3 major centers with a combined annual science budget of about $65 million. In just the last 5 years, USGS in Alaska has produced scientific benefits resulting from over 1000 publications and about 250 Technical Reports.
COOK NAWQA Data Clearinghouse
Repository for data collected by the Cook Inlet Basin NAWQA team.
Water Resources for Alaska GIS datasets Statewide Coverages
Legacy Data for AK Precipitation, Hydrologic Unit Map, and Streamflow analysis regions for AK and conterminous basins in Canada.
Alaska Ecoregions Mapping
Legacy Data: Ecoregions of Alaska
Water Resources for Alaska GIS datasets Regional Coverages
Legacy Data for Water Resources for Alaska GIS datasets Regional Coverages
High-Latitude Climate Transects
Legacy Data: High-Latitude Climate Transects
Statewide Geologic Maps for Alaska
Legacy Data: Statewide Geologic Maps for Alaska
USGS research activities relevant to Alaska have yielded more than 9400 historical publications. This page features some of the most recent newsworthy research findings.
Search USGS publications for Alaska
Arctic Science for Decision Maker
2020 USGS Alaska Annual Science Report
Prioritizing habitats based on abundance and distribution of molting waterfowl in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska
The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) encompasses more than 9.5 million hectares of federally managed land on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska, where it supports a diversity of wildlife, including millions of migratory birds. Within the NPR-A, Teshekpuk Lake and the surrounding area provide important habitat for migratory...
Flint, Paul L.; Patil, Vijay; Shults, Bradley; Thompson, Sarah J.
Ringed seal (Pusa hispida) seasonal movements, diving, and haul-out behavior in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas (2011–2017)
Continued Arctic warming and sea-ice loss will have important implications for the conservation of ringed seals, a highly ice-dependent species. A better understanding of their spatial ecology will help characterize emerging ecological trends and inform management decisions. We deployed satellite transmitters on ringed seals in the summers of 2011...
Von Duyke, Andrew L.; Douglas, David C.; Herreman, Jason K; Crawford, Justin A. Individual and population fitness consequences associated with large carnivore use of residential development
Large carnivores are negotiating increasingly developed landscapes, but little is known about how such behavioral plasticity influences their demographic rates and population trends. Some investigators have suggested that the ability of carnivores to behaviorally adapt to human development will enable their persistence, and yet, others have...
Johnson, Heather E.; Lewis, David Bruce; Breck, Stewart Exploring regional scale metamorphic fabrics in the Yukon Tanana terrane and environs using quantitative domain analyses
Metamorphic rock fabrics such as foliations and lineations provide a rock record of numerous deformational characteristics in the Earth’s crust. When spatial information is combined with fabric data collected at points on geologic maps, the nature and consistency of metamorphic fabrics can be explored through structural domain analysis. This is...
Caine, Jonathan; Jones, James V. The role of seismic and slow slip events in triggering the 2018 M7.1 Anchorage earthquake in the Southcentral Alaska subduction zone
The M 7.1 2018 Anchorage earthquake occurred in the bending part of the subducting North Pacific plate near the geometrical barrier formed by the underthrusting Yakutat terrane. We calculate the triggering potential related with stress redistribution from deformation sources including the M 9.2 1964 earthquake coseismic slip,...
Segou, Margarita; Parsons, Thomas E. Novel insights into serodiagnosis and epidemiology of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, a newly recognized pathogen in muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus)
Muskoxen are a key species of Arctic ecosystems and are important for food security and socio-economic well-being of many Indigenous communities in the Arctic and Subarctic. Between 2009 and 2014, the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae was isolated for the first time in this species in association with multiple mortality events in Canada and...
Mavrot, F.; Orsel, K.; Hutchins, W.; Adams, Layne G.; Beckmen, K.; Blake, J.; Checkley, S.; Davison, T.; Di Francesco, J.; Elkin, B.; Leclerc, L.; Schneider, A.; Tomaselli, M.; Kutz, S. Explaining mass balance and retreat dichotomies at Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers, Alaska
We reanalyzed mass balance records at Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers to better understand the relative roles of hypsometry, local climate and dynamics as mass balance drivers. Over the 1946–2018 period, the cumulative mass balances diverged. Tidewater Taku Glacier advanced and gained mass at an average rate of +0.25±0.28 m w.e. a–1, contrasting...
McNeil, Christopher J.; O'Neel, Shad; Loso, Michael ; Pelto, Mauri ; Sass, Louis C.; Baker, Emily; Campbell, Seth Use of genetic mark-recapture to estimate breeding site fidelity and philopatry in a threatened sea duck population, Alaska-breeding Steller’s eiders
The Steller’s eider (Polysticta stelleri) is a sea duck that breeds in Arctic tundra regions of Russia and Alaska. The Alaska-breeding population is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of a perceived contraction of their breeding range in North America. Understanding demographic rates of the listed population is...
Safine, David; Lindberg, Mark S.; Martin, Kate; Talbot, Sandra L.; Swem, Ted; Pearce, John M.; Stellrecht, Neesha; Sage, Kevin; Riddle, Ann E.; Fales, Kyrstal; Hollmen, Tuula E. Through thick and thin: Sexing Bristle-thighed Curlews Numenius tahitiensis using measures of bill depth
Birds often exhibit diagnostic traits that differ among individuals of the same species with regard to factors like sex, age, or breeding status. Shorebirds exhibit a wide diversity of colors, shapes, and sizes of their bills, and these traits are commonly used to determine the sex of individuals. In curlews (genus Numenius), length alone...
Ruthrauff, Daniel R.; Handel, Colleen M.; Tibbitts, Lee; Gill, Robert E. Tracking the migration of Pacific Golden-Plovers from nonbreeding grounds at Moorea, French Polynesia, using Pinpoint GPS-Argos tags
We used Pinpoint GPS-Argos tags to track migration of Pacific Golden-Plovers Pluvialis fulva in 2017 and 2018 from Moorea Island, at the extreme southeastern edge of the species’ winter range. Of 20 tagged birds, 13 uploaded locations during all or part of their northward migration. The birds departed in mid-April traveling a long (8,250...
Johnson, Oscar W. ; Tibbitts, Lee; Weber, Michael F. ; Bybee, David R. ; Goodwill, Roger H. ; Bruner, Andrea ; Smith, Errika J. ; Buss, Emmalee L.; Waddell, Trinity Q.A. ; Brooks, Daxton ; Smith, Carolyn ; Meyer, Jean-Yves Environmental DNA: An emerging tool for understanding aquatic biodiversity
Field surveys for aquatic organisms provide critical information that is important for robust resource management. However, such surveys are expensive and labor intensive, particularly in large, remote landscapes like those that characterize much of Alaska. Traditionally, characterizing aquatic biodiversity necessitated the physical capture and...
Simmons, Trey; Menning, Damian M.; Talbot, Sandra L. Ecology of influenza A viruses in wild birds and wetlands of Alaska
Alaska represents a globally important region for the ecology of avian-origin influenza A viruses (IAVs) given expansive wetlands in this region which serve as habitat for numerous hosts of IAVs that disperse among four continents during the annual cycle. Extensive sampling of wild birds for IAVs in Alaska since 1991 has greatly extended...
Ramey, Andrew M.; Reeves, Andrew B.Browse a selection of videos, audio clips, images, and more from a wide range of science topics covered by USGS!
"Science for a Changing World" - watch the short film here!
Documentary on walruses here!
Watch the first-ever footage of a polar bear on Arctic sea ice!
Join USGS geologists as they collect lava samples from Kilauea Volcano.
Watch researchers in the Arctic!
Black-legged Kittiwakes foraging for fish in Cook Inlet, Alaska
Black-legged Kittiwakes foraging for fish in Cook Inlet, Alaska.
Geologist collecting rock samples exposed in a glacial stream valley
USGS research geologist Jamey Jones collects multiple samples of rocks exposed in a glacial stream valley near Lake Clark.
Geologist stands on granite dike intruding darker granodiorite
USGS research geologist Jamey Jones stands on a dike of granite intruding darker granodiorite, with helicopter in background.
Geologists collect samples and take notes near Lake Clark
USGS research geologists Richard Lease (left) and Jamey Jones (right) take notes and collect samples of fine-grained metamorphic rock hosted as an inclusion in coarser-grained granodiorite.
Geologists make observations above glacial valley
USGS research geologists Jamey Jones (left) and Richard Lease (right) make observations of rock units revealed by the glacier below.
Fire ecologists discuss wildfire impacts
Fire ecologists discuss wildfire impacts at a repeat fire site in Wrangells-St. Elias National Park, AK
Male Wilson's Warbler on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska
Male Wilson's Warbler on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska . This photo was taken on the Seward Peninsula as part of the Changing Arctic Ecosystem Boreal-Arctic Transition Zone program.
A Common Murre holding a juvenile Pacific Herring at its colony
A Common Murre holding a juvenile Pacific Herring at its colony on Gull Island, Cook Inlet on July 3, 2017.
Male Wilson's Warbler in a shrub on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska
Male Wilson's Warbler. This photo was taken on the Seward Peninsula as part of the Changing Arctic Ecosystem Boreal-Arctic Transition Zone program.
Seismic survey of the Queen Charlotte Fault
USGS scientists deploy a seismic streamer aboard the R/V David Starr offshore of southeast Alaska to study the Queen Charlotte Fault.
7 Million Landsat Scenes & Counting!
More than 7 million Landsat satellite images now available.
7 Million Landsat Scenes and Counting!
The Landsat archive, the world's longest continuously acquired collection of space-based, moderate-resolution land remote sensing data, has now surpassed 7 million scenes since Landsat 1 first began collecting data in July 1972. This Landsat 8 image acquired on June 27, 2017, represents one of those millions of scenes
...Browse a collection of stories about prominent USGS scientists and projects in Alaska news.
Alaska's Redoubt Volcano continues to emit a plume of water vapor, gas and minor ash after its 19th successive explosion this past weekend. Scientists believe the volcano has entered a new period of cyclical lava dome growth marked by small earthquakes and intermittent tremors.
Scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the Unified Command will host a news conference at 1:00PM AKDT (5:00PM EASTERN TIME) at the USGS Alaska Science Center in the Glenn Olds Hall Conference Room, Anchorage, AK, to discuss the continuing eruption of Mount Redoubt Volcano.
High resolution photos are available on the Alaska Volcano Observatory, Redoubt Activity Web site.
Mount Redoubt Volcano, 106 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, erupted explosively more than 10 times this week, sending ash skyrocketing as high as 65,000 feet into the air.
The eruption of Redoubt poses a threat to national and international aviation as volcanic ash is sent into the busy North Pacific flight paths between North America and Asia.
Scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory will host a news conference at 1:30PM AKDT (5:30PM EASTERN TIME) at the USGS Alaska Science Center in the Glenn Olds Hall Conference Room, Anchorage, AK, to discuss the continuing eruption of Mount Redoubt Volcano and yesterday's (March 26) overflight of the volcano.
Scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory will host a news conference at 1:30PM AKDT (5:30PM EASTERN TIME) at the USGS Alaska Science Center in the Glenn Olds Hall Conference Room, Anchorage, AK, to discuss the continuing eruption of Mount Redoubt Volcano.
Scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory will host a news conference at 12:00PM AKDT (4PM EASTERN TIME) at the USGS Alaska Science Center in the Glenn Olds Hall Conference Room, Anchorage, AK, to discuss the continuing eruption of Mount Redoubt Volcano.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will award up to $7 million in grants and cooperative agreements for earthquake research in 2010.
Interested researchers can apply online at GRANTS.GOV under the funding opportunity number 10HQPA0001. Applications are due May 13, 2009.
Coastal erosion has more than doubled in Alaska - up to 45 feet per year - in a 5-year period between 2002 and 2007 along a 40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea.
New b-roll footage of Alaska's Redoubt Volcano shows its current state of unrest, including vapor plumes emanating from holes in the newly deformed Drift Glacier near the volcano summit. This footage was shot from an aerial observation and gas measurement flight initiated in Anchorage.
As of Wednesday, February 4, 2009, the Alaska Volcano Observatory will discontinue holding daily briefings on the status of Redoubt Volcano until further notice. We will announce new briefings when significant information becomes available or the status of the volcano changes.
Scientists Monitoring it 24/7-The level of seismic activity at Mount Redoubt Volcano, 106 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, has increased and an eruption is possible within days to weeks.
Scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) are monitoring events round-the-clock.
Dr. Julio Betancourt, a U.S. Geological Survey senior scientist, was recently awarded a prestigious 2008 Presidential Rank Award. Betancourt, who has conducted groundbreaking research in how climate variability affects ecosystems, is also an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, where he received his graduate degrees.
Stay up-to-date with what is happening in the Alaska Region by checking out our different social media accounts. You can also contact Alaska Regional Office staff or Center Directors for more information.
Contacts
Locations
Alaska Science Center
Phone: (907) 786-7000
Fax: (907) 786-7020
Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center
USGS Volcano Science Center
Phone: 360-993-8900
Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO)
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/contact.php
Phone: 907-786-7497
USGS California Volcano Observatory (CalVO package delivery)
askcalvo@usgs.gov
Phone: 650-329-5083
USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO)
vhpweb@usgs.gov
Phone: 360-993-8900
Fax: 360-993-8980
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO)
yvowebteam@usgs.gov
Phone: 360-993-8906
Anchorage Field Office - Water
Phone: 907-786-7000
Fairbanks Field Office - Water
Phone: 907-479-5645
Juneau Field Office - Water
Phone: 907-586-7216
