Stevie Seibert
907-474-5229
4/13/12

One hundred years ago this June, a three-day explosive eruption at Novarupta on the Alaska Peninsula near King Salmon became one of the five largest eruptions in recorded history. It created the spectacular Katmai caldera and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, which early explorers called the eighth wonder of the world. Preserved as a national monument in 1918, and now part of Katmai National Park, the eruption created an outdoor laboratory that has captivated scientists and sightseers alike for a century.

On April 25 at 7:30 p.m., Katmai expert Judy Fierstein will tell the story of those three dramatic days and what the 1912 eruption revealed about large explosive events. In “The Novarupta-Katmai Eruption of 1912 – Largest Eruption of the 20th Century: A Centennial Perspective,” Fierstein will explain how geologist “volcano detectives” examined the eruption’s aftermath. Fierstein will also explain how the eruption has remained scientifically important for 100 years and why Katmai still offers insights about the processes that shape our world.

Fierstein, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, is known worldwide for her meticulous fieldwork on young, remote volcanoes in Alaska, the Cascades and the high Andes. She joined the USGS in 1980, just before the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and began working in Katmai soon after. Fierstein is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and is known for engaging presentations about volcanoes and geologic fieldwork in wild places.

The free lecture will be held in the Boyd Room, Reichardt 201, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Parking is available directly behind the building. This presentation is sponsored by the USGS, the National Park Service and the Alaska Historical Society

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Jessica Larsen, research associate professor, at 907-474-7992 or [email protected]. Amy Hartley, Geophysical Institute public relations manager, at 907-474-5823 or [email protected].

ON THE WEB:

www.gi.alaska.edu

www.avo.alaska.edu

SS/4-13-12/214-12

Theresa Bakker
907-474-6941
4/13/12

A rare example of Aleutian petroglyphs donated to the University of Alaska Museum of the North’s archaeology collection will be used in a variety of research projects to better understand the cultural roles of rock art in Unangam culture.

Under direct light, the stone doesn’t look unusual. But when lit from the side, images of whales, faces, sea lions, sea otters, birds and eyes emerge.

“It is an incredible, intricately carved piece,” said collection manager Jim Whitney.

The seal stone was most likely collected on Shemya Island during World War II, a time when the area was transformed by a U.S. military looking to protect its frontier. Roads and landing strips were carved out of the earth, exposing items that were picked up by soldiers and taken home. The stone was discovered last year when the owners, who had purchased it in the 1950s and used it as a lawn ornament, wanted to sell it, hopefully to someone in Alaska.

Angela Linn, the museum’s ethnology and history collections manager, was one of the first people in Alaska to see photographs of the artifact forwarded from a dealer in Canada.

“I didn’t see anything that I recognized about it,” she said. “It was clearly a large rock with relief carving on the surface. The dealer said that the origin was listed as being from Shemya Island, so I sent it on to my contacts that work in the Aleutians. One of those was Allison McLain, who called me immediately. The rest is history, as they say.”

McLain is working on a survey of the stone’s designs, comparing them to others from the Aleutian Islands and the rest of Alaska. In 100 years of archaeological work on the Aleutian Islands, only one other example of petroglyphs has been found. In 2002, biologists conducting a sea lion count on Agattu Island southwest of Shemya took some photos.

“Ten years later, this petroglyph shows up,” McLain said. “You can date the stone, but that won’t tell you anything except when the stone was formed. We’ve got 9000 years of evidence of human activity in that area, so we have no way to date when those carvings were made. I am looking at this stone as a piece of spiritual significance, an example of transformational spirituality.”

The seal stone was found on federal land, so in the summer of 2011, the owner donated it to the University of Alaska Museum of the North, the repository for most U.S Fish and Wildlife Service collections in Alaska. Museum staff will conduct several studies in addition to McLain’s survey of the design elements, including an analysis of the rock itself to see if it fits with the geology of Shemya and an oral history project documenting the stone and where it originated.

The specimen is a valuable addition to the collection, Whitney said. “These petroglyphs are a rare example of prehistoric art from the Aleutians and an intriguing mystery. The designs are physical representations of ideas and stories that were important enough to carve in stone.”

One benefit of preserving this piece in a museum is that it will be available for the public to see and for researchers to study. Whitney says the plan is to put the seal stone on display. “But first we need to finish the research before we can tell the story.”

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Jim Whitney, archaeology collection manager, at 907-474-6943 or via email at [email protected].

ON THE WEB: museum.uaf.edu

NOTE TO EDITORS: Images are available for download from www.uafnews.com.

TB/4-13-12/215-12

Debbie Carter

907-474-5406

4/10/12

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will celebrate its roots April 16-21 with activities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the landmark Morrill Act.

Events will include geocaching and puzzle contests, more than a dozen free Cooperative Extension Service classes and an April 16 public lecture by UAF historian Terrence Cole about the significance of the land-grant college act.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act on July 2, 1862, establishing the land-grant system of public colleges and universities. The act provided states and territories with land to support institutions to educate people in agriculture, military tactics and engineering so that the working classes could obtain a “liberal and practical education.”

Congress approved the land grant for an Alaska college in 1915 and territorial Gov. John Strong signed the bill on May 3, 1917 to establish Alaska’s land-grant college. The Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines opened its doors in 1922 with six students. The college became known as the University of Alaska in 1935 and eventually the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which remains Alaska’s land-grant institution.

A public celebration from noon to 4 p.m. April 21 in the Wood Center ballroom will include displays and hands-on family activities offered by the Cooperative Extension Service and the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences. UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers will speak at 3:30 p.m.

Two iPads will be given away during the event; winners will be drawn from entries in the word puzzle, trivia and geocache contests. Contest information will be in Sunday’s Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and linked from Extension’s website at www.uaf.edu/ces. Daily puzzles will be included in the paper through April 18. Entries must be received by 5 p.m. Thursday at the Tanana District office at 724 27th Ave. or the state Extension office at 308 Tanana Loop, on campus.

All of the classes, unless noted, will take place at the Extension district office in the Fairbanks Community Food Bank building. See class descriptions linked at www.uaf.edu/ces. Register online at http://bit.ly/UAF-land-grant or call 474-2420 or 474-2450. Following is a schedule of the week’s events:

Monday, April 16
10 a.m. — Class: “Worm Composting”
2 p.m. — Class: “Making Conflict Work for You”
7 p.m. — Class: “Learn How to Use Your GPS”
7 p.m. — Terrence Cole lecture: “Of the People and For the People: Alaska’s Land Grant College,” 201 Reichardt Building, Boyd Hall

Tuesday, April 17
10 a.m. — Class: “Super Vegetables”
1:15 p.m. — Class: “Healthy Treats,” 201 Reichardt Building, Boyd Hall
2 p.m. — Fruit growers roundtable
7 p.m. — Class: “Biomass Forestry and Boreal Forest Biology”

Wednesday, April 18
10 a.m. — Class: “Crockpot Cooking”
2 p.m. — Class: “Seed Starting and Garden Planning”

Thursday, April 19
9 a.m. – noon —Workshop: “How to Do Business in China”
1:15 p.m. — Class: “Seed Starting and Garden Planning,” 201 Reichardt Building, Boyd Hall
7 p.m. — Class: “Raising Chickens”

Friday, April 20
10 a.m. — Class: “Estate Planning”
2 p.m. — Class: “Septic Systems”

Saturday, April 21
9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Workshop: “Introduction to Specialty Food Businesses,”
Workshop fee is $30. Register at http://bit.ly/foodsworkshop.
Noon – 4 p.m. — Public celebration at the Wood Center Ballroom
3:30 p.m. — Address by Chancellor Brian Rogers, Wood Center Ballroom

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Nancy Tarnai, SNRAS information officer, at 907-474-5042 or [email protected]. Roxie Dinstel, Extension faculty, at 907-474-2426 or via email at rrdins[email protected].

ON THE WEB: www.uaf.edu/ces

DC/04-10-12/209-12

Kate Pendleton
907-474-7541
4/9/12

The University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Natural Science and Mathematics will host its annual Science Potpourri Saturday, April 14th, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Reichardt Building on the UAF campus.

The popular science event features dozens of hands-on science activities and demonstrations with UAF scientists and students. Participants can learn about molecules, examine fossils, touch sea creatures, make slime and much more.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, including downloadable science experiments, visit http://www.uaf.edu/cnsm/science-potpourri/

MEDIA CONTACT: Marmian Grimes, UAF public information officer, at 907-474-7902 or via e-mail at [email protected].

ON THE WEB: http://www.uaf.edu/cnsm/science-potpourri/

MLG/4-9-12/206psa-12

Nancy Tarnai
907-474-5042
4/9/12

A federal act passed in 1862 affected the education of the U.S. population more than anything in history, but its name is not a household word. This July around the nation, that might change just a bit when the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act is celebrated.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is getting a jump on the party by designating April 15-21 to commemorate the Morrill Act with a bevy of events culminating in a public open house at the Wood Center on April 21 from noon to 4 p.m.

So what is the Morrill Act and why does UAF care? The act allowed land grant institutions for higher education to be established in every state, and UAF is Alaska’s land-grant university. Simply put, the act provided states with land to support institutions for the education of agriculture, military tactics and the mechanic arts.

“It’s a great thing,” UAF history professor Terrence Cole said. “It’s amazing how the land grant colleges vastly expanded higher education for citizens. It revolutionized American higher education.”

Before the Morrill Act, colleges focused on the liberal arts and classical studies of Latin and Greek. This Medieval model, as Cole called it, was all the country had until the 1860s. “At the time, people thought the summit of intellectual achievement was to learn Latin and Greek,” Cole said.

Until the Morrill Act, most colleges had a sectarian affiliation. “The act created a new branch of education that would involve the liberal arts but also agriculture and mechanical arts,” Cole said. In the 1860s the U.S. was overwhelmingly an agricultural country, hence the focus on agriculture at land grant institutions, he explained.

Cole, who will give a lecture on this topic April 16 at 7 p.m. on the UAF campus, practically jumped with excitement when he said, “This was giant! This was the first federal funding of higher education in America, and it was done through land.”

While the act was passed in 1862 it would be 1915 before an institution of higher education would be conceived of in Fairbanks. Alaska’s delegate to Congress, James Wickersham, advocated for approval of a land grant for an Alaska college and Alaska Territorial Gov. John Strong signed the bill in 1917 to establish and pay for Alaska’s land grant institution. By 1922, Fairbanks was home to the Agricultural College and School of Mines, known today as UAF.

Pointing out how Alaska is different from the other 49 states with land grant institutions, Cole calls UAF “the land grant college without much land.” Alaska never got all the land it was intended to have because back then the land hadn’t been surveyed.

The land Alaska received was initially called the Tanana Valley Land Grant and the acreage came to 9,000 instead of the intended 250,000 that had been authorized.

“Instead the state became responsible for financial support of the university in other ways,” Cole said. Would Alaska have a university if not for the land grant? “We’d probably have some sort of university but it wouldn’t have higher education at the level and quality we have,” he said. He also noted that prior to the establishment of what is now UAF, Alaska had the Alaska Methodist University, a private, liberal arts school in Anchorage (now named Alaska Pacific University).

“The university has been a fantastic institution for the people of Alaska,” Cole said. “It has helped develop the state, keep people here and enrich the cultural life of the community. All that goes back to the land grant.”

The Fairbanks Experiment Farm was established in 1906, so it made sense for the new college to be located nearby. “The college was created around the farm,” Cole said. “The university is here because of the farm.”

As for the land grant in general, Cole lamented the fact that most people don’t understand it or care about it, but he believes it made sweeping changes in this country. “People don’t realize how amazing it is,” he said. “We assume now that everyone has the opportunity to go to college if they want to.”

Find out about the schedule of events for the Morrill Act celebration.

This column is provided as a service by the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

Ned Rozell
907-474-7468
4/5/2012

More than a century ago, Roald Amundsen and his crew were the first to sail through the Northwest Passage, along the way leaving footprints in Eagle, Nome, and Sitka. Pioneering that storied route was a dream of Amundsen’s since his boyhood in Norway, but he also performed enduring science on the three-year voyage of the Gjøa.

Amundsen, from Norway, was 30-years-old when, in the early 1900s, he envisioned and then executed this plan: “With a small vessel and a few companions, to penetrate into the regions around earth’s north magnetic pole, and by a series of accurate observations, extending over a period of two years, to relocate the pole observed by Sir James Ross in 1831.”

The north magnetic dip pole is the expression of Earth’s magnetic field where a compass needle points straight downward. Though Amundsen didn’t know it at the time, this point is a moving target, wandering miles each day due to electrical currents in the upper atmosphere associated with the aurora and the solar wind.

If the sea ice allowed him, Amundsen told a crowd assembled in London, he planned on continuing west from northern Canada “to sail through the Northwest Passage in its entire extent, this being a problem which for centuries has defied the most persistent efforts.”

Though the conquest of the Northwest Passage brought Amundsen worldwide fame, his devotion to science was real. Instead of blasting through the passage, he and his crew halted the Gjøa to spend the winter in a bay off King William Island in Canada’s arctic.

There, they set up a base called “Gjøahaven,” or Gjøa Harbor. They killed 100 reindeer for winter meat to feed man and dog, met the local natives, exchanged their wool clothes for furs and watched the ice form on the ocean in early October 1903. They also built a magnetic observatory out of shipping crates. They held it together with nails containing no iron. They covered the hut with tundra to keep out the light, because photographic paper recorded their magnetic observations.

Inside the building were four instruments sensitive to variations of Earth’s magnetic field. A few oil lamps heated and lit the observatory, which was so snug that Amundsen and crewman Gustav Wiik probably both suffered heart-muscle damage from carbon monoxide poisoning during the 19 months they faithfully tended the instruments.

But the adventurers’ scientific timing was good, as their station, located just 125 miles from the north magnetic dip pole recorded by Englishman John Ross 70 years earlier, captured with wriggling needles one of the largest magnetic storms in history on Halloween of 1903.

Wiik, who died on the journey before the rest of the crew reached Nome, was the man who spent most of the time in the hut with the magnetometers, checking on them day and night for more than a year and a half. And, says Charles Deehr, a space physicist and aurora forecaster at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute, Wiik’s 360 magnetic measurements at Gjøahaven were top notch, despite “almost impossible conditions.”

The data set is so good that Deehr, who posts forecasts of northern lights at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast, said the information is similar to data he gets today from satellites parked in the solar wind, a flow of the sun’s particles that excites the aurora into action.

Wiik and Amundsen’s measurements “offer more than a glimpse of the character of the solar wind 50 years before it was known to exist,” Deehr said. And, “Amundsen was the first to demonstrate, without doubt, that the north magnetic (pole) does not have a permanent location, but moves in a fairly regular manner.”

This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community.

Mary Bellamy
907-474-2605
4/5/12

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has signed its first major commercial licensing agreement.

The agreement gives California-based SeaSpace exclusive use of SwathViewer, a piece of software developed at UAF Geographic Information Network of Alaska by Dan Stahlke.

Built for speed and efficient use of bandwidth, SwathViewer provides easy access and manipulation of global imagery and mapping data. The software enables users to rapidly zoom, pan, and layer multiple images and mapping data together without installing additional software. The software implements a powerful and lightweight user interface that can run inside a browser with minimal network load requirements. Stahlke began development of the software in 2006.

SeaSpace is a global leader in remote sensing and provides remote sensing solutions to a variety of users, ranging from research to military to emergency response. The company will incorporate SwathViewer into their software applications, increasing the value of their current product line and making the technology available to clients worldwide.

UAF’s Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization negotiated the contract, which is an important milestone for the university. The office has been developing guidelines for commercializing UAF inventions and has seen a sharp rise in the number of invention disclosures submitted in the new fiscal year.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: OIPC intellectual property specialist Adam Krynicki at 907-474-2626.

NOTE TO EDITORS: A screen shot image is available for download at www.uafnews.com.

MB/4-5-12/202-12

Nancy Tarnai
907-474-5042
4/1/12

When June Sun Lan decided to relocate her family from their home in University West it was not for a better view, nicer neighborhood or a higher resale value.

It was all about the mushrooms. Lan was seeking a perfect location in Fairbanks to grow mushrooms and she found it in Vue Crest on the opposite side of town in a wooded forest near Birch Hill.

While Lan has dedicated her life to scientific research she is surprised at the turn of events that led her to become a mushroom farmer.

Growing up in China in the big city of Xi’ an, her first encounter with mushrooms was at the tender age of 5 when she was visiting her grandparents in the country. Her grandfather brought her something pretty like a little umbrella that he had found in the horse stable. Her grandmother worried that it might be poisonous so the grandfather tried a bite first to be sure it was OK.

“I had never tried such a delicious thing,” Lan said. “It impressed me very deeply. It was so flavorful and colorful. It was like a mystery.”

As life went on she forgot that delectable encounter until she was in graduate school and her supervisor picked mushrooms and cooked them for the students. “They were chewy and delicious and I asked him for more,” she said of that culinary round with shitake mushrooms.

After earning a doctorate in molecular biology at Northwest University in China, Lan conducted research at Arizona State University, Washington State University and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Through family introductions she met and married her husband Ping Lan in 2006. He was ensconced in Fairbanks so she reluctantly moved here, even though she feared she would find nothing but ice-covered scenes. Lan worked in labs at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a while and then with her husband’s encouragement she decided to try something new.

“Alaska gave me such a good idea,” she said.

Like any scientist, Lan did a lot of researching and studying before launching her mushroom endeavor. She achieved very good results last year growing oyster mushrooms but found the University West location less than ideal. The Lans scouted the area and settled on a new home in Vue Crest.

“I thought it would be too cold and dry but Alaska is a very good place for mushrooms,” Lan said. The Lans set up a greenhouse solely dedicated to mushrooms.

Last year Lan gave away the mushrooms to friends and neighbors and used them in family meals. She tried selling her crop at the Tanana Valley Farmers’ Market but found it too time-consuming. Her biggest supporter is Lavelle’s Bistro.

Unlike the common button mushrooms Americans are so accustomed to buying, the oyster mushroom must be cooked. Lan recommends simply sautéing them with butter and salt. “Mushrooms are very good for your health,” Lan said. She has also tried freezing and drying them and even made “mushroom candy,” where she coats the mushrooms with sugar and cinnamon and bakes them. “It looks odd but people like it,” she said.

Her vision is to turn the new home into a bed and breakfast, give tours of her mushroom growing operation and eventually have a full-scale mushroom farm, adding other varieties to the oyster staple.

The key to mushroom growing is keeping the temperature and moisture at the appropriate levels and Lan’s scientific nature pays off in that regard. “You have to find the points,” she said. “I do it in a research way so there are less mistakes. I collect the information and follow the procedures. There is a lot of work to do.”

One challenge that Lan has faced is that she is used to using her brain more than her body but she is becoming accustomed to the physical labor. She is dedicated to following organic growing methods, using no chemicals in her operation.

Asked to share advice with other potential growers, Lan turns humble. “I am still in the experimental stage,” she said. “I am not qualified now.

“I want to let people know Alaska is a good place for growing mushrooms,” she said. “We are not just a land covered by snow all the time. How amazing it is to grow mushrooms in Alaska.”

Contact information:
Golden Umbrella
(907) 452-6686
June Sun Lan

This column is provided as a service by the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

Amy Hartley
907-474-5823
3/28/12

A new $1.8 million National Science Foundation grant will help the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute expand a program that encourages Native middle-school students to pursue science and technology careers.

The grant will fund the PREPARES project, short for Preparing Responsive Educators using Place-based Authentic Research in Earth Systems. The project will provide four years of professional development and mentoring to 120 educators who will then use those skills in the classroom with their Yupik and Native Hawaiian middle school students. As part of PREPARES, indigenous students will analyze and share climate data unique to their locations, model baseline climate scenarios and develop management plans for adapting to forecasted impacts.

The project expands to a national arena the NSF-funded Arctic Climate Modeling Program that ran from 2005 to 2009 and targeted Inupiat students in the Bering Strait School District. Geophysical Institute outreach director Kathy Berry Bertram led that project and will spearhead the PREPARES project as well.

PREPARES will provide teachers with professional development and a suite of data-rich lessons. The project, in turn, will allow students and Native elders to become citizen scientists. Those community observations will create a database of indigenous climate observations in Alaska and Hawaii. The project, which is slated to begin April 1, also includes a network of 40 scientists and 40 indigenous mentors for teachers and their students.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Kathy Berry Bertram, GI outreach director, at 907-474-7798 or via email at [email protected].

AH/3-28-12/194-12

Ned Rozell
907-474-7468
3/27/2012

My thermometer here in Fairbanks is stuck on single digits today, but the height of the sun and a quick online check informs me that this is indeed the spring equinox. We will experience daylight for half the day, which was beyond imagining when the sun was two fingers above the Alaska Range in December.

In many places, including the green foothills of New York’s Adirondack Mountains where I grew up, this equinox often falls on a day that seems like spring, with warm, remembered smells of the earth and tree buds swollen to bursting. Here in the far north, we are now receiving the same daylight as New York, but our trees will not unfold their solar panels for another few months.

The Alaska’s Interior landscape is brilliant white and will be for quite some time. Our average snow melt-out date (the last consecutive day with an inch or more of snow on the ground) is April 22. The rivers, too, are quite safe for snowmachine, dogsled and ski travel; the concrete ice won’t fully rot and dissolve until mosquitoes are buzzing above it.

But things are stirring out there in the quiet world. Salmon that hatched during the darkness are emerging from riverbed gravel looking more like fish and less like eggs with eyeballs. A lucky few will embark on an amazing journey to the ocean, from where they will someday return as kings.

On south-facing hillsides, black bears that clawed into winter hibernacula last fall are still spending most of their time snoozing, undetected except for the frost around their breathing holes. Winter-born cubs pleasantly crowd their mamas, who will soon introduce the tiny bears to another world.

Wood frogs are peppered around the Alaska landscape, their tiny bodies hard as green ice cubes beneath leaves and moss and a few feet of snow that has slowed the escape of the earth’s heat. Even if a frog’s frosted brain can somehow sense the equality of day and night, its little heart will not beat again until the sun dissolves the snowpack.

While bears, frogs and insects continue their wait, the creatures that toughed out the darkness are deep in preparation for the time of no stars. Cow moose swelling with unborn calves are seeking shade from the equinox sun in the same coat that enabled them to survive January. Mother red squirrels are searching out birthing dens in trees and spruce-cone middens on the ground. Even while flying inverted in their springtime exuberance, ravens keep an eye out for sticks that will be part of nests they are building under the equinox sun.

Beneath that same sun but much closer to Antarctica, a long-beaked whimbrel is springing into the air in Chile, starting a journey north that won’t end until it reaches a familiar tundra hillside in interior Alaska. Large white swans that were the last birds to leave in October are now converging from the U.S. coastlines east and west in Alberta farm fields, fattening for a journey north.

Though the humans in Fairbanks are still plugging in their cars, there is no denying the punch of the equinox sun. Because of clear days and the reflection of the snow, solar panels in Fairbanks produce twice as much power today as they did in February, when the sun started to tickle them to life.

Today, we of the north begin enjoying longer days than beachcombers in Key West. Our bow toward the sun becomes more dramatic every day. This is proven, at least on paper, by one small but significant weather fact, tomorrow is the first day of the year that our normal low temperature in Fairbanks will not be preceded by a minus sign.

This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community.