Numerous Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Remote Alaskan Peninsula. Researchers have identified numerous dinosaur tracks in the Alaskan Peninsula-a strip of land which extends for about 500 miles from the southwest part of the state. A team led by Anthony Fiorillo from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Texas documented the footprints in the remote Aniakchak National Monument nature preserve, around 420 miles southwest of Anchorage, the state's largest city. Newsweek

No Bowhead Sightings Yet for Alaskan Whalers. Some Blame Climate Change. The bowhead whale hunt is an essential cultural and subsistence tradition for the Inupiat of Alaska's North Slope. It dates back at least 1,500 years, and annual harvests can supply families with hundreds of pounds of meat. "It is the way of our life, and it's why we are who we are," said Deano Olemaun, a top official at the North Slope Borough. National Public Radio

Finding the Right Chunk of Arctic Ice. A ship full of climate researchers is crossing the Arctic attached to an ice floe. But finding the right chunk of sea ice was a challenge, since warmer temperatures are making it thinner. National Public Radio

 

[Opinion] Addressing Arctic Challenges Requires a Synoptic Ocean Survey. Since the International Polar Year (which actually lasted from 2007 to 2010), two truths about the changing Arctic have emerged. First, the ongoing rapid transformation of the Arctic environment will continue for decades, regardless of future global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission levels. Second, the scientific challenges and consequences arising from this transformation are too large to be addressed by a single country alone and too complex to be properly understood through single-discipline research approaches. EOS

 

Russia is now Sending its Main Crude Oil Through the Arctic. Russia is sending its main crude oil through the Arctic Sea for the first time as melting ice increasingly opens up the controversial trade route to commercial shipping. Two oil tankers, between them carrying about 1.5 million barrels of Urals crude from the port of Primorsk in western Russia, sailed through the Arctic ocean to China in recent weeks, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. It's the first time that's happened since at least 2011, according to the Northern Sea Route Information Office. Bloomberg

 

Arctic Provisions in the 2020 NDAA. In September, the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard completed the Arctic Expeditionary Capabilities Exercise (AECE). The AECE brought approximately 3,000 Marines and sailors to the Aleutian Islands and Southcentral Alaska, where they tested and refined their ability to operate in the extreme-weather environment of the Arctic. Specifically, the troops rehearsed deploying wet logistics, mine countermeasures, mobile diving and salvage, and petroleum transport. Lawfare

 

Barrow Observatory Catches Clean Arctic Air. About 5 miles north of Alaska's northernmost community, Utqiagvik, is the Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory. According to Peter Detwiler, technician at the Barrow Observatory, "it started in 1973 to measure CO2, greenhouse gases and solar radiation and aerosols in the beginning as well as ozone." This location was chosen because it is the northernmost point in the U.S. This means most of the time, the air the observatory collects is coming off the Beaufort Sea or the tundra with very little human interaction. "We're getting the cleanest air we can possibly get to make our baseline measurements," says Detwiler. KTUU 

 

Nunavik Gaining Ground Where Other Coastlines Erode. If you stand on the beach in Kuujjuaraapik on the Hudson Bay coast, your feet are firmly planted in Nunavik and, furthermore, Quebec. But if you dip your toes in the frigid water, they are now in Nunavut. The strange circumstances of Quebec's northern border are a source of contention for the provincial government, which has sought to extend its jurisdiction into these waters. Nunatsiaq Online