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Tonight: ERDC Alaska facility featured on NBC News
Lester Holt, anchor of “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” toured the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility in Fox, Alaska, Sept. 14, 2019.
The veteran journalist talked to ERDC’s Dr. Tom Douglas about key tunnel features and the science of climate change. Douglas is an Alaska-based research chemist assigned to ERDC’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, based in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Tune in to NBC Nightly News tonight to see Holt’s report that features the tunnel and other Alaska climate change experts and locales. Check your local listings for the broadcast time in your area.
Established in 1968, the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility is part of ERDC’s Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory that provides researchers, scientists and students with a unique source of data in a natural laboratory. The facility is available to assist engineers and scientists to study warm, ice-rich, fine-grained permafrost in situ – allowing time for detailed research and sampling.
The Permafrost Tunnel stands apart from other cold regions research sites by allowing users to make observations both from above and within the permafrost, according to the ERDC website.
The tunnel was excavated into a silt escarpment that illuminates 45,000 years of details about the soil, including organics, bacteria, and bones frozen in place. The tunnel is refrigerated year-round, preserving the site for long-term sampling and in research.
Preserving the Past, Predicting the Future
The tunnel’s walls reveal how a sequence of climate shifts have affected the permafrost in central Alaska during and following the last Ice Age, enabling researchers to better predict future climate change effects on permafrost.
Paleontologists can view actual remains of animals and plants preserved by the cold, rather than just fossil records. Microbiologists have discovered bacteria trapped in ice within the tunnel and were able revive it after being frozen for 25,000 years.
The challenge for permafrost engineers is to design long lasting infrastructure on permafrost at low cost. Here, engineers can test the mechanical properties and deformation sensitivity of these ice-rich soils, and also test methods for detecting ice content of permafrost with geophysical techniques.
The tunnel has also served as a living classroom for hundreds of engineers, scientists, university students, policy makers, and interested members of the public.
For more information about the facility and its research, visit https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/CRREL/Permafrost-Tunnel-Research-Facility/
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