Orange goo baffles remote Alaska village
Aug 6, 2011 15:29:39 GMT -5
Post by shann0 on Aug 6, 2011 15:29:39 GMT -5
www.news.com.au/world/orange-goo-baffles-remote-alaska-village/story-e6frfkyi-1226109894819
Orange goo found in remote village
Scientists conducting tests on goo
The goo is a mystery to scientists
LEONA Baldwin's husband saw it first, and she got on the marine radio to alert others in the remote Alaska village of Kivalina that a strange orange goo was sitting on top of the town's harbour.
The news attracted all the townspeople, anxious to get a gander of the phenomenon that covered much of the harbour and then began washing ashore on Wednesday.
The next day it rained, and residents found the orange matter floating on top of the rain buckets they use to collect drinking water. It was also found on one roof, leading them to believe whatever it was, it was airborne, too.
By today, the orange substance in the lagoon had dissipated or washed out to sea, and what was left on ground had dried to a powdery substance.
Samples of the orange matter were collected in canning jars and sent to a lab in Anchorage for analysis.
Until results are known, Kivalina's 374 residents will likely continue to wonder just what exactly happened in their village.
"Certainly at this point it's a mystery," said Emanuel Hignutt, a chemist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Anchorage.
Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village, is located at the tip of a 13-kilometre barrier reef on Alaska's north-west coast, and is located between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River to the north and the Wulik River to the south.
Villagers have never seen anything like this before, and elders have never heard any stories passed down from earlier generations about an orange-coloured substance coming into town.
Portions of the samples will also be sent to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in South Carolina for testing.
Alaska Orange Mystery.
Emmanuel Hignutt with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation health lab shows samples of orange goo in Anchorage, Alaska. Picture: Mark Thiessen / AP
"There's a number of experts in the areas who can identify if it's an organic material, for example, and what species this is, or perhaps it's not an organic material, and we're going to determine that, as well," Mr Hignutt said.
The Coast Guard already has ruled out that the orange material, which some people described as having a semi-solid feel to it, was man-made or a petroleum product.
That leaves algae as the best guess, said village administrator Janet Mitchell.
The concern is if it's somehow harmful. What will it do to fish, which villagers will soon start catching to stock up for winter, or the caribou currently being hunted, or the berries?
"We rely 100 per cent on subsistence," she said.
When the material bunched up in the lagoon, it created three-metre-by-30-metre swaths of glimmering orange.
"The colour was a bright neon orange," said resident Frances Douglas.
"Everybody was baffled," she said.
Read more: www.news.com.au/world/orange-goo-baffles-remote-alaska-village/story-e6frfkyi-1226109894819#ixzz1UHZRFD2u
Orange goo found in remote village
Scientists conducting tests on goo
The goo is a mystery to scientists
LEONA Baldwin's husband saw it first, and she got on the marine radio to alert others in the remote Alaska village of Kivalina that a strange orange goo was sitting on top of the town's harbour.
The news attracted all the townspeople, anxious to get a gander of the phenomenon that covered much of the harbour and then began washing ashore on Wednesday.
The next day it rained, and residents found the orange matter floating on top of the rain buckets they use to collect drinking water. It was also found on one roof, leading them to believe whatever it was, it was airborne, too.
By today, the orange substance in the lagoon had dissipated or washed out to sea, and what was left on ground had dried to a powdery substance.
Samples of the orange matter were collected in canning jars and sent to a lab in Anchorage for analysis.
Until results are known, Kivalina's 374 residents will likely continue to wonder just what exactly happened in their village.
"Certainly at this point it's a mystery," said Emanuel Hignutt, a chemist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Anchorage.
Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village, is located at the tip of a 13-kilometre barrier reef on Alaska's north-west coast, and is located between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River to the north and the Wulik River to the south.
Villagers have never seen anything like this before, and elders have never heard any stories passed down from earlier generations about an orange-coloured substance coming into town.
Portions of the samples will also be sent to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in South Carolina for testing.
Alaska Orange Mystery.
Emmanuel Hignutt with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation health lab shows samples of orange goo in Anchorage, Alaska. Picture: Mark Thiessen / AP
"There's a number of experts in the areas who can identify if it's an organic material, for example, and what species this is, or perhaps it's not an organic material, and we're going to determine that, as well," Mr Hignutt said.
The Coast Guard already has ruled out that the orange material, which some people described as having a semi-solid feel to it, was man-made or a petroleum product.
That leaves algae as the best guess, said village administrator Janet Mitchell.
The concern is if it's somehow harmful. What will it do to fish, which villagers will soon start catching to stock up for winter, or the caribou currently being hunted, or the berries?
"We rely 100 per cent on subsistence," she said.
When the material bunched up in the lagoon, it created three-metre-by-30-metre swaths of glimmering orange.
"The colour was a bright neon orange," said resident Frances Douglas.
"Everybody was baffled," she said.
Read more: www.news.com.au/world/orange-goo-baffles-remote-alaska-village/story-e6frfkyi-1226109894819#ixzz1UHZRFD2u